An education ministry survey has found that more than 30 percent of public junior high and elementary schools had added newspapers to their libraries as of May 2014. Newspapers are now available in 7,387 elementary school libraries, or 36.7 percent of the total. As for junior high schools, over 3,033, or 31.7 percent, have newspapers in their libraries. Both showed increases of more than 50 percent since 2012.
This increase is primarily the result of national guidelines started in 2011 that call on schools to use more newspapers in education. These guidelines should be more widely implemented. Starting younger students on reading newspapers is another way for them to learn how to find information independently, engage with complex issues and read more widely and deeply.
Of course, young students must work through the many kanji needed to read a newspaper in Japanese. However, simply because they do not fully comprehend all the words is no reason not to promote newspaper reading in school libraries. Some students read above the education ministry-approved level, and all students at whatever level need to have the experience of reading about the world.
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