education

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Government is going to ruin schools by adversely revising Education Law
- Akahata editorial, May 25

The House of Representatives on May 24 began discussing the government bill to adversely revise the Fundamental Law of Education at its Special Committee meeting attended by Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo in his questioning talked about what will happen to students and schools if the Fundamental Law of Education is thoroughly revised as proposed, the very point the public needs to know.

Imposition of patriotism and accelerating competition

Shii expressed concern that the proposed revision might force the nation's teachers to evaluate children's attachment to the nation in report cards. In 2002, the Fukuoka City Board of Education instructed elementary school teachers to include in report cards such an evaluation but withdrew it in 2003 due to strong public criticism.

Although Koizumi avoided admitting that making such evaluations amounts to infringing on "the constitutional freedom of conscience," he was obliged to state that it is difficult to evaluate a child's "attachment to the nation."

Recently, there was a media report revealing that many teachers in Fukuoka at the time faced serious difficulties in finding appropriate ways of assessing the children's patriotism in their report cards.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2002 included the item of patriotism for evaluation in its teaching guidelines. Why did the ministry impose such an item that makes even the prime minister admit that it is difficult to evaluate? And now, this item has been included in the bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education. The bill, if enacted, would require teachers and children to "achieve" questionable goals.

That even Koizumi finds it 'difficult' to evaluate children's patriotism exposes the grave danger of taking legislative steps to this end and exposes the major defects in the bill.

Another matter of concern is a simultaneous national academic aptitude test which the government plans to give soon after the bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education is enacted. Shii quoted the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child that recommended the Japanese government to "take appropriate steps to prevent and combat excessive stress and school phobia in view of the highly competitive educational system" as a result of local achievement tests, and criticized the government bill.

For example, in Tokyo where the academic aptitude test was introduced together with the publication of school rankings, and abolition of school districts for elementary and junior high schools, there were three wards in which some schools had no enrollment this year. How will this fact traumatize the pupils of these schools when they know that no entrance ceremonies will take place in April? Prime Minister Koizumi retorted, saying, "I don't think that aptitude tests are to blame."

JCP Chair Shii did not deny achievement tests in general. He pointed out that a uniform academic aptitude test will force students and schools to be ranked and divided into "winners" and "losers," an undesirable phenomenon from an educational point of view that is actually taking place at schools.

The government plans to carry out a national academic aptitude test in the next school year. The government has stated that the national test is aimed at "building up competitive minds" (document submitted by then Education Minister Nakayama Nariaki to the government Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy on Nov. 4, 2004).

It is obvious that the planned adverse revision of the Fundamental Law of Education with these aims behind it runs counter to the public call for education that helps every child acquire basic academic standards.

Fully discuss the bill and scrap it

Refuting the government argument that blames the Fundamental Law of Education for educational decay and juvenile crimes, the public has begun to raise the objection that the government argument is "absurd" (The Kochi Shimbun, April 14).

The government has failed to explain which provisions of the present Fundamental Law of Education are problematic and need to be amended. This reveals that the various issues concerning children and education do not originate from the Fundamental Law of Education but from the Liberal Democratic Party politics that disregards the Fundamental Law of Education's principle that the aim of education is the full development of the personality of each child as an individual.

The bill to adversely revise the Fundamental Law of Education to impose "patriotism" on children in violation of the Constitution and to expose children to competition must be thoroughly discussed, then scrapped.
- Akahata, May 25, 2006