JET program teachers pledge assistance to Tohoku

Foreign former teachers at Japanese schools have pledged to increase their assistance to areas hit by the March 11th disaster.

Twenty alumni of the Japan Exchange and Teaching, or JET, program met in Tokyo on Friday.

The participants from 10 countries all served as assistant language teachers at Japanese schools under the government-sponsored program that began in 1987.

A former teacher from the United States pledged about 6-million yen, or about 80,000 dollars, collected from friends for the disaster-hit areas. She said she hopes the money will help in organizing supplementary classes for junior high school students and cover college exam fees for high school seniors.

Another American who served as an assistant teacher in Akita Prefecture is now working as a volunteer at a public shelter there.

He said there was little that he alone could do when he began the activity, but that he was hugely helped by the network of JET program teachers.

Two American assistant teachers died in the March tsunami, in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures.

Friday, October 21, 2011 15:51 +0900 (JST)