Struggling to clean up playgrounds contaminated with radiation, kindergartens in Fukushima Prefecture have seen applications and enrollment plummet following the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Struggling to clean up playgrounds contaminated with radiation, kindergartens in Fukushima Prefecture have seen applications and enrollment plummet following the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
According to a prefectural association of private kindergartens, 18 percent, or 3,436, of the 19,193 children enrolled as of April had either withdrawn or stopped attending by Sept. 1.
New applicants are also not signing up.
The 22 public kindergartens in Fukushima city accepted their first round of applications between Oct. 3 and 7 for enrollment next spring. Only 398 applications were submitted for the 660 places for children who will turn 4 in the next school year, a decrease of 24 percent over last year. A second round for accepting applications on Oct. 21 and 24 only led to 13 additional children signing up.
"Some families may have evacuated to other communities, and there also may be families looking after their children at home," a city official said.
The situation facing private kindergartens is even more severe.
The 20 private kindergartens in Fukushima city held a child-rearing forum in September with booths set up to explain the characteristics of each facility to parents.
In a typical year, about 650 parents attend the event, but only about 200 showed up this year.
An official with the association for private kindergartens said many schools only received about one-third the number of applications of a typical year.
A private kindergarten in Koriyama began accepting applications on Oct. 1. In past years, the allotment for the following spring is filled within a few hours. But this year, only 40 applications had been received as of Oct. 14 for the 70 openings.
At two kindergartens in Iwaki operated by the same educational entity, one had fewer than half the applications of last year while the other had a decrease of about 20 percent. Interviews and orientation planned for early November will be delayed.
One major problem facing kindergartens is decontaminating playground soil polluted with radiation.
While taxpayer money will be used to remove all surface soil at public kindergartens, private kindergartens will receive different subsidy amounts depending on the level of radiation found in the ground.
If less than 1 microsievert per hour of radiation is detected, the subsidy covers only half the cost of decontamination, and the kindergarten has to pay the remainder.
One kindergarten in Koriyama spent about 2 million yen ($25,400) before summer vacation to remove surface soil and decontaminate the facility.
"While asking ourselves if we should continue to operate here, we are spending every day seeking out ways to help those people who still remain," the head of the kindergarten said.