Blogs

Some time ago I took a look at robot English teachers into the classroom:

Three years after the collapse of Nova, there is finally some closure on the matter. Teachers are being paid after the Osaka High Court sentenced him to two years in prison for "corporate embezzlement."

Cram school operator, Eikoh Inc., has bought Shane English School.

Cram school operator Eikoh Inc. said Friday it has acquired Shane English School to strengthen its English-language education for elementary school children ahead of the planned compulsory teaching of the language for fifth- and sixth-graders.

When GEOS went under, I suggested that the event to the die-off of the dinosaurs where the large schools would give way to the uplifting and positive piece in The Japan Times on some thriving, smaller schools.(Pay no attention to the jaded guy he quotes throughout the article, though.)

Time to blow the cobwebs off this blog and talk about James McCrostie's article in the Japan Times two weeks ago on the General Union's scrap with Gaba.

The General Union says it has established a Gaba Branch and is accusing Gaba of lying when it stated in a financial report that there was no union and that labor relations were good. By all accounts in the article, this should be a slam dunk for the union, until you read this part:

(see thread for larger images):

Here come the school closures:

Nagoya-based investment fund Inayoshi Capital Partners said Thursday that about 50 of its 167 Geos foreign-language school branches will be renamed Nova X Geos after November.

ICP also said it will close down about 20 Geos branches whose business areas are overlapping with those of Nova.

The company said students of those schools will be relocated to the nearby Nova schools or receive lessons via Nova's unique video-phone system.

A couple of things in the news caught my eye that made me think Japan's approach to teaching English could be changing for the better.

From the :

The Japanese and U.S. governments are considering the establishment of a program that would send young Japanese teachers of English to the United States to improve their English ability, it has been learned.

After giving up GEOS and Nova and his job, Masaki Inayoshi is back in the saddle.

According to the Asahi shimbun, GEOS, Nova, and its juku cram schools were sold (again!) as of October 1 by G.communication to Inayoshi Capital Holdings, an investment firm set up by former G.communication chairman Masaki Inayoshi, who gave up his position in August.

If you're sick and tired of reading anything having to do with NOVA and Sahashi, you might want to stop reading right now.

Sahashi was back in court to have his appeal heard.

His lawyers still maintain that he is innocent and that his use of money from an employees' fund was to pay refunds and therefore does not amount to embezzlement. Sahashi was originally sentenced to three and half years for the crime.