The Business of Overseas Study: Behind the Scenes at Language Schools
Japanese Language School Classes in Disarray (#3 of 5 part series)
A lack of motivation on the part of some international students coupled with teacher shortages is having a detrimental effect on classes in Japanese language schools.
Some students have no intention of challenging themselves in areas of Japanese study, such as kanji, while others are said to fall asleep at their desks or use smartphones to play games and watch movies. Cases have been reported of students becoming ambivalent to study as a result of feeling forced into entering schools they had not wanted to attend.
On the teachers’ side, there are a number of instructors at Japanese language schools quitting after only a few months in the job, leaving major staff shortages at some educational institutions. One male university graduate in his twenties allegedly left his dream job after around a year, unimpressed by a management system that treated teachers as a commodity, and totally disillusioned by his experience of working at a language school.
Studying abroad in Japan has become a big business and while there is undoubtedly a demand for Japanese language teachers at present, the turnover rate in the profession is high. Against a backdrop of low wages and job insecurity, the industry as a whole is now having to come to terms with a severe lack of human resources.
A survey of approximately 6,000 teachers questioned across 309 schools was carried out by the Association for the Promotion of Japanese Language Education (APJL) in 2015 and revealed that 40% of teachers had been in the profession for less than five years. The monthly salary of a full-time lecturer is about ¥200,000, while part-timers are on around ¥100,000. It has been suggested that many part-time female teachers in their 40s and 50s are keeping the industry afloat.
60% of schools recognized by the APJL are not official educational institutions but are in fact businesses. This means that staff are sometimes treated as company employees, with less focus on teaching. There have been reports of schools asking teachers to carry out administrative work until late at night.
Students who are keen to learn and want to work in Japan in the future have stated that they have no choice but to accept a regular turnover of teachers and a less than satisfactory classroom environment in order to keep hold of their student visas.
Original article from Nishinippon Shimbun (2/24/2017).
New Era of Immigration in Kyushu
The number of workers from abroad, including international students and technical interns in Japan, exceeded one million for the first time last year. This group of people form an indispensable component of the workforce, irrespective of the government’s position on immigration. Read more installments from this series here.
