education2

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

Don't ruin schools by adversely revising Education Law: JCP and teachers union

Opposition is growing rapidly throughout the nation for the bill to adversely revise the Fundamental Law of Education to be foiled.

On May 26 at the House of Representatives Special Committee meeting, Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo said that the government bill does not contain any provision that guarantees to restrain the state from interfering with school curriculum, even though the Supreme Court ruling on the academic aptitude test stated that state interference with education must be restrained, which Education Minister Kosaka Kenji had to recognize. "Clearly, the new bill is designed to allow state control on education with unlimited state power and the bill must be scrapped," Shii demanded.

On May 24 Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro in the Diet admitted that it is difficult to evaluate children's patriotism in report cards. This was in answer to JCP Chair Shii's questioning regarding Fukuoka City's attempt which turned out to be a failure. Following Shii's questioning, 52 schools in four cities and two towns in Saitama Prefecture, and six out of seven schools in Ushiku City in Ibaraki Prefecture began to review the evaluation of students' "patriotism" which they had carried out based on the new government guidelines for teaching.

On a TV program aired on May 28, the footage of the exchange between Shii and Koizumi was shown, and a commentator said that once a new education law is enacted, schools will be dominated by an emulation of "loyalty."

In Oita Prefecture in Kyushu, about 4,000 citizens, including teachers and lawyers, held an urgent rally to oppose the new education bill. Twenty organizations co-sponsored this event.

Lawyer Okamura Masaatsu as a rally coordinator stated that the bill is aimed at reviving the education of prewar days so that the state can easily control the public.

In Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan, about 650 people held a "Stop the adverse revision of the Fundamental Law of Education" rally. About 200 people in Gifu listened to a Diet report held by the JCP, and the Yamaguchi Prefectural High School Teachers Union is using a campaign car to call for opposition to the bill. In Nagoya City, teachers held a rally for the first time in more than twenty years.

Petitioning to the Diet is taking place everyday. On May 26, about 200 high school teachers from a national liaison organization from unions of different national affiliation--the All Japan Teachers and Staff Union (ZENKYO) and the Japan Teachers' Union (Nikkyoso)--carried out a sit-in in front of the House of Councilors. About 200 Nikkyoso members took part in a similar action in front of the House of Representatives. They shouted in unison, "We don't want to prepare our pupils for war."
- Akahata, May 27, 29, and 30, 2006