Defend school of hope -- Akahata editorial, March 14 (excerpts)

Claiming that the shortage of evening courses for junior high school violates the right to receive an education, 278 teachers of night schools and their supporters filed a complaint with the Japan Federation of Bar Associations.

In Japan, there are only 35 public junior high schools that provide evening courses even though a large number of citizens need to be educated there. It is said that more than 1,000,000 citizens grew up without attending junior high school. Many foreigners living in Japan are also in need of the evening courses of junior high schools.

Students attending evening courses in junior high schools are made up of different generations with a variety of backgrounds. Elderly people, who could not attend junior high school because of war or poverty, finally have a chance to study by taking the evening courses. After failing to finish regular schools, many young people attend night schools without having to suffer from the stress caused by a competitive classroom atmosphere.

The evening programs of junior high schools also accept former war orphans who returned to Japan several decades after they were left behind in China at the end of World War II, as well as Korean residents who were forced to come to Japan under Japan's colonial rule. Many foreigners working in Japan or married to Japanese citizens have attended the evening courses of junior high school.

Japan's constitution guarantees every citizen a right to compulsory education. The International Covenants on Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child state every child's right to education. Japan must defend the rights of its citizens.

However, the Japanese government has failed to fulfill its role. It has insisted that local governments must be solely responsible for running evening courses of junior high school in their areas.

Accepting various people and providing them with education free of competition, the evening program of junior high school is called, "school of hope." It is the government's responsibility to establish more "schools of hope" to secure citizen's rights to education. (end)