Japan Press Weekly

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2015 December 16 - 22 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP Satoyoshi urges Tokyo Metropolitan gov’t to cancel plan to close evening courses in 4 public high schools

Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Satoyoshi Yumi in the December meeting of the education committee of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly called on the metropolitan government to retract its plan to eliminate evening courses in four public high schools.

In late November, the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education announced a plan to realign metropolitan-owned high schools and proposed the closures of evening classes in Tachikawa, Koyamadai, Yukigaya, and Kouhoku high schools.

Satoyoshi in the committee meeting said that Koyamadai High School has a large number of evening-course students and many local residents are opposed to the closure. She went on to say that many students of the Tachikawa High School in Tachikawa City are coming from nearby Hachioji City as all of the four evening classes in Hachioji have already been abolished. Satoyoshi stressed that Tachikawa High School is the only school with evening classes in the two cities and that the metropolitan government should maintain a high school in a commutable distance for evening class students.

JCP Satoyoshi asked the Tokyo government why the four high schools were chosen. A government official did not provide a reasonable explanation, saying that the education board considered Tokyo’s situation as a whole in making the choice.

After observing the meeting, Sato Toru, who is a member of a citizens group opposing the shutdown of evening class at Tachikawa High School, said, “Judging from Tokyo’s replies, I don’t think that the government pays due attention to evening-class students. I am not convinced at all.”