[Grandpa Saw It!] Part 1: What's Happening with Club Activity Reform?

My heart is Gen Z! My body is a Showa-era person past sixty! I'm Grandpa, a supporter of Gen Z!?

In the 'Grandpa Saw It!' series, I have also focused on education as a key theme. Among those, one thing I'm a bit concerned about is the 'regional transition of club activities'.

For some reason, the Japan Sports Agency (Commissioner Murofushi) seems to be the responsible agency for the regional transition of club activities, not the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and Mr. Murofushi is working hard on it.

✅ Mr. Murofushi is probably working hard, but?

I wonder if sports club activities will be taken out of MEXT's hands and the Japan Sports Agency will become the competent authority with the power to execute the budget?

Junior high and high school sports club activities have pushed responsibility onto young teachers, and although they have been forced to work even on holidays because they are club advisors,in this era of work-style reform, it is no longer sustainable.

In addition to Mr. Murofushi's video, the Japan Sports Agency's home screen also has URLs for an introduction to 'KUROBE-style regional club activities' and 'Fostering regional sports instructors essential for the regional transition of junior high school club activities'.

Is the regional transition of club activities that began in fiscal year 2023 going well?

✅ What are the challenges of the KUROBE-style regional club activities?

We, who have taken it for granted that the authorities or the school would take care of things for us,are being confronted with the reality that 'the school will no longer take care of things on holidays'.

The way we have done things until now, relying on the goodwill of teachers, is aGalapagos rule created uniquely in Japan following the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Now, how is Kurobe City responding to the reality that has been thrust upon them?

In the KUROBE-style regional transition, while club guidance by teachers continues at school on weekdays as before, for holiday club activities, the girls' volleyball team, boys' and girls' basketball teams, and archery team at Meimine Junior High School, as well as joint club activities between Meimine Junior High School and Seimei Junior High School for track and field, judo, and kendo, seem to be implemented with the cooperation of each sports association, with regional instructors dispatched by the sports associations.

And starting as a model project in 2021, in 2022,a partial burden of various expenses such as insurance premiums, activity fees, and instructor honorariums began as a beneficiary burden.

An 'individual insurance premium' of 800 yen per year and a 'participation fee for activities' of 500 yen per month (6,000 yen per year) were collected,totaling 6,800 yen per year.

I think this burden on parents willvary greatly depending on the region, such as the presence of local sponsors and the difference in the amount of voluntary donations.I think it will.

If they have to prioritize the execution of reform to the extent that they have no choice but to dump such things on each local government and say 'just get it done',Grandpa thinks that letting the junior high school students themselves think about it would lead to a much better solution.

I believe that even if adults don't micromanage every little detail and prepare and provide everything for them,the club management ideas from the children themselves will surely produce better results than the methods adults think are for their own good.Probably...

✅ Let's look at the case of Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture!

Starting from the 2020 guidelines, I think Kashiwa City has already accumulated know-how in terms of systematically advancing the regional transition of club activities.

The Kashiwa City Regional Club Activity Promotion Associationacts as the flag-bearer, or command center, bringing together area managers (for each sport), and is operated as an organization where area managers serve as the command center for various groups.

But this "Regional Club Activity Promotion Association," which acts as a command center for such reforms, coordinates with various groups as a coordinator, asks parents for financial burdens, and sets compensation for instructors,wouldn't function unless it were given tremendous authority.I suppose it wouldn't.

Since Grandpa doesn't have any middle school children, I don't know the details of what is happening right now.

However, if you say you are implementing a policy that puts children at the very center,I think enjoying sports for the healthy growth of children is a top-priority policy, but if the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology just makes things easier for itself and tells the Sports Agency and each local government to "just get it done," the local people, including teachers, are surely having a hard time.

Let's look a little more in the second part.

Read the rest

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