No.162 Strengthening English Education and Internationalizing Children

The city is working to strengthen English education starting from fiscal year 2025.

The first point is the enhancement of ALTs. ALT stands for Assistant Language Teacher, referring to foreign language teaching assistants. From April 1, 2025, they have been employed as full-time city staff and assigned to all municipal Elementary and Junior High Schools.
The placement of ALTs is generally done by dispatching native English-speaking assistant language teachers through CLAIR (Council of Local Authorities for International Relations) JET Program (a project that invites foreign young people to provide language instruction) or private dispatch companies. The city has also entrusted this to business companies until now.
However, under the business consignment method, although the desired time slots of the city were filled by ALTs, since they were not city employees and often concurrently served other municipalities, their connections with schools and the community seemed to be weak.

This time, we received an introduction from a company called Achieve Goal Inc. and decided to accept ALTs from the Philippines. This company recruits personnel locally and provides basic knowledge and Japanese language education necessary to work as ALTs at a training center established by the company, then introduces candidates for direct employment by the local government.
If there are issues with the abilities of the employed person, it is also possible to replace the personnel. As a general rule, the employed person is expected to reside within the city or surrounding municipalities, and since they are employed full-time as fiscal year appointed staff, they can also be active outside of classes.

In fiscal year 2025, in addition to providing English education for managerial staff at City Hall, on August 23rd, an event titled "Inagi ALT English Festa" will be held at Koyodai Elementary School. This event will offer games using English for preschool children, elementary and junior high school students, as well as the general public (including those from outside the city).
The Philippines was once a colony of the United States, and English has long been widely used. Recently, all classes except for the national language and history, from elementary school to university, are conducted in English, making it an official language. As a result, it is said that the level of English proficiency is now comparable to that of native speakers.
All of them have experience learning English in situations where their native language is not English, and considering that they are also from countries that are very pro-Japan, we believe they are easy to accept.

In May of Reiwa 7, we received the first monthly report on business performance in writing and received an explanation together with the Superintendent of Education. Since it was the first time, the representative director was also present, and we received a very detailed report, which made us feel that the introduction was worthwhile.

Regarding the dispatch of ALTs this time, the Superintendent of Education of Inagi City and the local government of Cordova Town in Cebu Island, Philippines, have concluded an "Agreement on Educational Exchange." By concluding this agreement, the expenses related to ALTs have become eligible for ordinary local allocation tax from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, providing financial advantages. Inagi City was the first in Tokyo to adopt this system, and it has been a key focus as an achievement goal.

Although it just started in April, the ALT seems to have fully blended in with the children, as they live in the city or nearby towns. It was also mentioned that they have built good relationships with the teachers.

Secondly, in this system, not only the dispatch of ALTs but also connecting online with the Philippines has started individual English conversation lessons for all second-year junior high school students.
Children's ability to absorb and adapt is incomparable to that of adults, so if they have daily opportunities to speak English, their skills will improve rapidly. In municipalities that have taken the lead, there are examples where the English proficiency of elementary and junior high school students is 1.8 to 1.9 times the national average, so it would be great if Inagi City also achieves early results.

Thirdly, as a project of the Inagi City Sister and Friendship City Exchange Association, a homestay dispatch program to our overseas Sister City, Foster City, has been launched from fiscal year 2025. This time, we recruited high school students, and out of 15 applicants, 6 were selected through interviews and traveled to the United States earlier this month. We expect this homestay program to also contribute to strengthening English language skills. Details of this project will be shared on another occasion.

By strengthening English education, we hope to contribute to the internationalization of the children of Inagi City.