International Higher Ed News
Univ. of Mississippi to Open Japanese Saturday School
By Associated Press
Jul 16, 2007, 13:32

OXFORD Miss.
The University of Mississippi plans to open a Japanese Saturday school for children whose families are moving from Japan to work at a Toyota plant that is being built in Blue Springs.

Educators say the school, which will be established at Della Davidson Elementary in Oxford, will draw Japanese students from all over northern Mississippi when it opens in April of next year. The school will allow Japanese children whose parents work at the Blue Springs Toyota plant or its suppliers to keep up with their home country.

The children will attend regular classes during the week and take the Japanese lessons on Saturdays.

It will be the second such school in Mississippi a Japanese Saturday school opened in Jackson a few years ago when Nissan built a plant in Madison County.

Lynne Murchison, director of credit programs at the University of Mississippi's Division of Outreach, wrote the proposal for the Japanese Saturday school in Oxford before Toyota made its announcement earlier this year.

"The Saturday school was one of the elements that Toyota wanted," Murchison said. "We have been told (by the Japanese consulate in New Orleans) that we may have as many as 40 families moving into the Oxford area by December."

In Toyota's $323.9 million incentive package, $750,000 has been reserved to support the Japanese Saturday school in Oxford, said Mississippi Development Authority spokeswoman Jennifer Spann.

Toyota's new plant is expected to employ 2,000 when it opens in 2010 and later expand to 4,000 employees.

The Saturday school is scheduled to open in April because that aligns with the traditional Japanese school schedule.

The school will primarily teach math and language arts in the younger grades with social studies added as students get older. Murchison said she doesn't expect as many high school students, according to a http://www.clarionledger.com article.

The university has a challenge in finding teachers who speak both Japanese and English so it plans to offer full assistantships, which include tuition and a living stipend, to certified teachers from Japan who want to earn a master's degree in teaching English as a second language. Murchison estimates they'll need nine teachers.

Information from: The Clarion-Ledger, http://www.clarionledger.com

- Associated Press