First Virtual School for Internet-Addicted Teens in Japan

With the growing population of internet-addicted teens in Japan, the country is now working towards opening the world’s first ever virtual school. This school will be opened with the aim of catering to the growing needs of the teens in Japan and the ones who find it difficult to function normally in the real world.

The Cybernation School

With the increasing importance of education, the Cybernation School on the outskirts of Tokyo will allow the dropout students to complete their secondary education at their own convenience and comfort of their own bedroom. The school works with the motto of making the Smartphone as the student’s classroom. The school is expected to be launched and started from April 2015 and it has already received nearly 1000 inquiries regarding the first 300 seats, which are available. The school is planning to allow their students to create their own avatars to attend the necessary classes and they can also make friends with other avatars of their classmates. The home works completed and submitted by the students will be checked the teacher’s avatars.

According to the reports published in the Times, the virtual classes for the students will be made of pre-recorded lectures, which will be streamed online. The students will be able to collect necessary study points and gain knowledge that will help them in graduating after 3 years.

It has been observed in Japan that pupils fail to attend to school due to many psychological reasons in 2013. The number is as high as 120,000. Most of these pupils are the recluses or the hikikomori, who find it difficult to make and develop human relationships and prefer to have an anonymous virtual reality online. According to the government statistics, there are nearly 700,000 hikikomori in Japan as of 2010. These people voluntarily take the decision of staying alone and away from society and public.

Meisei High School

Meisei Cyber, which is an initiative of the private Meisei High School in Chiba region, will also offer tests and classes through computer, tablets, and computers in a three-year high school curriculum. Similar to that of Cybernation school, even Meisei school will allow students to study at the comfort of their home, but the students will still have attend the regular school for 4 days every year. Students will be able to consult with friends regarding their students and enjoy their student’s life at the same time. The students will be able to play games through a farm and the fishing spots provided for them.

According to Kota Hasegawa, Meisei spokesperson, this virtual school will be a blessing for the students’, who are scared of attending day school to earn a graduate degree. Although the school agrees that face-to-face education and communication is vital, they are taking another approach to reach out to the students through online education and communication.

As far as online education and learning are concerned, it is not a new phenomenon is Japan. Japan is thinking about giving all the opportunities to educate their children.