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Japanese editorial excerpts -3-

Japan Policy & Politics, April 21, 2008

TOKYO, April 21 Kyodo

Selected editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

BASIC EDUCATION PLAN (IHT/Asahi as translated from the Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun's editorial published April 19)

This is not what was promised. The policy report submitted Friday by the Central Council for Education, an advisory group to the minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology, was supposed to be aimed at putting together the very first basic plan for promotion of education, but the report released hasn't turned out quite as expected.

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Based on the Fundamental Law of Education revised in 2006, the government is to adopt a new basic education promotion plan. The aim is to put education first as the nation's foundation, to envision how our educational system should be in 10 years time and to create an agenda for the next five years to achieve that vision.

Schools and classrooms face many pressing issues. Especially serious is the deterioration in student academic achievements. It is imperative to work out how to bridge the gap among students. Another key issue is how students should be encouraged to think on their own. To do these things, it is essential to increase the number of teachers and improve their quality of teaching.

That is why all eyes were on how the council would address such key issues as increasing the number of teachers. Compared with other developed nations, the Japanese government spends a lower percentage on education. Investing in education is unavoidable, however, if this nation is to upgrade the level of education.

To our surprise, the council's policy report proposed nothing specific on this point.

Yet in its earlier report on revising the new school curriculum guideline, the council clearly stated that increasing the number of classes and content taught would be possible only if necessary conditions, such as increasing the number of teachers, were met.

The council's latest report clearly abandoned the previous aim of providing the funding and necessary requirements for more classes. As it stands today, schools and teachers simply can't handle any more, no matter what the council demands of them, without more funding.

This report reads as though a council from the Ministry of Finance wrote it.

No wonder council member Yoshihiro Katayama, the former governor of Tottori, is angry. ''This report is too close to what the finance authorities would want it to be. We have no need of a council report if all it is going to be is the product of inter-ministerial negotiations,'' Katayama protested.

Apparently, talks between the education ministry and the Finance Ministry took place, which effectively resulted in any new program that had no prospect of financial backing being shut out. However, if policy reports are to be purely based on what bureaucrats want, then why bother asking expert councils to debate the topic?

The educational system is in danger. If the government and ruling parties truly recognize this, they will dump this policy report and instead come up with an ambitious funding plan to cover the basic education needs.

(April 21)

Government Industry

Japanese editorial excerpts -3-

Japan Policy & Politics, April 21, 2008

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