I tried avoiding writing such content during my time as a teacher because I didn’t think it was appropriate to reveal the on-goings at the schools I teach. Not having written any such content doesn’t mean there weren’t things I thought was wrong either.
Like I’ve written before, the very basis of the Japanese education system is problematic to begin with. Compulsory education (6 years of elementary and 3 years of junior high) in Japan means that students can skip school for 9 full years and still graduate with peers of their age despite not having learnt anything. And if you’ve watched Japanese dramas such as GTO and Gokusen, you would see that schools try to leave such students alone because they will graduate from the school either way, so why create trouble for themselves? Once graduation is over, the students will be someone else’s problem.
Unlike schools in Singapore, students in Japan go into the teachers’ office on a daily basis. Cleaning the office is part of their routine every morning. Also, as they have club activities every day, they have to retrieve the keys from the office. Each time a student needs to enter the office, they have to open the door, greet loudly with 失礼します (loosely, “sorry for the interruption”), followed by their class, full name, and reason for entering the office. A teacher would then give the go-ahead when they are done reciting.
At all the schools I’ve taught, disobedient students who couldn’t care less about the rules stride into the teachers’ office as if it is their own room and the teachers do nothing about it. That is not the problem. The problem is, when obedient students follow the rules, some teachers say their voices are too soft and make them repeat again and again, louder and louder, until they are shouting at the top of their voices. This is bullying. And frankly, the kind of education derived from this is, pick on the weak, and breaking the rules gives you privilege, which gives students less incentive to abide by the rules.
Together with the kind of bullying dressed as comedy on TV, it is little wonder why this nation has serious cases of bullying at school.
I don’t get it, they don’t have to go to school for 9 years but still graduate? How does that work? So does that mean everybody in the country has Junior High school diploma? But it doesn’t work for high school and above right?
Hi Teck,
Yes. Neither do I. And when I asked the teachers, they say because it’s compulsory education, students must graduate. It makes no sense to Singaporeans who get retained when we fail or even expelled when it happens for 3 consecutive years, much less not attend class.
Also, teachers generally feel powerless against such students again “because it’s compulsory education.” I think teachers should have more power by virtue that it’s compulsory because they aren’t “paying customers” like private schools or cram schools.
I’m not sure how high schools and above work but i doubt they can graduate without attending class.
However, even in Singapore universities, you can graduate without attending your lectures and tutorials if you do really well for your tests and exams. Although to discourage such practices, points are awarded for attendance and class participation. This means you can never get an A or even a B skipping classe since the exams usually take up at most 60% of your results, with the remaining going to term tests, and written assignments. I’ve even had papers where the final exam was only 40% of the entire semester.
I see. yeah, I have heard of the school bullies as well. It’s really out of hand…
Enjoy Spring man, I’m currently sweating here in the living room…. T_T
Ahh can’t they make up a attendance/merit system?! This is somehow frustrating. Kazoku Game and Kasuka na Kanojo totally reminds me of such students argh.