In-school Covid measures lead to record truancy in Japan
By having schools enforce Covid measures during the 2020 to 2022 academic years (April-March), Japan ensured that all kids who started junior high school (for ages 12-15) in 2020 only ever experienced it under the Covid regime of masks, silent lunches, close-contact witch hunts, etc. But this means we can now answer a question no ethics board would’ve ever allowed to be studied: If junior high schools treat kids like biohazards for the whole time they are there, what effect does it have on the kids’ willingness to attend school? The answer is…unsurprising. From The Japan Times.
Number of absent schoolchildren in Japan hits record high
The number of elementary and junior high school children who refused to go to school for at least 30 days in fiscal 2022 jumped 22.1% from the previous year to a record 299,048, an education ministry survey showed Tuesday.
A 22.1% increase is pretty bad. But if I’ve learned anything since 2020, it’s to look at absolute differences, just not relative ones. The actual survey shows the truancy rates per 1000 students for elementary schools (小学校; purple), junior high schools (中学校; orange), and both (計; blue) from 2002 to 2022 (or Heisei 14 to Reiwa 4 if you prefer the Japanese calendar).
So the truancy rate for junior-high schoolers went from 3.94% in 2019 to 5.98% in 2022. Of these, about 55% were absent for over 90 days. Even factoring in the increase preceding Covid’s appearance (which has been blamed on the effects of SNS enabling kids to take peer-pressure home with them), in-school Covid measures alone can be said to have made almost 1% of junior-high schoolers refuse to go to school for an extended period in academic 2021, rising to almost 2% in academic 2022. In other words, the longer the Covid measures lasted, the more kids stayed home.
Our friends at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) admit as much, albeit in a very roundabout way to avoid incriminating themselves for maintaining the in-school Covid regime for 3 years.
The increase seems to show how the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted children's daily routines, made it difficult for them to form personal connections, ministry officials said.
Who could’ve possibly foreseen that 12 year olds would have difficulty forming personal connections with people whose faces they couldn’t see and who they couldn’t talk to while eating?
MEXT seems to have come to this obvious conclusion based on a survey asking the 47 prefectural boards of education about reasons for increases in truancy in their prefectures. Overwhelmingly the most common answer was “Decreased desire to go to school due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic”. I think that can be stated more honestly as “Decreased desire to go to school due to the depressing, faceless, prison-like daily routine designed around avoiding the close-contact criteria of spending 15 minutes unmasked in close proximity to someone who goes on to test positive for Covid.” The soul-destroying nature of the in-school Covid regime is backed up by the answers from the truant kids themselves.
A sense of lethargy or anxiety topped the list of reasons for refusing to go to school, at 51.8%, followed by disrupted life rhythm, delinquency or a desire to play more, at 11.4%.
So what can be done to solve the problem of record levels of truancy? The answer is of course…robots. From The Mainichi.
Southwest Japan city to introduce remote-controlled robots for students to lower truancy
KUMAMOTO -- The education board of this southwest Japan city will launch an effort to tackle school absenteeism using in-class robot avatars that allow students to engage remotely in classes and school life.
The robots are equipped with microphones, speakers and cameras to allow for two-way communication. According to the Kumamoto Municipal Board of Education, this type of initiative is rare nationwide. The aim is to reduce anxiety for absentee children and pupils planning to return to the classroom.
…
Two self-propelling robots around 1 meter in height are scheduled to be included in the initiative. Tablet computers attached to the robots can be controlled from laptops at the students' homes, allowing them to attend the same classes as their fellow students and partake in discussions with classmates and teachers. It is also expected for the robots to be allowed to move freely within the school grounds and even participate in events.
Let’s hope these two robots work. But if they do, about 300,000 more are going to be needed.
Hi Guy-Gin,
Right on track for the planned digital panopticon. While working for public schools in a small township of West Tokyo in 2021 - 2022, I noticed representatives (mostly housewives, probably working part-time or on limited contracts) from Benesse, one of the big 'education' corporations, observing English classes, and chatting with me during lunch time on how to transform some of the better lessons into a fully digital context.
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14703942
Any educator worth their salt would know that it would take more than a lunch chat to get into how to identify and digitize some of the more salient variables for favorable learning outcomes.
As these company reps had kids of their own, I took it for granted that they were pursuing educational ideals rather than a monthly salary. In retrospect, my presumptions appear to have been mistaken.
