|
| The factory is in fact Brazilian
school Pitagoras' first facility in Japan. It opened in April
as what was believed to be Japan's first school affiliated with
a major Brazilian private educational group and the only Brazilian
school that teaches a high school curriculum. Its curriculum follows
the Brazilian model with the addition of Japanese-language classes. |
|
"Our students start learning
how to use computers when they are in kindergarten," Bernadete
Lima, a teacher at the school, said. The school has five computers
that run children's games and educational software for lessons
such as Brazilian geography.
"In Brazil, almost all private schools teach computer at an early
stage of education. Every single pupil at our school has an e-mail
account, too," she said. |
|
| About 100 Brazilian children
aged 3 to 17, almost all of them Japanese-Brazilians, attend the
school. About 3,000 Brazilians live in Ota, along with 4,000 in
the neighboring city of Oizumimachi. Most families make a living
by working in factories and offices in the prefecture. |
|
| The nation's Japanese-Brazilian
population has grown rapidly since June 1, 1990, when the Immigration
Control Law was revised to permit companies to employ ethnic-Japanese
foreign nationals for unskilled jobs. |
|
| Small and medium-sized companies
that formerly suffered a shortage of labor for menial tasks, and
often hired illegal foreign workers, snapped at the chance to
hire Brazilian laborers legally. |
|
| "One of the main reasons behind
the launch of this Brazilian school was to teach the children
Portuguese and Brazilian history and culture while they are living
in Japan," said Kumico Kamei Mori, a senior teacher at Pitagoras. |
|
| Pitagoras teaches older students
about their home country using Portuguese-language newspapers,
magazines and Internet sites. |
|
| "Most of them came to Japan with
their parents who work on a 'dekasegui' (migrant labor) basis,
and about 80 percent of the students want to return to Brazil
someday," she said. |
|
| Although foreign residents are
concerned about their children's education, the Japanese education
system has yet to meet the needs of foreign students. In Ota,
there are only 10 peripatetic Portuguese teachers to teach a total
of 247 Brazilian children attending public primary and middle
schools in the city. |
|
| "By law, we have no obligation
to give students without Japanese nationality an education, and
they are not obliged to attend Japanese schools," an official
from the Ota municipal board of education said. "We take care
of them only if they come to us." |
|
| Although Brazilian parents have
been instrumental in setting up schools for Brazilian nationals
in Japan, there is a strong need within Brazilian communities
in Japan for schools with organized curriculums and quality teaching
faculties. |
|
| "Most Brazilian schools here
I know, besides Pitagoras, are taught by those who did not even
graduate from college," said Shirley Shinohara, a Pitagoras teacher
whose 5-year-old son attends the school. |
|
| Pitagoras students and their
families enjoy sharing a common cultural bond with their peers,
and are grateful that the school's environment is relatively stress-free
in comparison with Japanese schools where there are cultural as
well as language differences. |
|
| "Above all, the fact that they
were educated at Pitagoras will be regarded as prestigious back
in Brazil," Lima said. |
|
| The tuition fee for Pitagoras
in Japan, about 50,000 yen each month, which includes 250 yen
for lunch every day, is double that of the school in Brazil. Parents
who would not be able to afford private school educations for
their children in Brazil are able to do so in Japan due to the
opportunity to earn higher wages, she said. |
|
| "It is too expensive for (working-class
families) to enroll their children at private schools in Brazil,"
Lima said. |
|
| "However, tuition for Pitagoras
in Japan remains expensive, even in light of the opportunity to
earn higher wages in Japan, and there are many parents who cannot
afford to send their children to the school, even though they
want to," she said. |
|
| Lima added that Japan's recent
economic stagnation has also affected Brazilian workers in the
country. |
|
| Difficult choices |
|
| Meanwhile, Pitagoras faces instability
within the Japanese school system. Since the school, like the
majority of the nation's schools for foreign children, is not
approved by municipal or prefectural board of education, Pitagoras
is categorized as a "miscellaneous" school. The ministry does
not recognize graduation from the school and the school cannot
apply for financial assistance from the government. |
|
| Inevitably, the future for Pitagoras
students is complicated. To accommodate students hoping to return
to Brazil in the future, Pitagoras' curriculum is designed to
enable a smooth transfer back to the curriculums of schools in
Brazil. |
|
| "But there are quite a few
Brazilians who come back to Japan after returning to Brazil because
they are unable to find work there," Mori said. This is well illustrated
by the experience of six of Pitagoras's 10 teachers. They are
all certified as school teachers in Brazil, but they came to Japan
to work in unrelated fields before they were hired by the school.
"Corruption in the country is another factor," Mori said. |
|
| Although the Brazilian economy
has recovered a great deal under the administration of Brazilian
President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, monthly minimum salaries
in the country are equivalent to 70 dollars. |
|
| Even if Pitagoras students decide
to stay in Japan after graduating from the school, they would
not be deemed to have completed the nation's compulsory education,
which could in turn hinder their chances of pursuing both academic
and professional careers in Japan. |
|
| For instance, Miho Taketomi,
a 17-year-old sansei (third generation) Japanese-Brazilian currently
attending Pitagoras, plans to quit the school and hopes to earn
a Japanese high school diploma via a correspondence course. |
|
| "I want to be a hairstylist,
and my parents and I have agreed that I would be better off at
least getting a high school degree," she said. |
|
| "I want to go back to Brazil
sometime in the future and work there as a hairstylist," she said.
"But I am also scared of going back because Brazil is not safe
at all, especially compared with Japan." |
|
| Whether they return to their
homeland and face the difficulty of finding employment or remain
in Japan and are recognized as foreign workers who have not completed
the nation's compulsory education system, Pitagoras students are
in limbo between the Japanese and Brazilian education systems. |
|
