どうとく dōtoku = Moral Education
A standard time-table for a Japanese school is 6 periods a day:
For quite a few years there were no classes on a Saturday morning, but these days more schools and also the Japanese Ministry of Education is beginning to make noises about that again. “Youngsters out on the street – up to no good” – that sort of thing. Schools used as a convenient baby-sitting service. Ouch! That’s a bit harsh, but you get the idea. Time will tell what any government will decide.
Don’t forget that many parents pay for sending their children to juku anyway, so this would be a cheaper option. Also, most parents work on a Saturday, so there is no reason why children shouldn’t work.
Perhaps a more reasonable motivation is that parents and governments have noticed a slipping of standards (or maybe a realisation that their standards are no longer good enough) and therefore there is a wish to raise those.
What is also clear is that there is more outside competition for standards, so it isn’t perhaps up to the Education Ministry of Japan anymore. Japanese youngsters want and need to get jobs in America; they may work in Korea, they may need a job in France etc.etc.
Anyway, the jury is out, so to say, for now.
じかんわりを つくろう = Let’s make a time-table!
Draw up your own time-table frame; make cut-outs of your subjects and glue them on. You could even make a large one in a group for the classroom wall.
The word じかんわり literally means time-divide(r).
Lami Japan 