The problem of “child waiting list” is big social phenomenon in the world nowadays. Unexceptionally, this problem has undermined child welfare in Japan for a long time and the situation is the worst in the countries joined in OECD.
The problem of “child on waiting list of kindergarten” in Japan
If you are pregnant in Japan and take things as easy as you can find a licensed kindergarten for your child to enter very smoothly, you just reconsider the easy-going idea. If you apply for admission of a kindergarten without any knowledge and strategy, your expectation will end in failure with high probability
Whether or not your child can enter is visualized to some extent based on index system for admission policy provided by each municipality. Knowing how much points you have at the moment means you can take measures strategically on winning the vacant post of licensed kindergarten admission in early stage without being added on waiting lists.
So you should fully understand this admission point (index) system and prepare for your child’s admission as early as possible to be accepted.
Contents
- 1 Admission policy and point system of licensed kindergarten
- 2 Let’s calculate how much points you get
- 3 Grasp how much points you have at the moment and refer to your data of the last year
- 4 Work out your strategy
Admission policy and point system of licensed kindergarten
Screening to enter a licensed kindergarten introduces point system to domestic circumstance.
The feature of this system is that the higher the sum of points you score, the higher probability you are accepted by a kindergarten becomes.
Understand “Adjustive index” “Standard index” “Priority”
Points for admissive screening is called “index” and there are basically three classification. Index details are different depending on the municipality. You must check the website of municipality in the region where you live. However, the following three classification is common at every municipality.
- Adjustive index
- Standard index
- Priority
Points allotted to a household is a value pulled out by adding or deducting adjustive points from the sum of standard points of mother’s and father’s.
If your “allotted points” are as much as other one’s, a kindergarten will accept applicants with high priority.
Standard index
Standard index is points allocated to basic information of child’s supporters something like health status (illness, handicapped), working situation(full timer worker, student of university)
Adjustive index
Adjustive index is points to be added or deducted adjustively depending on the domestic circumstance.
For example
- One of your children has already entered to a kindergarten and hope to leave the other one in → add point
- You are a full time worker and have ever used a babysitter or non-licensed kindergarten → add point
- You have your parents living together → deduct point
Priority
“Priority” is a certain definition to decide children to give permission to enter when there are two or more people having the same points. Depending on the municipality, priority standard is not disclosed in public.
For example
- Prioritize a person who have lived in the region for a long time
- Prioritize a person with low income
Let’s calculate how much points you get
Let’s calculate the points tutorially based on admission policy published by Setagaya-ku, Tokyo as an example.
Standard Index
| Employed and self-employed | Ordinarily work 5 or more days and 40 or more hours a week | Until before going to elementary school | |||
If both you and your husband or your wife work as a full time position, you and your partner must be corresponding to the first condition of “Ordinarily work 5 or more days and 40 or more hours a week”. Therefore, allotted standard index will be 100, which is the sum of your point 50 and your partner’s point 50.
Standard index of kindergartens in Setagaya
Adjustive Index
| Changing kindergarten with a particular reason (bother and sister go to another kindergarten separately, too far to commute, job transference, job changing, moving, etc… ) | ||
| You end up needing to nurse not only your mother and father but also your grand mother and grand father living in the same house, and you continuously use emergency nursery service for over 2 months | ||
| Your child enters a licensed kindergarten and your child’s grant approval class changes No.1 approval to No.2 approval and you hope to leave your child in the same kindergarten continuously. | ||
| Your child graduated from the final age class of a kindergarten located in Setagaya, that limits the maximum age of children to look after and you apply for another kindergarten in Setagaya again (except for the case you already have a nursery facility for your child to look after.) | ||
| There is no reasonable evidence of your working history and income achievement towards declaration on an application. | ||
| Siblings of applicant’s child (including transfer child) already go to a kindergarten or are under application at the same time. |
For example, if some of your children already go to a kindergarten. 5 point of “adjustive point” is added up. It is called “siblings point” and its system is different depending on the municipality.
Sometimes, adjustive points are added up in only the case you hope to leave your child in a kindergarten that your child’s siblings already go to but no point is added up in the case you hope to leave your child in other kindergarten than that your other children already go to.
Adjustive index of kindergartens in Setagaya
Priority
| Priority stages | Details |
|---|---|
| First | A household that corresponds No.26 of adjustive index condition |
| Second | A household with high nursery standard index |
| Third | Priority in ascending order of points |
| Fourth | A household that has paid for nursery service for a long time |
| Fifth | A household that has done resident registration and lived in Setagaya for a long time |
| Sixth |
Priority of individual situation (in descending order)
|
Two or more applicants having the same points will be ranked by a priority list. Even if two applicants belong to a household in which both husband and wife work and have the same amount points, if either of one of two applicants has ever used non-licensed kindergarten, the applicant is given priority to entering a kindergarten over the applicant who has never used yet. This example corresponds to the fifth stage of the above table.
Grasp how much points you have at the moment and refer to your data of the last year
You have to estimate how much points you can get in advance to know whether your child can be accepted by a kindergarten.
You just collect the data of the last year related to this point system such as certificate of employment to know how many hours you worked a week averagely last year and certificate that tells your domestic circumstance. Please note the following two things simply.
- Knowing the nursery point system of a municipality where you live
- Estimating how much points you get from your data of the last year
Just make good use of your collecting data as criteria to work out strategy of how you can leave your child in a kindergarten without being added on child waiting list.
Knowing how much point your household can get
You somehow get a brochure of entrance guidance of a kindergarten of the last year or find a page written about the point system from the website of a municipality and calculate how much point you have at the moment.
The following conditions are quite changeable depending on the household circumstance.
