ALT

目の前にＡＬＴ（外国語指導助手）がいても、教諭は授業の打ち合わせができない。授業中の指示も禁止。すべてＡＬＴを派遣している請負業者とファクスなどを使ったやりとりでしか伝えられない－－。

Read more

An increasing number of primary schools are using assistant language teachers to teach English to children ahead of new regulations [making English education at primary schools compulsory] that go into effect in spring.

However, most of these ALTs are supplied by third-party businesses, a fact that can lead to less-than-desirable situations in class.

In Kashiwa, public schools do not directly employ foreign teachers, instead contracting third parties to supply them. One reason for this is cost-cutting.

However, when using such ALTs, teachers are not permitted to directly instruct their assistants.

In April, a teacher asked an ALT to place cards on the blackboard. Though on the surface this may seem a harmless request, the Chiba Labor Bureau demanded the school instruct its teachers to not ask anything of the ALTs, as it would be considered an order, and making the use of a third-party appear as mere camouflage.

Following the order, the school opted for the safest approach: banning all conversation between teachers and ALTs during class.

“This was the best way for us to give our children the opportunity to hear and use natural English,” said one Kashiwa City Board of Education official. The city says it plans to improve the situation after the next school year.

Kashiwa is not alone: Many local governments use third-party ALTs. Other local labor bureaus, too, have cited problems regarding the system.

Starting next spring, English will be compulsory for fifth- and sixth-graders, though they will not be graded on their performance.

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry recommends that schools use ALTs whose mother tongue is English so students can improve their communication skills by familiarizing themselves with natural English.

Few schoolteachers are considered proficient in English, a situation that has increased the desire for native ALTs.

Throughout the country, local education boards are working hard to secure a sufficient number of ALTs.

A spokesperson for one intermediary said: “We receive requests for ALTs, but the fact is, sometimes we have to turn the request down because we don’t have enough.”

Compounding the situation is the fact that ALTs are not required to have teaching experience or qualifications, meaning the quality of ALT depends entirely on the company through which they are contracted. And few ALTs are proficient in Japanese.

Tokyo’s Adachi Ward Board of Education stopped using ALTs at primary schools last school year, but began employing Japanese teachers who speak fluent English.

“Even if [an ALT] is a native speaker, it’s difficult to teach if they can’t communicate. We can’t get enough ALTs who are good at Japanese,” one board official said.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/language/T100815001255.htm

Concerns are growing over the future of a public program to dispatch foreign teachers to Japanese public schools as a key administrative reform panel has urged the government-linked body that runs the program to drastically cut its overall budget.

But government officials in charge of the operating body told The Japan Times recently the recommendation is unlikely to lead to direct budget cuts for the 23-year-old Japan Exchange and Teaching program, in which the central and local governments dispatch assistant language teachers to public high schools nationwide with public money.

“We don’t regard the results of ‘jigyo shiwake’ (budget screening) as a clear and immediate request to cut the budget of the JET program,” said Takashi Endo of the international division of the internal affairs ministry’s Local Administration Bureau.

Jigyo shiwake is the Democratic Party of Japan-led administration’s project to cut down on wasteful spending by the government and government-backed special organizations.

Municipalities will determine the number of teachers to be dispatched under the JET program, Endo added.

In a summary by a working group of the budget-cutting panel in May, one member recommended the JET program, run by the government-backed Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR), be fundamentally reformed.

Other group members’ comments ranged from one calling for the program to be reassessed, along with how its costs should be covered, and by what source, to one member saying the JET program is unnecessary and another calling its significance unclear.

The panel may not have final say, but its comments are expected to strongly influence the final decision by top officials of the internal affairs ministry on funding requests for the next fiscal year.

CLAIR’s ¥3.6 billion budget to promote international exchange programs is shared by the 47 prefectures and 19 major cities, including ¥858 million for the JET program, in the current fiscal year.

The jigyo shiwake mainly targets wasteful spending by the central government. But the panel leveled criticism at CLAIR and the JET program, noting local governments receive vast grants and many former senior central government officials have landed lucrative positions at CLAIR after retirement in the practice known as “amakudari.”

