日本的影子教育:聚焦高中阶段的课外补习支出

Shadow Education in Japan:Juku and Yobiko at the High School Level

对于日本学生而言,选择接受私人辅导补习是极为普遍的学习方式。许多日本学生在正规的学校教育之外接受私塾的课外补习,或是前往预科学校备战大学升学考试。长期以来,这些课外补习机构被视为严酷的应试竞争和学业要求的重要符号;然而近二十年来,由于适龄人口的减少,大学升学竞争状况已发生了巨大的变化。本文利用全国范围内随机抽样的888对高中生及其母亲的调查数据,利用Tobit回归模型,深入考察日本高中阶段课外补习的私人支出及其影响因素。研究发现,并非所有学生都选择课外补习,家庭经济状况和兄弟姐妹数对课外补习的支出具有显著的影响。尽管学生人数减少,大学升学选拔竞争性降低,但学生个人的课外补习支出依然呈现不均衡的格局。

Private tutoring is common among Japanese students.After formal schooling,many Japanese students attend private cramming schools called juku,or private educational institutions focusing on students' preparation for college entrance examinations called yobiko.Stevenson and Baker used the metaphor of shadow education to describe this group of educational activities outside formal schooling in Japan.These private schools have historically been regarded as symbols of extremely severe examination conditions and requirements.However,entrance examination conditions have changed over the last twenty years due to decreasing student numbers.This paper examines private expenditure on these non-formal educational activities at the senior high school level.888 pairs of high school students and their mothers were randomly sampled nationwide.Since not all students attended private institutions,and the dependent variable is left-censored,tobit regression models were estimated.Results indicated that household income and the number of siblings significantly affect tutoring expenditure,independent of high school characteristics.Although the competitiveness of entrance examinations may be diminishing due to decreasing student numbers,access to private tuition remains unequal.