[Nyororin]

I am really coming to hate any news place allowing comments - particularly when that news source is covering a country where the majority of the readers do not live.

Usually, the article itself is fine. The comments are hostile and often "out there" - with a small spattering of accurate observances that tend to be ignored by the hordes looking to talk about how the country being talked about sucks.

This follows pretty much the standard pattern.

In the comments on this article bashing parents who send their kids to juku, or who send them to private elementary schools, important things are flat out ignored.

A) Not all public schools are equal.

B) The amount you spend on your child is pretty much up to you. It isn`t a flat rate - it varies immensely based on priorities and preference.

C) YUTORI KYOUIKU and the awful, terrible effect it has had on the entire education system, the economy, and Japanese life in general.

If you are lucky and your child gets into a school/class where the pace is perfect for them, and you (and your child) have reasonable expectations and preferences for education... You can get by without paying much. But if even one of these are off, you can easily spend an incredible amount in an attempt to give your child the best opportunity.

Yutori Kyouiku has made it very easy for the balance to be completely off.
Yutori has tons of expat supporters who just love it. It is complete and total crap, in my personal opinion. The support tends to revolve around "My child doesn`t have to stay at school as many hours each week!" - without looking much deeper.

The older system wasn`t perfect, by any stretch, but it was better.

A good example - Imagine you have a child who is fairly quick to learn. Let`s say that a third of the class is also on the quick side - with maybe the bottom fifth or so being a bit slower than the average pace.

In the past, the lessons would be aimed at the quicker children, the pace adjusted to their learning pace - with additional time dedicated to keeping the other children at the same level.
When a child wasn`t able to pick up something during class, the teachers dedicated one or two hours after school on certain days of the week to providing support and attention to them. Saturday was usually a 2 hours in the morning followed by teacher attention to those having difficulties.

In Yutori, the class pace is adjusted to the level of the slowest children, and with hours cut on top of that so that the class only covers what they can pick up with minimal effort in the short hours. The quicker children are not offered a challenge, and are told to "slow down" "relax" and enjoy their free time.
If a child doesn`t pick up something during the lesson, because the number of hours have been cut they are discouraged from asking a teacher for help or support. (The hours matter for the student, not the teacher - the students aren`t supposed to need to be in school more than the set number of hours, so teachers are pushed to reduce the difficulty of the lessons so that the students don`t NEED any additional support.)

The Yutori system also screws over working parents - when you have to be at home by 1:30 on the earliest day of the week, you can`t really work. This deals another blow to the economy and reduces, again, the number of people wanting to have children. Elementary schools in particular have increased the number of 2 hour days each month (2 hours of classes, where a parent MUST show up at the school to pick the child up. There is no forgiveness for "having to work".)

There is nothing good in this system for anyone other than parents who want their kids home more. Parents who don`t care if public schools are a complete mess because they have the money and time to send their child to tailored learning facilities.
It ends up being a system supported by those who don`t necessarily want more time with their kids - but rather more time to invest in the specific areas of education they prioritize. (With expats, this tends to be education in the other language.)

However - universities have NOT changed their requirements. They have not lowered the level of their classes. They have not made classes easier. The same goes for most high schools.
A child with only normal public school education used to have a fair chance of getting into a good school based on their personal abilities. Now for even the brightest kids, there is such a huge gap between what is covered in the compulsory system and what comes after that it is extremely hard to be able to get into a school that is appropriate to their level. Unless, of course, their parents invest a lot of time and money into education outside of school.

In giving these people the more hours of free time they whined for, the entire level of education has fallen... Making it harder and harder for any child to succeed who DOESN`T have a lot of money invested in their education. This leads to a bigger gap in education based on income, with everyone suffering in the end.
Those with the money to send their kids to private tutors, to top class private schools, etc, are pushing for the hours to be reduced even more so they have even MORE time to send their kids to private tutors and classes.

On the other hand, there is talk about scrapping the Yutori system altogether as it certainly isn`t working for more than a handful of students.