Secure right to education for all children

Japan Press Weekly

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

Secure right to education for all children
Akahata editorial

Regarding a government-proposed bill to make high schools tuition-free now under Diet deliberation, the government mentioned the possibility of excluding Korean schools from the tuition-free program. Not only Korean school staff, students, and parents but also civil groups called on the government to not make a discriminatory decision against Korean children. Also, international organizations such as a U.N. committee against racial discrimination expressed their concern.

Don’t exclude Korean schools!

The government designed the program for securing the right to education for all high school students, so it will be unacceptable if the program causes another type of discrimination in defiance of its aim. It violates the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Culture Rights and the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Child that the Japanese government ratified.

Providing education to foreign children living in Japan is the Japanese government’s duty as a member of the international community. In particular, Korean children are born and raised in Japan, and many of them will live in their whole lives in Japan. So, it is essential for the government to guarantee them the right to education.

The U.N. Convention on the Rights of Child states that “education shall be directed to development of respect for the child’s parents, his or her own cultural identity, language and values, for the national values of the country in which the child is living, the country from which he or she may originate, and for civilizations different from his or her own.”

The government should admit that foreign-run schools, including Korean schools, play an essential role in providing education, and should treat such schools the same as Japanese private schools. The government’s program must include Korean schools.

Prime Minister Hatotama Yukio uses the lack of diplomatic ties with North Korea as an excuse to claim that there is “no way to know what Korean students are leaning at schools,” hinting that he would exclude these schools from the new program. It is unreasonable for him to not face reality and make the unsubstantiated claim that Korean schools are questionable organizations.

Korean schools in Japan are the same as Japanese elementary, junior high, and high schools. Except for history and language classes, these Korean schools adopt the same curriculum based on the Japanese education ministry’s guidelines. They also register as schools with local government offices and report what they teach to children of Korean descent. Local governments accept their registration and provide subsidies to those schools. Most Japanese universities consider Korean school graduates to be the same as graduates of Japanese high schools and allow them to take entrance examinations.

The central government has taken numerous discriminatory measures against Korean schools over the years. Thanks to the tenacious movement created by Koreans and Korean descent living in Japan and their Japanese supporters, local governments now provide grants to Korean schools and Korean school graduates can take entrance exams to Japanese colleges and universities.

This year marks the centennial anniversary of Japan’s “annexation of Korea.” Children leaning in Korean schools are descendants of those who were forced to come to Japan as forced laborers under Japan’s colonial rule. It is essential for the Japanese government to express remorse for its past colonial rule of Korea and work hard to build friendly relations with neighboring countries. Including Korean schools in the tuition-free program will be an important first step in this effort.

Abduction is not a reason

Some members in the Cabinet argue that because of the abduction issue of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents, the government should exempt Korean schools from the new program. Korean children living in Japan and learning at schools in Japan have nothing to do with the abduction issue. Retaliatory treatment against these children is out of the question.

The Hatoyama Cabinet has promised that it “will comprehensively settle all the pending issues including the abduction issue and the nuclear and missile development programs” in accordance with the Japan-DPRK Pyongyang Declaration. The exclusion of Korean schools runs counter to this government stance.

- Akahata, March 11, 2010