NAGI, Okayama Prefecture--Nagi earned the tag “miracle town” because its birthrate was more than twice the national average a few years ago.

It has only around 5,500 inhabitants.

In 2019, the town’s total fertility rate--the average number of children a woman is expected to give birth to in her lifetime--hit 2.95. In 2023, the national average was only 1.20, a figure that has changed very slightly over the years.

Town authorities credit their success in this area to child-support measures.

Now Nagi is focusing on English language education. 

But rather than follow the tradition of one teacher per class, schools here operate with several assistant language teachers (ALTs), all brought in from overseas.

A typical third-grade English class with 19 pupils at Nagi Elementary School is taught by an instructor who is Japanese. She has six assistant language teachers to back her up.

During the second half of class when the children are split up, the ALTs swing into action. They interact with the children on a first-name basis and converse in both in English and Japanese, sometimes using gestures.

The school, the only one in Nagi at elementary level, has 290 pupils.

Its principal, Hiroyo Kaji, said English classes are held once a week for each grade with ALTs on hand every step of the way.

Nagi Junior High School, the only one in Nagi at secondary level, has 139 students and also six ALTs, one for each grade.

“Now I can teach the class with an ALT and consult with her when I need to,” said Daisuke Sato, the primary teacher for 22 students. “The students make fewer grammatical mistakes now.”

“The foreign instructors often come over and chat, so I don’t feel so shy about using English anymore and I’m beginning to be able to speak the language little by little,” said one student with a smile.

The childcare center in Nagi looks after as many as 221 children between the ages of zero and 5. It has three ALTs for children between the ages of 3 and 5.

Their activities range from reading English children’s books to the kids, taking them to a park nearby and giving dancing lessons. The idea is to expose the youngsters to English as much as possible on a daily basis.

English language education typically starts from the third grade at publicly run schools in Japan, with pupils attending an hour-long lesson once a week.

In contrast, children in Nagi are immersed in the language from the time they go the childcare center to the end of or second grade, meaning they receive 200 or more hours of English instruction before they even get to third grade. 

PHILIPPINE CONNECTION

The 12 ALTs in Nagi are from the Philippines and in their 20s and 30s. The women are qualified to teach at elementary school level and had work experience in the field before coming to Japan to serve as ALTs, according to town officials.

They work eight hours a day.

Part of their job is to greet the children at the school entrance with their Japanese colleagues in the morning, serve school meals and clean up in classrooms at the end of the day.

They live in a municipal housing complex in the town.

The ALTs are also required to give assistance to their Japanese counterparts as needed and help organize events and PE classes, said an official from the town’s education board.

Renita, 28, who teaches at the junior high school and commutes by bicycle every day, said she knows the names of all the children and enjoys having friendly conversations with them.

She also teaches fifth graders to third-year junior high schoolers on a one-on-one basis online up to 20 times a year.

PRODUCING RESULTS

A survey by the education ministry in fiscal 2023 showed that the national average number of ALTs assigned to every 1,000 students at publicly run elementary schools was 2.9.

The figure for public junior high schools was 2.7.

Many ALTs work at multiple schools, the survey found.

By prefecture, Miyazaki topped the list with 6.7 ALTs per 1,000 grade schoolers.

Kochi ranked first in terms of the number of ALTs per 1,000 junior high schoolers, which was 7.6.

Among the nation’s major cities, Shizuoka earned the top spot for elementary schools at 4.3, while Kumamoto placed first for junior high schools at 3.3.

But in Nagi, one ALT is assigned to every 48 pupils at the elementary school, 46 students at the junior high school and 44 children at the childcare center.

The figures are equivalent to at least 20 ALTs per 1,000 students, far exceeding the national level.

“As far as I know, Nagi ranks first in Japan in terms of the number of ALTs assigned to students,” said Nami Sakamoto, an associate professor at Doshisha University’s Faculty of Global and Regional Studies who serves as English education supervisor for the town.

She said Nagi also stands out in the way it has used its small town feel to “enrich its educational offerings.”

When the ALTs first started working in Nagi in April this year, they initially had some awkward moments with the children.

But once a rapport was established, the children’s English pronunciation began to improve, Sakamoto said.