Research on the access to high school for Indochina refugee children of Laotian residents

Abstract

Currently, many newcomer students in Japan leave after compulsory education and their lower advancement rate to high is presumed compared to the United States'. This research aims to confirm the difference of Laotian children's access to high between US/Japan and to examine possible resolutions for the resent problems on educational access and leaning assistance of newcomers in Japan. According to the US census (2000), 68% of Laotians obtained high diplomas. Whereas in Japan-where no census by ethnic group is available-only 38% of Laotian children at Kanagawa, 11% at Hyogo has advanced to high school. So what factors affect these differences? Previous literatures summarized the factors as follows; structure/system of the family support/environment and economic factors. From these thee factors, this research focuses on the structure/system of the school, First of all, taking a look at the hardware side of structure/system of the school, Japanese newcomer students suffer in taking high entrance examinations because they need to challenge the same test as Japanese students. This is similar to Japanese institutional approach of accepting refugees, treating them as groups and providing them with the same programs. In the US, on the other hand, open admission system is available which encourage newcomer students to advance to high school. Such system will be necessary for newcomers, in Japan, to stand in the entrance of the society. Second of all, taking a look at the software side of structure/system of the school focus only on Japanese language education and disregard cultural diversity could be pointed out as problems. On the other hand, teaching strategies in the US adapts needs of new comers based on the students needs such as hiring bilingual teachers, providing mother tongue education and assisting dropped out students. It shares same concept of individual approach which is US way of accepting refugees. In fact, current educational support system of newcomer students in Japan is changing and became diversified. As a future task, structure/system of the school should adapt to needs based on approach, so that it will connect to support newcomers' advancement to higher education and improve opportunities of their learning assistance.