世論 What Japan Thinks

Recently goo Research conducted a survey into private junior and senior high school information systems for influenza outbreaks, quite a relevant survey with currently around 25% of all schools reporting class or whole school closures due to new-type ‘flu, as it’s known as in these parts.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 18th of October 2009 1,396 private middle and high schools from all over the country were contacted by post, with 220 schools responding, a pretty poor 15.8% response rate. The schools responding were 5.5% middle schools, 59.5% high schools, and 35.5% others, chiefly joint middle and high schools. The responding people were 7.3% school principals, 36.1% head teacher or vice-principals, 8.7% teachers, 1.4% school office staff, 44.3% health-related staff, and 2.3% others.

Also this week vaccination against swine flu has started in Japan, but despite having a national health service where most people pay just 30% of their bills, the vaccine is going to be paid for, at about 4,000 yen a shot, I think. Non-priority cases such as myself are at the end of the queue, so it will be next spring at least before I might be due one, but by that time I think enough people will have caught it (including myself?) making the jab unnecessary. If people start dropping dead in their hundreds this winter I’ll adjust my attitude, but for now I’m not interested.

Research results

Q1: Between April and September of 2009 has your school had any closures due to influenza? (Sample size=219, multiple answer)

Yes, one class closed	47.5%
Yes, whole school closed	21.9%
Yes, one year closed	16.4%
None of the above	37.9%

Q2: In this year up to September of 2009 how many times have you sent notices to parents and guardians regarding influenza? (Sample size=219)

Once	23.7%
Two to four times	59.8%
Five or more times	11.4%
Zero times	5.0%

Q3: What worries have you had regarding influenza epidemics this year? (Sample size=213, multiple answer)

Worries about students developing serious diseases	68.1%
Effort and responsibility to keep parents and guardians informed about influenza	55.9%
Reduction in the students’ concentration on schoolwork	37.6%
Other	16.4%

Q4: If the school has to close due to an influenza epidemic, how do you urgently inform families about that? (Sample size=214, multiple answer)

Message on school web site	58.4%
Telephone relay	52.3%
Each class teacher phones every family in his/her class	41.1%
Use mailing list to inform everyone at once	28.0%
By postcard, letter	17.8%
Teachers arbitrarily pass messages to everyone around them	9.8%
Other	7.5%
Don’t have any fixed methods for urgent information on school closure	3.3%

Q5: What disadvantages are there regarding using the school web site to inform parents? (Sample size=206, multiple answer)

Message won’t get to parents who don’t use the internet	92.7%
When a new message goes up there is no way to inform people that it has changed	44.7%
There is only a few teachers with the IT skills necessary to post the information	35.4%
Messages meant only for parents and guardians can bee seen by anyone	33.0%
Other	3.4%

Q6: What worries or disadvantages are there regarding using a telephone relay for urgent communication? (Sample size=191, multiple answer)

Relay stops halfway through	61.8%
Since one cannot predict how long the relay will take, one has to just keep waiting for it to finish	45.0%
The message gets garbled while getting passed down the chain	40.8%
Takes a long time for the relay to finish	39.8%
Other	8.4%

In the next question, group 1 most wanted a method for communication with students for when the school closed for about a week, and group 2 most wanted a method for urgent contact with parent when influenza broke out. I don’t know why there are two sample sizes of 167 and 175 people, but presumably there was an introductory question about how important people rated each of the two contact requirements.

Q7: What do you want the most as an urgent message distribution system? (Sample size=167 and 175)

	Group 1 N=167	Group 2 N=175
Homeroom teacher to contact all families individually	42.9%	25.7%
Two-way system for teachers to arbitrarily pass messages to people around them	26.3%	22.2%
System to allow sending email to the whole school at once	10.3%	28.7%
Telephone relay	5.7%	13.8%
Homeroom teacher to send email to individually-collected email addresses	4.6%	1.8%
Postcard, letter	2.9%	1.8%
Other	2.3%	0.6%

Q8: What disadvantages are there regarding using a mass emailing? (Sample size=206, multiple answer)

Dealing individually with families who don’t have email addresses	69.3%
Management of email addresses as personal information	65.9%
Cannot confirm mail has been opened, read	49.8%
Handling change of email addresses	46.3%
Sending to the wrong address	33.2%
Handling incorrectly-registed information	25.9%
Since there will only be a few messages per year, students, guardians may forget their ID and password	20.5%
Sending incorrect information in the email	17.1%
Other	5.4%