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A record 346,482 elementary and junior high school students across Japan were absent for 30 days or more in the 2023 academic year, marking the 11th consecutive year of increase, according to a recent education ministry survey.
The figure for the year ended March 2024 represents a 15.9 percent increase from the previous school year, accounting for 3.7 percent of all students, or roughly 1.5 students per 40-student class, according to the survey.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology attributes the increase to more parents choosing not to force their children to attend school, as well as a lack of adequate support for special needs students.
The number of absent students stood at 130,370 in elementary schools, 216,112 in junior high schools and 68,770 in high schools.
The top reason schools gave for students refusing to attend was "lack of motivation for school" at 32.2 percent, followed by "anxiety or depression" at 23.1 percent. Issues related to special needs, such as disabilities or Japanese language support, accounted for 13.6 percent of responses.
The survey also found cases of bullying at schools rose 7.4 percent to 732,568, with those recognized as "serious situations" involving physical and mental damage exceeding 1,000 for the first time at 1,306.
Bullying was identified in 83.6 percent, or 30,213, of all institutions, with a ministry official noting that "understanding the definition (of bullying) and being conscious of it has spread within schools."
The number of suicides among elementary, junior high and high school students totaled 397, of which 186 had unknown circumstances.
© KYODO
4 Comments
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sakurasuki
Not only school is not interested, combine that with Japanese way doing things in a way that uninspiring.
Japanese way in handling things, people just being told to be patient (我慢)
falseflagsteve
I got bored with school at 14, hardly ever went after that. Done alright with me exams in the end anyway, lol
Well, my son wasn’t happy at school a lot of the time, ur was in the sticks mind and he was considered an outsider by some and bullied by some boys. Got it sorted but if he’d kept it to himself like many kids do he might have suffered a lot.
Hawk
Looking at the picture: would you like to be stuck in that room day after day, week after week, month after month? Uninspired and uninspiring teachers, rote learning, chalk and chalkboards, dry and droll textbooks? Obviously, boring classes are only a small piece of the puzzle but at least give kids reasons to go.
wallace
All students, all teachers, and all schools cannot be judged as one bag and one paintbrush.