Making students pass in Japan
Something happened at work this morning which got me thinking. Now for anything to happen at my workplace at the moment is something of a revelation; the students have their summer classes at the moment and my services are not required for those. In addition, today is the last day of summer classes before the summer “holiday” for students. I use the quotation marks because it’s called a holiday, but the students get 10 days off school maximum, and a lot of them will be in school each day doing either clubs or extra study of some sort. Not like the 6 weeks or longer that students in the UK get. It is even busier schedule for teachers. The local government (and this is the case throughout Japan) is of the opinion that, seeing as they are getting paid during the summer, they should come to work each day, regardless of whether or not they have any real work to do. The longest time teachers in Japan have off work is usually 4 days break over New Year, although a lot of teachers from my school went into work at about 7am on New Years day this year as the students had tests that day. The summer and spring “holidays” is when the majority of teachers use their paid leave. They have just over 20 days of paid leave per year but it is very rare that a teacher will take time off during term time. I think they would be allowed to if they wanted, but it’s just not the done thing.
But I have gone off on a bit of a tangent. Anyway, a fellow English teacher approached me this morning for some help with marking homework they had been set. As we chatted, the conversation moved to a student in the 2nd year who wasn’t great at English. She wasn’t a bad student, but everything we did in class went over her head. Consequently, despite doing what I could her homework and exam scores suffered accordingly, culminating in her actually failing this term. Now when a student fails at a subject, you usually think that they would have to repeat that particular subject, or it would just be noted down in their report to be discussed with the student’s parents. But we are in Japan, where things are just a little bit different. Here, students are not allowed to fail. So additional questions were being made for this student so she could answer them, and be made to pass the subject this term. It sounded like whatever this student wrote, they would be given a score that meant they would just get a passing score. I believe that it is because it is seen as a very bad thing if the student fails a subject. The subject and homeroom teachers are made 100% responsible for any students that fail, and understandably do not want any of their students in this situation. It’s one of those things that I don’t particularly agree with, but I’ve got to respect it as I’m in no position to go changing the school system. I recall a year or two ago, we were grading a group of students and had come to a final grade and percentage for them. The problem was that average score for these students was deemed to be too low (or that too many students had fallen below the 40% pass mark; I forget at this time). So it was decided that each student should be simply given an additional 10% on their exam score, as it had been “a difficult test”. We ended up with the farcical situation whereby one student got 102% in their exam! The bizarre thing was that I was the only person who thought this was a problem. It’s been a while since I was a student but I was sure that 100% is the highest percentage you can get in a test.
Another TV announcer caught in scandal; this time no action taken
Another week goes by, another figure in the public eye in Japan is caught doing something they shouldn’t. And this story offers a nice juxtaposition to the story about Mona Yamamoto a couple of weeks ago. This time we have Fuji TV Kazuhiro Watanabe, one of the announcers on Mezamashi TV (a daily morning TV show which isn’t really worth saying any more about as it rarely covers the news stories that should be on the front pages, and reports the more fluffy stories of the day… kind of like a Japanese GMTV!). Anyway, it was reported in the Shukan Asahi (a weekly magazine) that Watanabe had been physically involved with a woman who was not his wife.
The Fuji TV damage control people were quickly mobilized and came out defending him, saying that he would not be withdrawing from any of his TV appearances. Watanabe also came out and made a statement saying that, “A magazine today published details about me concerning a very private matter. I apologize for causing trouble and I hope that I can regain the trust of viewers.” Note that he has not made any comment about the alleged scandal and whether it is true or not. He apologised for “causing trouble” and not for anything he may have done, losing the trust of his wife etc. I am surprised that the word “regrettable” wasn’t used but the way this scandal has been seen in Japan is amusing, especially when you look at it in context to Mona’s encounter with Yomiuri Giants player, Tomohiro Nioka. Mona was removed (well, the reports said she withdrew but it was probably a case of jump or be pushed) from her TV engagements and her co-presenter made a formal announcement on the show, showing the shame she had brought onto the show. Maybe, like Nioka, Watanabe is seen as an important person in the announcing team and so he will be let off from any scandals he is involved in. Who knows, maybe he’ll get his wife making a press announcement, apologizing for the trouble that has been caused!
Mona Yamamoto remains on temporary leave from TBS.