Japan Press Weekly

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2012 April 11 - 17 [GREAT EAST JAPAN DISASTER]

Fukushima’s evacuated high schools undergo hardships

Amid the new school year which began in April across the nation, some high school students in Fukushima Prefecture still experience difficulties studying at school due to the adverse conditions.

The nuclear accident at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant forced 10 prefectural high schools in Fukushima to close down and evacuate. They underwent school mergers and a sharp decrease in the number of students. The total student population decreased to 1,836, only 54% of the number they had last year. Each school used to hold up to 5 satellite campuses in different locations in Fukushima. Following the nuclear crisis, the prefecture decided to integrate these campuses and limited one school to one campus in principle.

This decision made it difficult for many students to continue going to their previous campus. They had to choose either moving to another location with their parents, entering a dormitory away from their parents, or going to another school.

The Fukushima Prefectural Board of Education has set up 3 dorms, but they are located at Japanese style-inns where tourists also stay. Parents of female students have expressed anxieties about their daughters’ lodging at these facilities because the dining room, corridors, and bathing areas at these inns also accommodate male guests.

The Fukushima Prefectural Committee of the Japanese Communist Party has demanded that Fukushima Governor Sato Yuhei immediately do something to secure proper accommodations so that both parents and students can be relieved of undue anxieties.

The teachers and staff union of the Fukushima prefectural high schools has also called for a review of the across-the-board school consolidation scheme.

A school official said, “The Japanese Constitution guarantees the right to receive education equally for every child, but what I’ve witnessed here is so cruel for children that I feel frustrated. The mood surrounding us is despondent as we are just told to be patient. Families and communities here are still far from achieving any sense of recovery.”