September 22 & 23, 2011
An Osaka public high school teachers’ union on September 22 handed over to the Osaka governor’s party, “Osaka Ishin-no Kai” 5,722 signatures in support of a petition calling for retraction of bills aiming to control education and prefectural personnel.
The “Osaka Ishin-no Kai” headed by Osaka Governor Hashimoto Toru on the previous day submitted to the prefectural assembly the controversial bills, “fundamental ordinance on education” and “fundamental ordinance on prefectural personnel.”
Both bills stipulate that teachers and prefectural government workers will be fired if they question their supervisor’s orders three times or are ranked low in personnel performance evaluations for the second year in a row.
The petition stated that the bills “trample on the fundamental principle of democratic education and are designed to control education.”
The union collected 5,722 signatures out of all 8,500 full-time teachers and school staff, with the exclusion of principals and vice principals, in just three weeks after the “Osaka Ishin-no Kai” expressed their intention to submit the bills.
The union chair pointed out, “The bills will open the way for undue political intervention in education and will destroy education as we know it.” Regarding the fact that the bills state that any public high school under-enrolled for three consecutive years will be closed down, the chair said, “The closing of public high schools will threaten children’s right to learn.”
The “Osaka Ishin-no Kai” headed by Osaka Governor Hashimoto Toru on the previous day submitted to the prefectural assembly the controversial bills, “fundamental ordinance on education” and “fundamental ordinance on prefectural personnel.”
Both bills stipulate that teachers and prefectural government workers will be fired if they question their supervisor’s orders three times or are ranked low in personnel performance evaluations for the second year in a row.
The petition stated that the bills “trample on the fundamental principle of democratic education and are designed to control education.”
The union collected 5,722 signatures out of all 8,500 full-time teachers and school staff, with the exclusion of principals and vice principals, in just three weeks after the “Osaka Ishin-no Kai” expressed their intention to submit the bills.
The union chair pointed out, “The bills will open the way for undue political intervention in education and will destroy education as we know it.” Regarding the fact that the bills state that any public high school under-enrolled for three consecutive years will be closed down, the chair said, “The closing of public high schools will threaten children’s right to learn.”
