Lower level of education for future Filipino children?
We had a lively discussion with Prof. Reiko Ogawa of Chiba University in Japan and her seminar students about the education issues of children with Filipino roots in Japan. We shared the results of our 2018 exploratory research combining data from literature with government statistics and narratives shared with us by Filipinos through various years.
In a 2015 survey with Utsunomiya professor Matsuo Tamaki and Shizuoka Prefectural University professor Sachi Takahata, we learned that a high 42% of children with Filipino roots in Japan (16-30 years old) preferred to do factory or manufacturing work rather than proceed with their high school studies.
Lower level of education will limit individual options for better employment, better pay, better quality of life and a better future. Society will also be affected if their residents have low education. If the Filipino children go back to the Philippines to work and reside or if they decide to stay in Japan, both societies will be disadvantaged having a labor force with low educational background and low skills.
Education is crucial for the development of individuals, societies, and the global community. Recognizing the value of education, the United Nations is enjoining the world by 2030 to ensure Sustainable Development Goal #4: Inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
How can we encourage our children here or those in Japan to proceed to high school and aspire for higher levels of education?
In Japan, these children are those whose parents are both Filipinos or those with one Filipino parent and a foreign parent. Japanese 2013 government data showed 564 children of Filipino parents, 227 children with a Japanese mother and a Filipino father, 2,138 children of a Japanese father and a Filipino mother, 12 with a Filipino father and a foreign, non-Japanese mother, and, 153 with a Filipino mother and a foreign, non-Japanese father.
Unfortunately, there is no data at all about children with Filipino roots among the irregular, unregistered Filipinos in Japan.
In 2017, there were 260,553 registered Filipinos in Japan. Children within the 0-24 years age range totaled to about 53,506 with females just slightly more (27,194) than males (26,312). Within the 25-34 year age range, there were 63,944 children.
How many of Filipino children are now enrolled in Japanese schools and facilities?
Sadly, there are still no such official data from the Japanese government and the Philippine Embassy in Japan. Hopefully, collaborative official data and monitoring about foreign children, including Filipinos, and their educational access, entry, attendance, and performance can be prioritized.
Our report especially noted that “early childhood socialization is very important. Delayed childhood socialization impacts a child’s identity, development, future life and career options which may be passed on to the next generations. So much is lost when children are deprived of early socialization, early access and admission to schools. The loss is not experienced only by the children but by the whole society, including future generations to come.”
Also, “as education impacts on the lives of individuals and societies, ensuring successful, effective education access and participation to all, regardless of age, gender, race, nationality, class and disabilities will yield positive results for all.”
"Education is one valuable path to resolving exclusion in society where, according to Kabeer (2005), people are disadvantaged in terms of what they have (resource), who they are (identity) and where they are (spatial). The resolution of the education problems of children, foreign and including Filipinos, requires a broader perspective, scope, and network that recognize the more widely defined issue of exclusion and its dimensions.”
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