Osaka Gov. announces education reform plan
Written by Writer on Friday, October 17th, 2008
Osaka Gov. announces education reform plan
The Yomiuri Shimbun
OSAKA–Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto on Thursday announced his 15-point plan for educational reform, after the average scores attained by primary and middle school students in most of the prefectural government’s 43 municipalities in April’s nationwide achievement examinations were released the same day.
The prefecture released the scores to several organizations and others that filed requests for the information.
At a press conference, Hashimoto said, “The prefectural government decided to tackle education reform by sharing information with students’ families and their communities.”
The plan was formulated in response to the results attained by the prefecture’s students in the exams, which in the past two consecutive years have been lower than the national average, and is designed to address disparities in academic achievement among the municipalities.
The reforms include arithmetic and kanji practice for 15 minutes every day; the introduction of a new subject designed to foster independent thinking ability by studying various social themes; and community programs that make the most of support from parents and local residents.
The prefectural government announced the establishment of a 3 billion yen fund to support the educational reform plan.
Hashimoto appointed Kazuhiro Fujihara, a former principal of Wada Middle School in Suginami Ward, Tokyo, and special adviser to the prefectural government as adviser to the prefectural board, the first such post to be created in the nation.
Fujihara is known for his involvement in combining his former school’s extracurricular program with a major cram school chain.
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Breakdown of scores revealed
Before Hashimoto’s announcement, the Osaka prefectural government Thursday disclosed the average percentage of correct answers achieved by students in most of the prefecture’s municipalities in nationwide assessment exams.
The prefectural government released no results or partial results for 11 of the prefecture’s 43 municipalities.
The Osaka prefectural government became the first prefecture to disclose results from the examinations, which are designed to assess the academic achievement of sixth-grade primary school students and third-year middle school students.
The Education, Science and Technology Ministry has told prefectural boards of education across the nation not to disclose the results of the exams by municipality, as such an action may lead to the schools being ranked. - (Oct. 17, 2008)