However critical, the panel didn’t recommend a specific funding cut for the JET program.

Instead, the panel’s focus appeared to be on non-JET-related operations of CLAIR, including its seven overseas offices and wages paid to amakudari ex-bureaucrats.

In their summary, many panel members said CLAIR’s seven overseas offices are unneeded and should be closed.

An official of the Cabinet Revitalization Unit, which runs the jigyo shiwake budget-cutting project, said it will leave funding for the JET program and CLAIR in the hands of the internal affairs ministry.

For this fiscal year, there are 4,436 JET program participants, of whom 2,537 are Americans, 481 are Canadians and 390 are British. Of the total, 4,063 are assistant language teachers (ALTs). Participants peaked at 6,273 in 2002 and have since been decreasing.

CLAIR will start asking municipalities in November how many ALTs they will need for the next fiscal year, and submit a budget draft to the internal affairs ministry in February as per its usual practice, CLAIR spokesman Sadami Mie said.

The ministry will also query municipalities about their ALT needs but won’t be involved in coming up with the CLAIR budget until the group submits its draft in February, Endo of the ministry said.

While acknowledging that CLAIR’s operations, including its foreign offices, need to be reassessed, he stressed the importance of the JET program.

The CLAIR foreign offices engage in activities to promote the internationalization of municipalities, not recruiting JET teachers from the U.S. and Britain. Japanese embassies do that job.

“We should review what needs to be reviewed (about CLAIR). But we want to keep the JET program,” he said.

Lower House member Manabu Terada, who headed the budget-cutting working group scrutinizing the CLAIR budget, told The Japan Times that the ministry is not fit to oversee the JET program, hinting the Foreign Ministry may be more suitable because the program helps nurture foreigners’ understanding of Japan and promotes international exchanges.

When it was established 23 years ago, JET’s mission was the promotion of municipalities’ international exchanges, and the internal affairs ministry became the supervising body because it oversees municipalities.

But Terada said some municipalities don’t need the program because they can hire ALTs from staffing companies.

“The way CLAIR is operated needs to be overhauled,” Terada said, adding he doesn’t think the JET program is unnecessary.

For another ministry to start up a program similar to JET, the process would be time-consuming and entail lengthy cross-ministry discussions, he said.

Kanagawa Prefecture arranges for agencies to deploy assistant language teachers instead of relying solely on the JET program, which would require it to pay a net ¥3.6 million annual salary to an ALT.

A JET assistant language teacher works full time at a public high school, allowing interaction with kids in school events outside of class hours.

Local governments can save money by tapping ALT-staffing agencies, having ALTs work shorter hours and paying them by the hour. But deep cultural and human exchanges can’t be expected via such arrangements, experts say.

“We wouldn’t say the JET program is unnecessary, but we need to consider costs as well,” Kanagawa prefectural official Mayumi Kawaguchi said. “We want CLAIR to be more efficient.”

Kanagawa, which has 143 public high schools, now hires 10 ALTs via JET, down from the peak of 46 from 2002 to 2004, prefectural official Kyoko Sakurada said. The prefecture began hiring ALTs through an agency in 2006.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100811f2.html

英語の授業中、外国語指導助手（ＡＬＴ）と日本人教員が言葉を交わさない――。ＡＬＴを業者への業務委託（請負）で確保する自治体で、奇妙な授業風景が繰り広げられている。２人が協力して授業に取り組むと「偽装請負」（労働者派遣法違反）となってしまうからだ。ルールを守れずに労働局から指導を受ける教育委員会が相次ぎ、教室で混乱が起きている。

Read more

小中学校や高校に配置され子供の国際理解を手助けする外国語指導助手（ＡＬＴ）。厳しい財政事情を背景に、自治体による直接雇用が減り、民間企業を通じた派遣や業務委託が増えている。一方、元ＡＬＴの英国人男性が、ＡＬＴ関連としては県内で初めて県労働委員会に不当労働行為の救済を申し立てて、２０日に証人尋問が行われるなど、雇用をめぐるトラブルも表面化。自治体の直接雇用を求める声が上がっている。

Read more