When I offered to meet them after classes, and chat over a beer or coffee ... or on the weekend if necessary, I was told that the contract between Benesse and the public schools strictly prohibited any communication outside of school hours and location. Not even telephone chats or e-mails. I found this particularly odd when I found that one of the representatives and I had many friends in common, friends not connected with the school.
Benesse aimed to create an all-digital textbook, but in the format of a typical one-size-fits-all traditional textbook. The content, as well as the point-and-click-or-drag options, would all be the same and standardized. The only differences I could see would be:
1 — The students would not need an English teacher. Their primary interface with English would be through a personal digital pad or laptop, and they would spend most of their time alone at the pad, or in small groups. The number of students per classroom and meeting times had nothing to do with educational principles. And the English teacher would be replaced by a digital communication manager.
2 — Though all of the students would be required to use the same standardized materials, the students would have some control of their pace. This would be particularly useful for those students who are outliers of English skills — the very slow learners, and the near native speakers who would otherwise have to follow the same pace as the teacher.
But during 2022 - 2023 the school year, I did not see those Benesse reps. I am guessing it is because of the ChatGPT boom. With A.I., there was no logical reason for even digital lessons to not be individualized to match each student's appropriate level, interests, learning style, motivations, and so on.
Benesse and the other arms of the corporate nation-state had to go back to their closed room chats and reassess their options because mandatory English classes were never meant to improve English skills for the working class, or to reflect educational ideals such as critical thinking skills or learner autonomy. As in the past, a real liberal arts education is reserved for those who can afford juku (after school - cram schools), private schools, or private tutors.
Compliance to authority has always been, and still is, the implicit goal of public education in Japan. Digitizing this compliance parallels the increasing trend of digitizing financial transactions in that it allows the corporate nation-state to track and identify learners (or consumers) ... but primarily for the benefit of those most profiting from the corporate nation-state ... not the learners or consumers.
Just as with Google or Facebook, if you think you are getting something for free, you are the product. The digital interface of public schools and digital textbooks are part of the digital panopticon, with every keystroke and timed microsecond added to a database owned by the corporate nation-state. Not owned by or accessible to the parents paying for it through their taxes, and certainly not the students.
My guess in connecting the dots, is that those non-pharmaceutical interventions (masking, silence, etc.) dove-tail perfectly with the carefully controlled illusion of community that comes with all-digital communication.
As those somewhat familiar with history as part of the liberal arts curriculum know ... real, empathy-driven communities are the one thing those who thrive off of corporations, institutions, and empires alike have always feared and tried to crush. Rather than crush the friendships and community that could have been made during the formative years of youth ... the corporate nation-state has contrived a digital strategy for creating a faux-community and the illusion of empathy.
An irony of ironies, through our taxes, we are paying to build our own jails, and heating up our own Stockholm Syndrome to a fever pitch.
Needing more than a bit of tonic with that, Gin.
Steve Martin is right. At the risk of sounding cynical I surmise it's the ole problem, reaction premade solution Hegelian Dialectic. In this case the solution is not entirely developed yet, but they're working on it, and by "they", I mean the Japanese Government in collaboration with the folks who brought the world The Manhattan Project known as the US Department of Energy, and additionally the EU's chief innovation project, EU Horizon's and others by way of Japan's Moonshot R&D Project which has the goal to, "Free our bodies from the limitations of space and time" by 2050. They call this Cyborg and Cybernetic Avatar Life through C-Avatar Capitalism. I can't say I aspire to raise my young child to help them build the infrastructure so they can live in it and then defend it.
For reference, have a poke around if you wish:
1. JST Moonshot R&D Website https://www.jst.go.jp/moonshot/en/index.html
2. Japanese Cabinet Office Website for Moonshot Project: https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/english/moonshot/top.html
3. US Department of Energy at Launch of Moonshot in December 2019: https://youtu.be/FSodn45ABjQ?si=3hNQoCe6waui-XI5
https://youtu.be/PFAje58KuLU?si=ycaQOhrojqjH7ZWo
4. US National Science Foundation collaboration with Japan's Moonshot Project: https://youtu.be/Ec1LFFBWrI0?si=tENzN2cro4-KHNcM
5. A Zine outlining some of the trajectory:
https://wrenchinthegears.com/2022/08/24/eves-fabulous-social-impact-finance-zine-please-share/