Educational Renaissance / Gaudia challenges Kumon
Yuka Matsumoto and Atsushi Miyazaki Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers
The following are excerpts from The Yomiuri Shimbun's Educational Renaissance series. This part of the series focuses on increasing competition among juku cram schools.
The Kumon juku chain was launched in 1958 to offer a self-learning method developed by high school math teacher Toru Kumon. Students at its centers, ranging from preschool to high school age, work on worksheets on mathematics, Japanese and English at a level suitable to each student, regardless of school grade. Instructors mainly offer help and advice on each student's learning.
Having expanded its franchise network both in Japan and overseas, Kumon has achieved a dominant market position by operating cram schools that help primary school students acquire the basics of math and Japanese. Now a new juku, Gaudia, has thrown down the gauntlet.
"It has been shown that children's reading and thinking ability is on the decline," Hiroshi Ueda, 43, executive managing director at Gaudia, Inc., told six mothers at a briefing session in Meguro Ward, Tokyo, in late January. "At the same time, there is concern over whether pattern learning employed by a major juku chain can really help children develop authentic scholastic ability."
Alongside the mothers, their children--preschoolers who were set to start primary school this month--were working on worksheets. (210 words)
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