There’s nothing typical about school now for students at an elementary school in northeast Tokyo.
Tokyo – While COVID-19 has sowed uncertainty and chaos in American education and left many kids to learn remotely, Japanese schools are back in session, thanks to a much lower rate of community spread of the coronavirus. Since new daily COVID-19 case numbers peaked at 1,605 in early August, infections have dropped to less than half that in recent weeks. Japan’s population is equal to about 38% of the United States’, but it has only 1% as many confirmed coronavirus cases. The government’s antiviral campaign has been heavily criticized as reactive and tentative, but the debate has been mostly free of the partisanship that has dogged anti-virus efforts in the U. S. Masks, for instance, are about as controversial here as wearing hats. Perhaps because Japanese live cheek-by-jowl in big cities, mask-wearing is a time-honored defense during the cold and flu season, as well as in the spring, when allergies kick in. CBS News traveled this week to the northeast corner of Tokyo to visit staff and 247 pupils at the East Kanamachi Elementary school. Kids began clambering in the door at 8 a.m. with their heavy book bags. As all students do in the country, they went straight to their assigned cubbyholes in the school lobby, trading street shoes for the soft-soled slip-ons worn in classes. Like generations before them, Yuka Katayama’s first grade class bowed to begin the day’s studies. But there’s nothing typical about school now. Every child wore a gaily-colored mask and was seated behind a personal vinyl shield – newly purchased by the school PTA for about $10 each. Ms. Katayama, wearing a face shield along with her comfy maxi skirt and tennis shoes, was clearly multitasking more than normal. Instead of asking kids to pass papers down the rows, she handed each child the language exercises herself, to minimize contact among students.
