The information in the Sept. 10 article "Japan's education system cost-effective" is grossly misleading. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development may claim that Japanese students "perform" well, but on what is this "performance" based? Scores from standardized multiple-choice exams that reward endless hours of mind-numbing lectures, rote memory and regurgitation of useless facts?
And since when do we judge the effectiveness of an education system based on the amount of money spent? Isn't education supposed to be about helping students mature into responsible, intelligent adults who can help their communities and countries?
The statement that "Japan's relatively high rate of spending on private education contributes to the better cost performance of public education" makes no sense. Why should "private" education expenditures contribute to "public" education?
Japan spends less of its budget than every other industrialized nation on public education, and its public schools suffer as a result. I have worked at several public elementary, junior and senior high schools, and the facilities are atrocious. There are no computers for students to use, the grounds look like correctional facilities, and the classrooms are broiling hot in summer and freezing in winter. I am expected to teach "communicative" English skills to classes of 40 to 45 with barely enough space to sit, let alone move around the classroom. How exactly does all this help student "performance"?
In addition, Japanese parents spend exorbitant amounts of money on private cram schools. Why would this be necessary if the public education of their children was so "cost-effective?'
Large class sizes are NOT something to be encouraged! Japan is simply relying on private individuals to educate their children while the money saved from not hiring enough teachers and not fixing decades-old education infrastructure is wasted on unused "dormitories" for Tokyo bureaucrats.
What kind of public education system has to ask its teachers to be psychological counselors, health advisers, traffic safety guards, data entry specialists, exam makers, and groundskeepers because the government refuses to spend money on its own schools?
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