まゆの部屋

Student's murder 'unforeseeable'
The Yomiuri Shimbun

Cram school managers and parents of children who attend the schools expressed shock over the murder of a girl by a teacher at a cram school in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture.

Some said it beggared belief that a child could be killed at a cram school by a teacher.

Following the introduction of the five-day school week, an increasing number of children go to cram schools after school and at weekends.

Following the recent series of child murders, how to secure the safety of children walking to and from school roads was the main focus of discussions. Ensuring the safety of students in cram schools had not been considered.

Past crimes involving cram schools included a case in September 2002 in which a cram school manager in Yokohama was arrested for sexually molesting a female high school student who had attended his cram school. In October 2001, a cram school manager in Tokyo kidnapped for ransom a first-grade primary school student who was a brother of a girl who attended the cram school.

The Japan Juku (cram school) Association has recently been encouraging its 800 member schools across the country to introduce six anticrime measures, including distributing personal emergency alarms to children and collecting information about suspicious persons.

"But the Uji case was beyond anything we could have expected," said Masazumi Ishii, president of the Japan Juku Association. "It was an act that betrayed the trust of parents and students. We want to discuss with executive members of the association what kinds of safety measures should be taken," he said.

According to a leading cram school, it checks prospective teachers' social skills as well as their academic ability and leadership skills in three interviews before deciding whether to hire them.

An executive of the cram school said: "There are more and more young people [applying for teaching posts at cram schools] who have high academic abilities but can't answer questions well and act oddly. They can't look after children."

Since the introduction of the five-day school week, the number of cram schools has been increasing, and curriculums at cram schools have diversified to cope with the new system.

But a source at a cram school said: "In terms of the number of students taught and the levels of teaching provided, there are all sorts of cram schools nationwide. Nobody actually knows what goes on inside them."

(Dec. 11, 2005)