Japan Press Weekly

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2013 July 10 - 16 [EDUCATION]

Teachers and parents launch signature campaign for better educational environment

A group of teachers and parents on July 12 kicked off a signature collection campaign seeking a better educational environment.

The group, which has conducted the campaign annually for 25 years, on the same day held a kick-off rally in Tokyo with 300 people participating.

This year’s campaign calls on the government to realize small-sized classes of no more than 30 students, refrain from introducing income limits to the current tuition-free high school education system, increase subsidies to private schools, and create a grant-type scholarship system.

At the rally, a representative of the All Japan Teachers and Staff Union (Zenkyo) stressed, “With 420 million signatures collected over the past 24 campaigns, we have had the national and local governments improve learning conditions for students.”

After the rally, participants took to the streets to collect signatures.

On the same day, 250 private school teachers, students, and their parents submitted to the government a petition with 42,699 signatures calling for a government measure to lower costs for private school education and to improve the current financial assistance system for private school students. They also petitioned to the education ministry and political parties on this issue.

A student of a private high school in Kanagawa, who participated in the action, said, “I use my earnings from a part-time job to help my parents cover my school expenses,” and demanded that the financial aid system be improved.