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HOME  > Past issues  > 2013 June 19 - 25  > Intrusive moral education part of anti-school bullying law
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2013 June 19 - 25 [EDUCATION]

Intrusive moral education part of anti-school bullying law

June 20 & 22, 2013

On June 21, a bill for prevention of school bullying was passed in the House of Councilors and enacted by a majority vote by the Liberal Democratic, Komei, Democratic and Your parties. The Japanese Communist Party voted against it.

The Upper and Lower Houses used only four hours for deliberations and held no public hearing.

JCP Lower House member Miyamoto Takeshi on the same day issued a statement on this matter.

The statement points out that the main idea of the law is to prevent students from bullying by threatening them with punishment. It would affect not only children’s moral development but also their relationship with teachers and will do students no good and much harm, he stressed.

Miyamoto criticized the law for imposing a top-down moral education on children and failing to guarantee the right to know the facts to bereaved families of children who killed themselves due to bullying.

The JCP last year published a policy proposal on prevention of school bullying, organized symposiums, and gave consultations on this issue. The JCP will keep working hard to address the school bullying issue in cooperation with a wide range of people, Miyamoto said.

* * *

Miyamoto expressed his opposition to the bill at a Lower House committee meeting on June 18.

He said that if the bill is implemented, it will force teachers to conduct a rigid form of moral education and keep them away from creative teaching methods such as encouraging students to discuss and debate bullying problems in their school in order to search for solutions by themselves.

The bill which stipulates that parents have an obligation to make efforts to morally educate their children will deny freedom of family education.

The JCP lawmaker stressed that the government should make it clear that children have the right to live without being bullied and should tackle the issue by encouraging public discussion.

Related past articles
> Respect the right to know for families of bullied suicides: JCP Miyamoto < /A> [April 11, 2013]
> Top-down moral education is ineffective [February 28, 2013]
> 2012 national education assembly focuses on bullying problem [August 19-21, 2012]
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