Survey shows record number of foreign students need language training

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TOKYO, July 3 Kyodo -
Japanese public schools are accommodating an unprecedented number of foreign
students struggling to solve the language problem and nearly 30,000 of them
have been found to require constant help in learning Japanese, an education
ministry survey showed Friday.
Publicly run elementary, junior high and high schools across Japan reported a
record 28,575 students who they thought need to learn Japanese to keep up with
classes or live everyday life as of last September, up 13 percent from a year
earlier, according to the survey results.
The number of such students posted an increase for the sixth consecutive year
and 24,250 of them, or 85 percent, actually have received language training.
The survey results come amid increases in the number of foreign workers who
have settled in Japan in the past decade and the growth of their children.
Ministry officials said there is a plan to secure personnel capable of teaching
Japanese, including retired teachers, as part of efforts to improve the
situation.
A breakdown of the ministry's latest survey shows that students who have
Portuguese as their mother tongue form the largest bloc with roughly 40
percent, followed by Chinese with 20 percent and Spanish with 13 percent.
By type of school, 3,791 elementary schools reported that there were students
seen to require language training along with 2,028 junior high schools and 342
high schools. By prefecture, Aichi had the largest number with 5,844 students,
followed by 2,903 in Shizuoka, 2,794 in Kanagawa and 2,203 in Tokyo.
==Kyodo