Test scores are serious business
It’s been a top news story in Japan for the last week, but if you’re outside of Japan you probably haven’t heard about it:
A Japanese boy burned down his home, killing his stepmother and two younger siblings, for fear his parents would find out he had lied about his score on an English test.
The 16-year-old, whose name has not been released, is thought to have set fire to the house in Nara, western Japan, and left his stepmother to die along with his seven-year-old brother and five-year-old sister, domestic media reports said on Saturday.
The boy’s parents had been due to attend a meeting with teachers about his exam results that same day, reports said. The teenager told police his father, a doctor, had put him under extreme pressure over his academic performance, Kyodo news agency said.
The boy was attending a very prestigious high school, one which sends over 100 students a year to top national universities. He had been #1 in his graduating class at junior high, but in the competitive environment of an elite high school he was no longer the best. His father insisted that he get top scores, making the boy study until 2:00 or 3:00AM many nights. The studying took place in a room that was nicknamed the ICU (Intensive Care Unit). The boy seemed to sacrifice all enjoyment in his life for the sake of test scores. Unfortunately, he was unable to reach his goals.
His latest test results were not so great, so he decided to kill his family before they found out about them. After starting a fire that killed his stepmother and siblings, he fled to Kyoto. At some point he must have remembered that the World Cup was on TV, so he decided to break into somebody’s house and watch it. Shortly after the break-in he was arrested by police.
I really don’t know what to make of this incident. Certainly the boy is responsible for a horrible crime. Was he driven insane by the pressures placed on him by his family? Did Japan’s messed-up education system mess him up?
