Immigrant children robbed of right to education

Among the biggest victims of the global financial crisis in Japan have been the most vulnerable: countless children of immigrant workers who have been deprived of the fundamental right to an education.

Such has been the impact of the recession on student numbers that 16 percent of Brazilian schools have been forced to close.

By September, attendance at 73 Brazilian schools had plummeted to 5,502, less than half the number of students enrolled in June 2008.

The families of many Brazilian workers who lost their jobs in the financial crisis have left Japan. Many others who stayed can no longer afford to send their children to school.

A survey by the association of Brazilian schools in Japan, known as AEBJ, found that at least 16 of about 100 Brazilian schools were forced to close when their student numbers collapsed.

By October, the economic crisis had forced closures at seven schools in Shizuoka Prefecture, including one in Iwata that had a student population of about 300.

Two schools had shut down in Aichi and Nagano prefectures, respectively, and one each in Ibaraki, Gunma, Tochigi, Saitama and Shiga prefectures.

Six of the remaining 83 schools covered in the AEBJ survey, including three for Japanese-Peruvian children, could not be contacted, so the number of schools closed could be higher.

The plight of Brazilian schools partly stems from the fact that most are not accredited as official educational institutions under the School Education Law.

This means they are ineligible for public subsidies or preferential tax treatment.

The monthly tuition at a Brazilian school is typically between 30,000 yen and 50,000 yen, an amount hard to meet for Japanese-Brazilians who mostly toil in blue-collar jobs if something goes wrong.

Many who lost their jobs were forced to take their children out of Brazilian schools.

Some of these children have been left without access to an education. According to a survey compiled in March by the education ministry, one of every four children who quit a Brazilian school was not attending another school.

The survey also found that less than 10 percent of Japanese-Brazilian children who quit Brazilian schools moved to Japanese public schools.

In October, the education ministry began offering intensive Japanese language lessons and other subjects to help ease the transition to Japanese public schools.

The ministry plans to offer the program, which runs for about half a year, at about 50 sites across the country over three years.

But Lilian Terumi Hatano, an associate professor of foreign language education at Konan Women's University in Kobe, says that the program on its own will not make a major difference.

Hatano, who is well-versed in issues affecting the education of Japanese-Brazilian children, points out that many Japanese-Brazilian parents prefer to send their children to a foreign-language school to instill in their children a sense of their Brazilian cultural identity.

She says the parents also fear their children will struggle with the Japanese language barrier and become a target of bullying if they go to Japanese public schools.

"The question of Japanese-Brazilian children will never be settled unless there is also change at Japanese public schools, where children are often expected to assimilate into a majority of their peers," Hatano said.

One of the schools struggling to stay afloat is Colegio Sant'ana in Aisho, Shiga Prefecture. A large number of Japanese-Brazilians work in factories in and around the town.

The school once taught about 100 children, but now accommodates less than 70.

School officials have begun discounting the monthly tuition and fees of 35,000-50,000 yen in proportion to the financial situation at each household.

Roughly 40 children have been exempt from the payments because their parents are unemployed.

The financial crisis has also affected the school's staff, whose nine teachers are paid only 60,000-100,000 yen a month.

The school, which comprises a prefab building and a storage container, is more than a year behind its monthly rent of 180,000 yen.

Teachers collect empty cans for recycling to raise cash, and grow vegetables in a nearby field to cook for school lunches.

Kenko Nakata, the 53-year-old principal, goes out before 5 a.m. to pick up children. Nakata admits the school is teetering on the edge of financial collapse. "We will be unable to sustain the school unless the economy improves somewhat," she said.

Colegio de Asia Brazil, a school in Konan, Shiga Prefecture, is also in a grave financial predicament.

A temporary job placement agency that used to shoulder the school's monthly running cost of about 3 million yen is now short on funds, leaving few resources for the school.

Many of the parents of children at Colegio de Asia Brazil were employees of the agency, and were forced to return home when the financial crisis hit.

There were about 80 children at the school a year ago. Only about 10 remain.

The school is trying to weather the crisis by asking for rice or eggs for school lunches, as well as other contributions, from supporters.

Takayuki Tomori, who represents the school, says that he has implored the central and local governments to provide help, to no avail.

"I've got no clue as to where the responsibility (of addressing the problem) rests," he said. "I have children who need help right in front of me, though."

Colegio Mundo de Alegria, a school in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, managed to collect nearly 20 million yen in donations from more than 50 companies annually, but could only raise about 4 million yen this year.(IHT/Asahi: November 28,2009)