Tokai tasked with continuing education reforms

Reforming the education system, a focus of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration, remains a goal for new education minister Kisaburo Tokai.

"I was told by Prime Minister (Yasuo) Fukuda to rebuild the education system," the 59-year-old Lower House member from Hyogo Prefecture said Wednesday. "As education is a pillar supporting a nation, I support this direction." The ministerial post, which Tokai assumed on Tuesday, is the lawmaker's first in a 21-year career.

Begun under Abe, the Education Rebuilding Council has emerged as a major force behind the push to reform the public education system. Among other things, the 17-member panel has proposed increasing class hours by 10 percent at public elementary and junior high schools and augmenting ethics education. The council will continue to discuss further reform measures under Fukuda.

Tokai also said he wants to bolster the number of teachers.

"It's important for teachers to have more time to spend with students. Now teachers are burdened with paperwork. By increasing their numbers, we can create an environment where teachers concentrate on education activities," he said in an interview in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Having more teachers will also help identify signs of bullying in the classroom, he said.

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry is requesting an allocation of ¥50.4 billion from the Finance Ministry over three years starting in fiscal 2008 to hire 21,362 new teachers — or about 7,000 each year.

"I'll endeavor to secure the budget," in spite of government attempts to trim fiscal spending, Tokai said.

Although a supporter of the ERC's plan to boost ethics education, Tokai is less enamored of the voucher system expected to be proposed by the panel in its third report in December. Under that plan, the government would provide coupons to help students pay for a private education. Critics say the system would intensify the already excessive competition between public and private schools.

"The government has to secure equal compulsory education opportunities for children," Tokai said. "Children in (rural) areas have little freedom to select schools (because of the scarcity of private institutions). So I'm not entirely supportive of introducing a voucher system without first solving this problem."

Tokai has taken a cautious line on the contentious subject of textbook screening.

In March, the education ministry caused a stir in Okinawa when it asked publishers of high school history textbooks to remove references to the Imperial Japanese Army's role in forcing civilians to commit mass suicide during the Battle of Okinawa in the closing days of the war.

"(Ministers) shouldn't say anything" about the screening process because the panel, which is made up of academics and schoolteachers, checks textbook drafts and judges whether the drafts have errors and inappropriate descriptions, he said at a news conference Tuesday.

"I think (the screening) should be done more carefully in dealing with (the descriptions), taking into account the feelings of the people in Okinawa," he said.
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