Perspectives

A growing number of boards of education across the country are reviving Saturday classes at public schools to respond to an increase in the number of classes under the new school curricula to be implemented by the 2012 academic year.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education has decided to allow elementary and junior high schools under its jurisdiction to hold classes on up to two Saturdays a month on condition that the extra classes be open to the students' parents. An online survey that the Mainichi Shimbun has conducted with the cooperation of NTT Resonant Inc. shows that about 90 percent of the pollees support Saturday classes.

The new curriculum for elementary schools will be implemented in the 2011 academic year while that for junior high schools will be enforced the following year. However, some schools have already introduced some lessons to be introduced under the new curricula, such as English classes at elementary schools.

The new curricula call for an increase in the number of classes to cope with a decline in academic standards. Schools will be forced to shorten the periods of long vacations or those of school events and take other steps to secure enough time for increased lessons.

The five-day school week system was partially introduced in the 1992 academic year with public school students taking one Saturday off every month, and the number of Saturdays off was gradually increased. Since the 2002 school year, students have taken all Saturdays off. To introduce the system, new school curricula that place emphasis on education without cramming was enforced.

Education authorities now have no choice but to change the five-day school week system as is shown by the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education's recent decision. Authorities are required to scrutinize what went wrong instead of making superficial changes.

The five-day school week system was introduced against the backdrop of the trends of shortening work hours and placing emphasis on improving the quality of learning rather than cramming knowledge into students. The system was aimed at having households and regional communities responsible for the education of schoolchildren on Saturdays and Sundays. Society was supposed to give children opportunities to enjoy sports and other activities on weekends. By fundamentally reviewing the roles that schools, households and society play in education, education authorities attempted to help schoolchildren learn to live in proactive and creative manners in the age of rapid informatization and globalization.

However, there is a wide gap between the philosophy behind the five-day school week system and the reality in many regions.

Many people have their children study at cram schools on Saturdays and Sundays for fear that their children's academic ability would decline while other children go to private schools that have not introduced the five-day system. Such trends have raised concern that an income gap between households could lead to inequality in educational opportunities, sparking calls for the revival of Saturday classes at public schools.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education decided to revive Saturday classes on the grounds that many children waste their time on Saturdays, that many teachers work on Saturdays for supplementary lessons and that it is necessary to respond to increased classes under the new school curricula.

Such reform should not be made without proper debate. The national government should thoroughly discuss how the five-day school week system should be reformed in order to properly implement the new school curricula. It should also clarify how it will change the philosophy of education without cramming. Nevertheless, the administration of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has failed to clearly show its education policy to the public.

Responding to changes in the situation without a clear vision only causes confusion.