Flood-Hit Okayama Cram School Opened to Outsiders

July 15, 2018

Kurashiki, Okayama Pref.- A cram school in the Mabi district in the city of Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, is now open to not only its students but also other children who cannot attend their schools due to recent heavy rain that mainly struck western Japan.

Following the rain disaster, the city's education board decided to close a total of 15 elementary and junior high schools and kindergartens in Mabi through next Thursday. Summer holidays will start soon after, on Friday.

Some local students cannot use their damaged school textbooks, while others are having few opportunities to see their friends as they are staying at shelters.

Isao Iwasaki, 64, head of the cram school, run by Meiko Network Japan Co. has been worried that children of the suspended schools will be unable to study for a long period as their schools will not restart at least until September.

Floodwater reached the second floor of the cram school in the Yata area in the Mabi district, and muddy whiteboards, desks and teaching materials were found scattered on the first floor after the water receded.

The damage on the second floor, where the cram school's office is located, was relatively small.

The school reopened on Thursday, four days after the floodwater receded. The resumption came after Iwasaki and students cleaned up the facility and procured desks, notebooks and other items from nearby cram schools.

Iwasaki decided to open the cram school to children other than its students as well after asking himself: "What can I do for the community? There are children who are unable to study at shelters." He also thought about parents who must be concerned about their children being unable to study.

On Saturday, a child who is not a student of the cram school visited the school for the first time and studied there.

Kosei Nakamura, a 15-year-old junior high school third-grader, studied English using a textbook offered by the cram school.

"It's been a while since I last studied," Nakamura said, noting, "My school will remain closed and there'll be no club activities for the time being." Jiji Press