Here’s an article in Japanese:
[ありえないミス 博多女子中で高校入試願書出し忘れ](https://kbc.co.jp/news/article.php?id=11979280)
Essentially some students wanted to take the entrance exam for a particular High School. But because of the teacher missing the deadline by 2 hours they aren’t able to.
We’re talking a public high school here. And the school board is backing the High School up in rejecting them.
This really showcases a huge problem in Japan I feel we’re all very familiar with. Rules that are applied absolutely even to the detriment of everyone involved.
Let’s discuss.
by Buck_Da_Duck
22 comments
I mean it sucks but a deadline is a deadline. Should they make a fuzzy forgiveness time where you’re late but it’s still ok?
Schools where I’m from would have done exactly the same thing.
If it was the teacher’s mistake that’s absolutely ludicrous..
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All of you who think a deadline is a deadline, you also think children should be punished for the mistakes of a single adult? They had no agency, why should they bare the consequences
I am not familiar with Japan examination. I thought students applied that online by themselves.
Really dumb, but on the flip side I guess that means those students dodged a bullet.
Seems normal for a school board in Japan.
Always out of touch, no common sense, and living for covering up the scandals.
WTF! I can sort of understand that the capacity of the high school is limited and are they need to cut off somewhere.
– Who sets a deadline on the middle of the day!? Only a sadist or idiot would not set it on a clear cutoff point and allow some leeway.
– Going to apologize… Seriously, this is a :raise hell and contact anyone you know to get someone to bend over backwards and snap to get the application accepted. You’re going to lose your job anyway, may as well try to correct it for those poor girls.
– The difference between the fees of a private institution and public one are significant, I wonder who will pay for that. Not to mention this is a school in Koga, these girls may live pretty far from any other public school.
– If my daughter was on the exam list for this school, I would call and complain both there and the board of education.
– The board of education in Fukuoka is a real shithole, it is not the first time I hear of idiotic things like this to happen.
– These things perpetuate. Those girls are going to become adults, who are convinced society should be ‘correct’ always and never show a human side. Not to mention have trust issues. It finally makes sense how all these micro-managers and power harassers get into the workforce.
Man, I work at a private school in the PR/Entrance exam department, and none of our deadlines are kept strictly. If this happened with us, they would almost certainly be allowed to submit. When it comes to open schools and other events, you’ll have parents calling up the day before the event, which is a week after the deadline, saying they forgot to apply and want to come and it’s always allowed, which is difficult because all students who come need to take part in a demo class, and all demo classes have limited places.
The system is stupid. Already over-worked teachers having to deal with shit that the parents should be doing? If that teacher didn’t have to deal with clubs, graduation stuff, end of year grading, accounting, useless parents, endless fucking meetings, raising a bunch of kids that aren’t their’s, PTA stuff, and when they have spare time – actually teaching, then it would be inexcusable.
Poor kids but blame the system.
Anecdotally knew a friend that lost a scholarship extension due to similar reasons. He had to return back to his country because of his college’s inadequacy
Does any good school news come out of Fukuoka? It seems that there’s a disproportionate number news stories coming out of Fukuoka about of schools being stuck in Showa.
Somewhat similar: One of ours was already in HS, and near the end of the first year somehow inadvertently selected the science track (理系), instead of the other choice (文系). I forget how long past the deadline it was, but the school were adamant, and would not let her switch. (it worked out okay in the end)
Just get rid of entrance exams already
Comments here seem to focus on “the teacher” who missed the deadline, but when I read: しかし、願書の提出を担当する学校職員が当該公立高校を県立高校と誤認し、願書の閉め切りは２月２０日と思い込んだということです。…to me that seems like it was the administrative staff.
Can anyone enlighen me on this difference? Am I reading something wrong?
Also, the other oddity is that the March date is almost universal for public HS exams, while Koga set an earlier date/deadline. In retrospect, it might have been nice for the Koga school to post a notice to the effect that “hey, we’re doing it earlier than the norm, here’s a reminder that our deadline is also earlier”. _Especially_ if the early testing/deadline was new this year. Tho if they did, and this one school missed it, shame on them.
Another day in the Japanese school system, lol
Public high schools even having entrance exams is ridiculous. How far up their own ass does the school board have to be to not see that.
Listen to this one: I came to Japan in 2008 to do a PhD at Tottori University. First I had to do a Japanese language course of 6 months and my PhD was due to start officially on April 2009 (and last for three years). I was on a Monbukagakusho scholarship.
Turned out someone in the University administration forgot to send my paperwork to some places in Tokyo. The deadline had passed of a few hours when they found out. There was one more student from Sudan who was in the same situation. They called us, explained the situation and apologized, that our PhD course would start from October 2009 instead (6 month delay). They said the scholarship would start only from October.
Of course I complained because I couldn’t afford a plane ticket home for 6 months and I couldn’t live there for 6 months on my nonexistent savings.
So finally since the University recognized its fault, they offered to pay the same monthly allowance than the scholarship for the next 6 months. I graduated in September 2012, so the PhD was “extended” 6 months.
Deadlines at noon are such a stupid idea! They are also unfortunately rather common in Japan.
Honestly, just set them at midnight and accept anything that’s in the box / mail when you clear it the next day.
Fukuoka of course jesus christ lmao
This is the same shit (strict adherence to rules) that unnecessarily got a whole bunch of kids killed in the 2011 tsunami.
I think this is actually against Japanese culture. Look it made the news! If you can explain how something isnt your fault, you don’t need to follow the rule.