Yutori Education is a system introduced in Japan to give students more freedom to study what they want. Find out if it is working and how university students feel about it.
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Script
<Script about ‘YUTORI’ education>
Narrator: One day in 2005 in one town in Japan…..
Child: The area of a circle is…ah, its radius squared, times 3!!
Mother: Oh, 3? But pi is 3.14, isn’t it?
C: But I learned it was 3 in my school.
N: This child belongs to the ‘YUTORI’ generation—those who were taught less than other generations in their compulsory education.
In the 1970’s, Japanese children were taught very large amounts and high level subjects in school. This curriculum was the result of the policy of the Japanese government. Its aim was to improve people’s abilities in science in order to fight against the developing world.
However, being too ambitious, many problems came up at the same time. For example, a lot of students couldn’t keep up with the others because the lessons were too fast paced. And, putting undue emphasis on educational background was also a very big problem. In order to improve these, the government gradually reduced contents to learn for children and tried to give them more free, relaxing time to pursue what they really want to do. To be concrete, ….
M: I heard you have only 2940 lessons at junior high school, but we had 3535 lessons in three years!!
N: Oops, she has explained instead of me. This policy began in 1981, and became full-scale in 2002. A five-day school week had also started from that year, 2002.
C: I couldn’t play at all if I studied so much!!
M: You should study harder! After ‘YUTORI’ education started, Japan’s rank of Program for International Student Assessment has fallen. So, probably the level of school education has been declining. You must go to a cram school!
C: But my friend said a cram school costs her so much money.
M: Many children go to a cram school and students in private school have much better education. If you want to defeat those children in the entrance exam, you should go to a cram school. I will pay as much money as I can for your education!
N: In Japan, many parents have their children go to a cram school like this mother. But if a junior high school student goes to a cram school, it costs 176,000 yen, or 1,760 dollars per year on the average.
M: Really? I can’t pay that much money!!
N: Moreover, if a child goes to public school from kindergarten to university, the average expenditure is about 57,000 dollars. But if a child only goes to private school, the average cost is no less than 168,000 dollars! So, there is a clear economic gap between children who only attend public school and children who can go to private school or cram school, and this gap leads the academic ability gap.
Also, there is an ability gap between city and country. The country is inferior to the city in quality and quantity of cram schools.
M: I wish children could take high education in public school without going to a cram school.
C: So, ‘YUTORI’ education isn’t a good thing, is it?
N: Now, in Japan, ‘YUTORI’ education is coming at a turning point. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology reconsidered ‘YUTORI’ education, and is increasing children’s learning time little by little. They want children to acquire a good educational function, such as reading, writing, and calculation. They believe that this skill will lead to practicable ability and that children’s scholastic ability will improve.
However, there are some criticisms that scholastic ability will not necessarily improve only by increasing topics and time of learning. This problem needs more inspection.