A night "cram school" for top achievers run by a private company has begun at the publicly run Wada Junior High School in Tokyo's Suginami Ward. Some public schools have been pushing tieups with private cram schools offering supplementary instruction to help improve the scholastic ability of students. At these schools, participating students pay virtually nothing and the programs are open to a wide range of students. But at Wada Junior High School, only about 20 of the 127 second-year students who have passed placement tests attend the cram courses.
Depending on the number of cram courses students take, the monthly tuition at Wada Junior High's one-year course, called Yoru Supe (Night Special), is either ¥18,000 or ¥24,000. The school principal, who came from the private sector, explains that public schools need to stimulate gifted students even through collaboration with private companies. The tuition is about half the tuition charged by many cram schools. For households on welfare, the tuition is halved further.
The school principal had earlier started projects to raise student interest in current events and to help under-achieving students. Even so, the new night courses may bring a feeling of division between students whose academic achievements are high enough to attend the courses and those who are not, as well as between parents who can afford the courses and those who cannot.