Online classes in Osaka City, which were impossible to implement in the first place, caused chaos at school sites

Osaka City wants to promote online classes, but the reality is that they can't do it even if they want to. Despite this, the city of Osaka has not changed its own policy even after the extension of the state of emergency. Furthermore, the school scene is in chaos.

｜Forcibly despite the lack of infrastructure

"If it's possible, I'd even do an online class," said an elementary school teacher in Osaka with a stunned expression.

In the midst of the new corona wreck, it may be perceived by the public that online classes are being carried out at elementary and junior high schools in Osaka City, as per the policy of the city board of education. In reality, however, this is not the case.

In the morning, they take online classes, and then the children go to school and have lunch. This is the scenario presented by the city board of education. However, not all elementary and junior high schools are conducting online classes every day.

"Since we had to conduct online classes, we conducted a connection test at elementary and junior high schools in the city before the state of emergency was declared. However, there were frequent situations such as disconnection in the middle or no connection in the first place. The reason is simple: when we conducted a test to conduct two-way online classes at all elementary and junior high schools at the same time, the internet line exploded.The cause was a basic lack of capacity.

And the elementary school teacher I mentioned earlier. In the first place, the infrastructure for conducting online classes was not in place. Nevertheless, it means that he decided on a policy for online classes and forced it.

As expected, the city board of education has been "assigning" the time slots for online classes for each region, perhaps because they could not ignore the problem of insufficient capacity. They may have thought that by distributing online classes, they would cover the lack of capacity.

Although it's a quota, it's only limited by time, and you can use it every day. The elementary school teacher continues.

"In the case of elementary school, we were allotted only 40 minutes, and that was only about one day a week. You can't do anything with this, can you?"

It's not a reality that can really appeal to online classes. The city board of education decided to have classes at home in the morning on the premise of online classes, but online classes were not possible, so print learning was the main focus. There was no instruction from the city board of education about the contents of the printout, and he had no choice but to think about it at the school site where it was completely thrown. Since it is difficult to stay at home, it has been reported that there were many schools where many children went to school even in the morning, when home learning was supposed to be done.

If you want to appeal online classes, you should hurry to improve the infrastructure. However, "there is no sign of the board of education moving," said an elementary school teacher.

In addition to the line capacity, we need a Wi-Fi environment at home, but there is a significant shortage of routers necessary for that. Each school knows how many are in short supply, but it seems that an elementary school teacher says, "There have been no inquiries from the Board of Education to confirm this." There may be no intention to rush infrastructure development in the first place.

Infrastructure requires decisions and, of course, budgets. This is where the strong leadership of Mayor Ichiro Matsui should be needed, but there seems to be no such sign.

｜Did the original policy end because of the national academic test?

And the state of emergency was extended. With no improvement in infrastructure, the city board of education has notified schools of the extension of their own policy. The frequency remains the same, roughly once a week, but the time has been reduced from 40 minutes to 35 minutes. Conditions are getting worse.

Since the time that was considered home study is not recognized as a regular class, there is still a significant shortage of class time.

"It's not impossible to get it back, but it would be necessary to drastically reduce school events such as excursions. Coordination is also difficult. More than that, the children will be dissatisfied."

And the elementary school teacher. There are reports that the city board of education is even considering shortening the summer vacation. The cost of sticking to the online class policy with no infrastructure in place is going to be passed on to the children and the school.

There is another point worth noting. The state of emergency has been extended until May 31st, but the extension of Osaka City's own policy is until the 21st, and no quota has been indicated from Monday the 24th, and it seems that it will return to normal. It is said that the original policy will be lifted before the declaration of emergency, but what is the reason?

"It is a rumor among teachers that it is to participate in the national academic ability test (national academic ability / learning situation survey)" (the elementary school teacher mentioned above)

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has not changed its stance of conducting the national academic test as scheduled on May 27, when the state of emergency is not lifted. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology declared the third state of emergency, and even if it was extended, it instructed the areas covered by the declaration to continue classes as usual. Against this, Osaka City adopted its own policy, but it may be that it intends to obediently follow the policy of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in national academic tests. What does Osaka City want to cherish?