The General Director of Oasis International School, Ms. Esmat Lamei, and her husband and the owner of the school, Dr. Anis, visited the University of Tokyo on February 1, 2016.  Oasis International School is the first private French school in Egypt and the first in the world authorized to teach in French the three programs of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO.)

Professor Tsuneyoshi gave a presentation titled “The Japanese Model of Whole Child Education: Tokkatsu” and explained the concept of educating the whole child, cognitive as well as social/emotional, and physical, guided by democratic principles, is the pillar of Japanese school education including the video of classroom activities for Tokkatsu. The visitors asked questions such as how Japanese teachers learn to teach Tokkatsu, how to evaluate Tokkatsu activities, and how to motivate teachers to engage in professional development.

The group also visited Miyamae Elementary School in Meguro City and observed the school activities. They ate school lunch with the first graders and observed how students organized themselves to participate in serving lunch and cleaning their classrooms. Afterwards, the principal Mr. Kashiwaba guided the group to watch extracurricular activities, the school farm, as well as the storage center for emergency. Since the school serves as the regional center for emergency evacuation, the storage for food and supply at the time of emergency is located there.

Ms. Esmat was impressed how the collaborative and holistic approach to educate students is embedded in Japanese school activities such as the sixth graders helping the first graders for cleaning, students taking initiatives for serving lunch and cleaning classrooms, and establishing partnership with parents and community through school farming. She said she wants to try the things she learned from the Japanese school.

（By Kanako Kusanagi, Project Researcher, Center for Excellence in School Education）