Standard index
- Working in an office (not in your house)
- Self-employed, Freelance
- Planing to go to school (university, college, vocational school)
- Going to school now (university, college, vocational school)
What you pay attention to is that the condition of “full time worker” differs depending on the municipality. For example, the amount woking hour per day accepted as full time worker is different. Some municipality defines a full time worker should work for more than 7 hours a day and Some municipality defines a full time worker should work for more than 8 hours a day.
In case of self-employment or freelance, standard point can be different wether you work in your house or in an office.
Conditions which can be beneficial to “priority” and “adjustive point”
- If you have one of your children already going to a kindergarten
- If you have ever left your child in non-licensed kindergarten or babysitter’s care
- How many years you have lived in a municipality
- If you are on a transfer with your child away from your family
Conditions which can be not beneficial to “priority” and “adjustive point”
- If you have your mother or your father or relatives living together
- If your working period at each company you’ve worked so far is very short or you haven’t ever worked before
- If you don’t live in a municipality in which you applied for admission of a kindergarten.
Mentioning repeatedly, conditions and standards or criteria of this point system can be different depending on the municipality. In some municipalities, employee and self-employer receive pretty much the same treatment, but in other municipalities, the treatment of both positions are clearly distinguished.
You have to carefully learn the point system of a municipality where you live.
Knowing exactly how much point you need to have to be admitted by a kindergarten
Information such as
- how much point is passing line to be admitted
- how much point is rejection line to be rejected
- application competitive ratio
Is basically provided by a municipality. There are some municipalities that disclose the date of the previous year about these things on a website. However, there are also municipalities that no information is disclosed publicly.
First thing first, you should make a call to a city hall or equivalent executive agency to make sure if there is such a information beforehand.
Work out your strategy
- Knowing point system of a municipality where you live
- Estimating how much points you get from your data of the last year
These two points are the basic in considering and planning which kindergarten can be admitted.
You always care about these two points and improve your living as checking these two against each indexes (standard index, adjustive index, priority) disclosed by a municipality.
Narrow down your choices of kindergartens
If you leave your child in a licensed kindergarten by all means without being added on child waiting list, you should target a kindergarten with low competitive ratio.
Thus, compromising your requirement regarding kindergarten’s location and small kindergarten that limits final age of children is a shortcut.
A kindergarten located far away from a station and a small kindergarten that limits age of graduation as two years old tend to have low competitive ratio.
If you can tolerate these inconveniences, it is one of your strategy that you you choose a kindergarten that has a few applicants
Exploring the possibility of points adding
It is not very easy solution but you can have a strategy that you earn points by leaving your child in a non-licensed kindergarten or babysitter’s care as one of conditions for people to earn points easily.
If you return to your job from maternity leave as early as possible and leave your child to a non-licensed kindergarten, you can expect point adding and priority for admission of your child can be raised.
However, depending on the municipality, conditions are different. You need to check it out beforehand.
Having your sights set on a non-licensed kindergarten
If you know you can’t be admitted by a kindergarten, you also need to consider a non-licensed kindergarten at the same time. Choosing good non-licensed kindergarten, you need to check if the kindergarten is good for your child.
Please refer to the following criteria when you choose a kindergarten.
If you target admission in April, admission guidance is normally held in the previous Autumn. There is possibility that indexes standards can be changed on the year. Check renewal information frequently on a website of a municipality.
Checking list of a kindergarten
Check lightness of each room
You firstly check lightness of each room of a kindergarten. You have two objective to do this. The first is seeing atmosphere of a kindergarten. If rooms are dim, it can directly influence on people’s emotion and working motivation. If teacher is not energetic, how can your child grow with energy there? Do you want to leave your child in such a place? If you want your child to grow positively and cheerfully in a kindergarten, you don’t miss this point when you check.
The second is seeing cleanliness. Check if cheating room’s dirtiness by darkening a room. Even if room’s dimness has nothing to do with room’s cleanliness, how can they find dust to collect at everyplace? This is the proof that they don’t care about cleanliness of rooms.
Check the number of licensed nursery teachers and the frequency of teachers coming and going
Here, you should see if there are teachers having nursery qualification with rich knowledge about education of children and see the frequency of teacher coming and going.
The best solution is to ask these questions to the principal of a kindergarten directly. You just ask if the number of licensed teachers is sufficient to look after every children and how frequent teacher’s turnaround is.
These are very important standard to inspect if kindergarten is run healthily. A kindergarten with a big turnaround of nursery teachers has possibility to lack necessary man power to look after children.
Check the stance of countermeasure against disaster
Check if there are emergency doors and fire extinguishers. If you can’t find those, you just ask where those are. Likewise, ask about countermeasure against the case a suspicious person sneaks in.
There are so many non-licensed kindergartens installed in second or upper floor of a building. In that case, if you are explained the stance of emergency situation and how people can escape from the building in minute detail before you ask questions, the kindergarten is worth trusting.
If you have questions about the stance of countermeasure against emergency situation, try to ask as much as you are convinced because it indirectly connects to protecting your child from unforeseen disaster and criminal.
Check frequency of letting children watch TV
Letting children watch TV is a quite easy manner to make children quite. Children can be controllable when they watch TV. However, a kindergarten is a place to learn sociality through various actives for children to grow up. Because of annoying noisiness of children, choosing easily to let children watch TV in order to keep tranquility of rooms by teacher’s one-sided own convenience is nothing but laziness.
Are you a mother who let your child keep watching TV on and on for a long time because he/she annoys you with noisiness?
If teachers let children watch TV in a kindergarten, you just ask what purpose they have to let children watch TV from the viewpoint of child care and child education.