Japan Press Weekly

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2014 February 19 - 25 [EDUCATION]

6.9-million citizens want tuition-free private high schools

A group of students, parents, and teachers on February 20 submitted to the Diet 6,937,341 signatures calling for tuition-free education in private high schools.

Nagashima Tamio, chair of the National Federation of Private School Teachers and Staff Union (Shikyoren), at a prior gathering said that the union will increase its work to help realize a national public education system free of charge, and at the same time it will urge each municipality to improve tuition relief measures.

A high school student said, “Please, guarantee us the right to equal opportunity to learn!”

They submitted the signatures to 150 members in the Diet’s two chambers, including Japanese Communist Party Dietmembers.

JCP Vice Chair Ichida Tadayoshi received a petition handed by a teacher who came from Kyoto. Ichida said, “We totally agree with your request. It’s a matter of course for the state to guarantee its citizens the right to education, and we Dietmembers have a responsibility to establish a system for all to study either in public or in private school without financial anxieties.”