Japan Press Weekly

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2007 May 16 - 22 [EDUCATION]

3 education bills hastily passed through Lower House

In the House of Representatives Plenary Session on May 18, the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties used their majority to pass three government bills on education that will intensify state intervention in education and cause increasing problems in schools.

The Japanese Communist, Democratic, Social Democratic, and People’s New parties voted against these bills.

Despite the importance of the bills, designed to give shape to the adversely revised Fundamental Law of Education, the ruling parties provided only one month for discussion in the House of Representatives.

JCP representative Ishii Ikuko before the vote stated, “I strongly protest against taking a vote on these bills because so many problems still remain unresolved.”

The bill to revise the School Education Law will encourage the move to bring “Yasukuni’s view of history” into school, Ishii stated. She stressed that by requiring the compulsory education to achieve nurturing various sense of value, these bills will infringe on the constitutional right to freedom of thought.

Ishii criticized the bill to revise the Teacher’s License Law for destabilizing the status of teachers in defiance of a recommendation made by the International Labor Organization and the UNESCO.

Concerning the bill to revise the Local Education Administrative Law, Ishii pointed out that the Diet discussion has revealed that this bill will enable the Education Minister to call on boards of education to “redress” their policies concerning the treatment of the “Hinomaru” flag and “Kimigayo” in schools.

-- Main points of the three bills --

Bill to revise the School Education Law will:
- include nurturing a sense of value such as “the attitude to love our country and our hometowns” in the objectives of mandatory education;
- create new posts such as vice principals, head teachers, and supervisory teachers;
- require schools to evaluate their activities according to criteria that the Education Minister will establish.

Bill to revise the Teacher’s License Law will:
- introduce a system to require teachers to renew their teaching license every 10 years;
- tighten personnel management with respect to “teachers whose teaching is inappropriate”;

Bill to revise the Local Education Administrative Law will:
- enable the Education Minister to give instructions to or call on boards of education to redress perceived problems
- enable boards of education to get involved in education policies of private schools. - Akahata, May 19, 2007