Elementary school has 0 students

[hokkaido1]

Here is an amusing true story from Okinawa. But rather naive?

Small island school looking for students

Date Posted: 2009-06-25
Hatoma Island in Taketomi Town has a big problem. It has an elementary school with ten employees counting the principal, but it now has no students.

The isolated island has had four students at the elementary school staffed by the principal, Tetsuo Nagahama, an assistant principal, four teachers, a nurse and cook. The students were brothers and sisters, but they’re now gone.

The school lost the four students when their mother became ill and the family had to move away. The small Hatoma Island village and its residents have struggled for years to keep the school alive, and isn’t ready to toss in the towel. “We don’t know yet what to do,” says Nagahama. “We are just waiting to see what the board of education is going to do. It was very sudden that the four children transferred away.”

The village population has declined from 300 to only 50 in recent years, leaving the community center manager to argue, “we must not close the school. We need to put the school lights on again.” He predicts “we will find the children and open the school.”

see full article here. LOL
http://www.japanupdate.com/?id=9587

[Otaku]

Now, that's funny!

[mangakk]

I read about a school with two students, I wonder if it's the same school?

[Paul]

It is a shame though because many smaller communities are dying out this way. Here in Okinawa, in the northern area of the main island something like 3 elementary schools were closed. Those schools were an important center of activities for the village and with it gone the remaining kids have to be bussed to another school, while not too far away, which isnt their home school.

I believe this is also an overall reflection of Japan as a whole as well. People can not find viable work and can not make a decent living in these rural communities and they are dying out. The myth about the generations taking care of their families is dying along with that as well.

Eventually I think that this country and everyone in it is going to need to take a strong look at itself and try to find out where things went wrong and try to find ways to fix it. And I dont mean from the national government, but more along the lines of grass roots local community groups getting together to discuss these types of issues before problems occur and not after like they so often seem to do here.

[Otaku]

I totally agree with you. I think one of the big problems is that Japanese culture has a country-wide blanket way of doing things, formulaic if I may.

Logic would dictate that covering the paychecks of 10 teachers at school to give education to a handful of students is moronic, but Japanese logic isn't often clear, at least through my eyes. Shutting down the school doesn't mean students losing their education, rather a more practical and creative approach needs to be sought, like homeschooling, 1-2 teachers covering a multitude of subject, etc.

[hokkaido1]

It is very much the same in Hokkaido. Here in my town (since I have been here) 4 elementary schools have closed and another 1 will close in 2 years and 1 very soon after that! I also teach at all the kindergartens etc and there is a sudden big drop in numbers, the future is not good.
I think 50% of our population is over 60. So what will happen in 20 years time? hhhmmm sobering

BTW
1 ES I teach in now has only 7 students and only 1 is a local, the others are on a scheme (stay for 1 or 2 years)

[Otaku]

It makes a person really question whether having one of the highest life expectancies in the world is a good thing without an economy to support it...

[Paul]

In many of the rural areas or outlying islands the teachers there have to teach more than one subject in many of the schools. There are plenty of outer island/remote areas here in Okinawa and I have had JTE's come back and tell me that they taught not only English, but HomeEc or Japanese or some other subject as well.

The costs involved in keeping a school running are a huge drain on village economies as it is, but the schools themselves are a huge source of pride for everyone, and when the school closes it is in many cases a death knell for the entire community. Kind of hard to attract people into your area if they have to send their kids away just for schooling.

This is just the begining I fear, and unfortunately it is one of the signs of the population downturn here in Japan as well.

Edited to add....
I think the system here is screwed in that the compulsory education is for the most part funded locally and not through the prefectures like the High School's are, the infrastructure of many schools that I personally have seen almost makes me think at times that I am not living in a 1st world country. Sometimes I half expect to see kids without shoes walking to school.