Prime Minister’s Award
To Study Is to Live
Tamaki Konishi, Eighth Grade (second year of three grades)
Okayama Prefectual Okayama Sozan Junior High School, Okayama Prefecture
Close your eyes and let’s suppose you are a Japanese adult. Once you leave your house, you feel
nervous, uneasy, and unconfident. When you walk around town, you cannot understand what is
written on signs or information boards. You think, "What does it mean?" Then, you think you are
such a rubbish person because you do not understand something so simple. You are afraid of getting
on a bus because you cannot read the signs written in Chinese characters that tell the fares and
destinations. You feel that you are always surrounded by things uncertain and unknown. Why are you
having so much trouble?
This summer holiday I worked at the Okayama Voluntary Night Junior High School as a volunteer.
What I have just described is the story of Mr. A, who has been studying at this school. Mr. A suffered
an acute illness when he was small, and stopped going to school when he was in grade three of
primary school. He is a "proforma graduate" of a junior high school, having received a graduation
certificate, albeit after barely attending the school. Mr. A got a job with heavy labor but quit the job
because of his illness, and then moved from one job to another. Not being able to read, write or
calculate, he could not choose his work and had to suffer many embarrassing experiences.
Night School was established to guarantee the opportunities of people from various backgrounds to
receive compulsory education. Students include those who finished junior high school without
sufficient education for various reasons, such as nonattendance like in the case of Mr. A. There are
also current junior-high school students who are not attending any classes, people who missed the
opportunity to learn amid the post-WWII chaos, or people with foreign nationalities. At present, there
are 31 publicly-run night junior high schools in eight prefectures, and 37 schools run by volunteers in
16 prefectures. At the night school where I worked, around 40 students with five different
nationalities and with ages ranging from 10s to 80s are studying. Looking around the classroom at the
different types of students, I was genuinely surprised how varied junior high school students can be in
our society.
One day I helped Ms. B to study fractional numbers. Ms. B is older than my grandmother. At the
school, students and teachers basically study one-to-one. Ms. B was surprised that a current junior
high student like me was working there as a volunteer. She then told me her story, explaining why she
is studying at night school and how many difficulties she went through because of her lack of
compulsory education. "If I could have studied like this when I was as young as you, Tamaki, would I
be much happier now?" she murmured and then she said something rather surprising, "Please give me
some homework because I don’t want to forget what I have studied today."
I could not believe what I had just heard, homework is my enemy! At my junior high school,
regardless of students’ wishes, teachers give us plenty of homework. Being not so academically bright,
I have been rejecting studying, thinking, "Why do we need to study? What for?"
I always did my homework quite reluctantly. Therefore, when Ms. B asked me for homework, I
felt embarrassed with myself. Ms. B and other students’ earnest passion for studying was almost
dazzling for me. Many of them are barely surviving their everyday lives, and, until they found the
opportunity for studying at the night school, they never had time to wonder, "For what do we study?"
I had an acute realization of how privileged and spoiled I have been.
Based on statistics, the enrollment rate for Japan’s compulsory education is about 99%. However,
based on estimates by the Japan Night School Research Group, there are more than a million people
who have not completed compulsory education because they never attended school, or stopped
attending school in the middle of the academic year. In the backdrop of complicated family
relationships, some of them are not recorded on a family register, have suffered abuse from their
parents, have withdrawn from the outside world, or have been absent from school. And others have
not completed compulsory education due to other social issues. Our right to education is supposed to
be guaranteed by the Constitution of Japan and the Basic Act on Education, etc. However, there are
people who were not able to receive sufficient education and pushed to live in the worst conditions –
just like the students I have met at Night School, and we should not forget that. I would like to
provide more "opportunities for education" to people who want to study.
The speech by Malala Yousafzai, the person whom I respect, at the United Nations always gives me
support, "One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world. Education is the only
solution. Education first."
My contribution is very small, but I will protect opportunities for studying, and, as a volunteer,
study together at Night School. To study is to live. This summer, people at the Okayama Voluntary
Night School taught me the meaning of studying.