Parents need digital tools to cope with 'first-grade barrier'

Parents need digital tools to cope with 'first-grade barrier'

The heavy burden Japanese public schools put on families is worsened by antiquated methods

BY YUKO TAMURA

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Jun 17, 2024

The term shōichi no kabe, “first-grade barrier,” captures the hurdle that parents face when their children enter elementary school in Japan — one that I have been experiencing firsthand.

I left my full-time job after taking parental leave because of a lack of day care options. And I am not alone: Polls suggest most working mothers reconsider their work styles when their children start school because of the heavier burden that this new chapter entails. And while the number of elementary school students who use after-school facilities is at a record high of 1.45 million, over 16,000 others are still on waiting lists — the longest of which is in Tokyo, where I live, totaling around 3,500 children.

Time management and communication with schools are the two major hurdles that first-graders’ parents face. Both could be alleviated by adopting digital tools and a more flexible approach, but such solutions are still largely lacking in Japanese public schools.

Take arrival and dismissal policies. While most day care facilities open between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m., public elementary schools open their gates after 8 a.m. Besides, first graders often go home before lunch, especially in the first week after the entrance ceremony, held in April.

Some parents, especially those who have to work early or get back late, have no other option but to leave their children to make their own way to and back from school.

Given the growing demand for child care in the morning, elementary schools in municipalities such as Yokohama, the Tokyo suburb of Mitaka and Toyonaka City, Osaka Prefecture, are accessible as early as 7 a.m. As for dismissals, most public elementary schools simply encourage pupils to go home by themselves, although schools in Tokyo’s Toshima Ward at least have a clocking-out system that automatically emails parents when children pass the school gates.

Of note is that schools in Japan are basically open to the public, which can lead to safety concerns: Security cameras are not always present and schools do not have security guards or rigorous visitor management systems. When I received a family pass from my daughter’s school, it was just a piece of paper that I had to cut out myself.

As for absences, while the pandemic accelerated the adoption of online reporting systems, paper-based communication using planners known as renrakuchō remains widely in use. These are kept in students’ backpacks and teachers and parents can write to each other in them. If parents need to tell a teacher when and why their child is off, sometimes they have to go to the trouble of finding other pupils to bring their children’s renrakuchō to school.

In fact, public schools do not welcome phone calls from parents, except in emergencies. In addition, a recent survey revealed that most public school teachers still use fax machines and stamps instead of e-signatures.

Another means of communication is newsletters. Typically issued once a week by homeroom teachers, these are used to report school events to parents. To arrange in-person parent-teacher interviews, teachers ask parents for available dates either through these newsletters or the renrakuchō. Parents then ask their children to hand in their replies — a back-and-forth that can be very inconvenient if, for example, dates need to be rescheduled.

Meanwhile, private schools are increasingly digitalizing these processes by using Zoom calls and apps such as Codmon and Tetoru.

While the education ministry instructed schools in 2020 to implement digital tools for more immediate teacher-parent communication, this has not materialized, causing some confusion among parents. Schools still rely heavily on analog systems while slowly introducing apps mainly for one-way, school-wide announcements.

Ineffective communication is also detrimental to education. Basic information that families need before enrolling children in school, including their expected reading and writing levels, is often unclear until the first semester begins. This leads to unhappy students getting labeled as bad readers or writers, for example, even though what they lack is simply having had the opportunity to practice the alphabet beforehand.

Even the types of school bags deemed appropriate are unknown to families until they attend an in-person parental gathering before the entrance ceremony (with no online alternatives). However, many parents go ahead and buy randoseru —cumbersome hard-sided leather backpacks considered necessary for carrying heavy books — sometimes up to a year before the ceremony.

Randoseru are, in fact, not mandatory. However, few municipalities — with the exception of the outspoken governor of Chiba — let parents know that other backpacks are also acceptable.

The education ministry’s GIGA School Program aims to improve digitalization in learning by providing one electronic device per public school student. Ironically, first graders are increasingly being offered tablets and learning to type using apps while teachers and parents still fumble with wads of paper.

Some argue that digitalization increases teachers’ workload. However, given the number of intricate newsletters published weekly, there seems to be a lot of room to improve efficiency. I am not the only one wondering why I have to wait for a sheet of paper to know my interview schedule and that I need to prepare certain items, such as gardening gloves, for my daughter to bring to school.

After school, parents face yet other challenges. Not only are many not able to access day care facilities, but they are responsible for marking homework and checking if children can read extracts from their textbooks out loud. With an ever-increasing number of working parents, the environment surrounding children has not kept pace with the speed of societal change.

While old traditions such as heavy randoseru and paper newsletters are still in full swing, expectations on children keep growing as they take on new subjects such as computer programming and conversational English. Embracing digital tools in public schools would not only allow for smoother processes, but minimize the time lag separating teachers and parents. If not, the hurdle of the first grade will only get higher.

Yuko Tamura is a frequent Japan Times contributor and editor-in-chief of Japonica Publication.