Japan Press Weekly

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2017 July 5 - 11 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Signature collection drive for better education system starts

A group of teachers and parents on July 7 held a rally in Tokyo to announce the launch of the 2017 signature collection drive demanding that the government spend more on education, step up its small class size policy, improve subsidy programs for private schools, and provide free public education to all.

This annual signature collection campaign has been carried out for nearly 30 years. Parents, students, teaching staff, and concerned citizens across the country will gather signatures for five months until December. The number of signatures collected since 1989 totals 450 million.

Yamaguchi Naoyuki, a member of a civil group working to realize more government support for private schools gave the keynote speech at the rally. He said that the signature collection campaign has helped advance the need to realize free education and establish a grant-type scholarship program. Yamaguchi stated that more signatures are needed to achieve a further advance in this regard.

In the rally, senior high school students, parents, and teachers exchanged their views in a panel discussion under the title, “Now is the time for moving forward with free education!” A public senior high school student said that she had to decide which university to go to based on the cost of tuition and the availability of scholarship programs. She said, “I hope that everyone who wants to receive higher education can make a choice of university without financial anxieties. I will collect as many signatures as possible in order to help make universities tuition free.”