The Japan News by The Yomiuri Shimbun
Preschool programs instill skills to thrive
At the municipal Shin-Kanie-Kita nursery school in Kanie, a town adjacent to Nagoya, two children whose parents are foreigners were being shown flashcards that featured illustrations of vegetables and fruits.
“What is this?”
“Um, spinach.”
“Great job!”
The lesson was being led by Kyoko Kizuki, 55, the director of a local general incorporated association called Kanie Kodomo Nihongo no Kai that was commissioned by the town government to offer Japanese language support for preschoolers.
Classes are offered once or twice a month for 4- and 5-year-old children at six public nursery schools in the town.
The day’s lesson continued for an hour, with students kept interested learning hiragana and numbers and filling in coloring books. It ended with the children standing and bowing to the teacher, a ritual often seen at Japanese schools at the start and end of classes.
The program is one of a growing number of preschool programs offered by municipal governments to children who require extra Japanese language instruction. Like similar programs in the country, it aims to teach children language skills such as how to read and write hiragana, basic math, and the rules they will need to know to thrive at elementary school.
Teachers at elementary schools have raised concerns about children with insufficient Japanese language skills falling behind in reading and writing hiragana, general reading comprehension skills and other skills such as multiplication. They have also pointed out that these children experience difficulty understanding school rules and teachers’ instructions.
The town government launched the preschool program in fiscal 2008 in an effort to head off such difficulties, which often result in poor academic performance and eventually even school non-attendance. In the fiscal 2018 school year, the program has enrolled 14 children with nationalities including Brazilian, Filipino and Chinese.
“We have gotten feedback from schools saying that [children who have taken the preschool program] are now able to understand what teachers are saying, as well as writing in hiragana,” Kizuki said.
According to a survey conducted in fiscal 2016 by the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, there were 9,275 elementary, junior high and high school students in need of Japanese language instruction in Aichi Prefecture, the highest in the nation.
The prefectural government created a manual on preschool programs, and 16 local governments instituted such programs in fiscal 2017. The ministry and other entities also offer support for preschool programs in Osaka and 15 other cities.
Meanwhile, some local governments focus on involving the parents and guardians of children in need of Japanese language instruction, since parents with limited Japanese skills often find it difficult to understand documents from their children’s schools or do not know what items their children need when they start going to school.
The city of Ogaki, Gifu Prefecture, for example, offers a preschool program from November through March for 5-year-olds who attend nursery schools and other institutions in the city. Five instructors with experience teaching Japanese visit the schools in rotation and teach lessons once or twice a week.
Once a month, the children and their parents gather at one location to receive group instruction, allowing children to learn how classes are conducted at elementary schools and parents to get advice on Japanese school life, what to prepare before their children enroll and other topics. About 90 percent of 46 children with foreign backgrounds in the target age group are currently enrolled in the program.
Chiharu Uchida, a professor at Toyo University specializing in early childhood education, said it is important to reduce children’s anxiety about their school life as much as possible.
“Even if it’s difficult [for local governments] to provide preschool programs, they should come up with other ways, such as providing generous support to children and their parents during briefing sessions on enrolling in elementary school,” she said.