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Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > Japanese Government Policies in Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 2001 >Chapter2 Section2.2

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   Educational Reform for the 21st Century
Chapter2   AIMING TO FOSTER CHILDREN WITH RICH HUMANITY
Section 2:   Policy Measures
2   Outlines of Policy Measures and Problems Involved



(1) Expansion of Experiential Activities

It is important for schools, families and local communities to join forces to fully play their respective educational functions in order to increase places and opportunities for children to gain social experiences and experiences in a natural environment and thus help children foster emotional richness and strength. In order to promote diverse experiential activities at and the outside school, the School Education Law and the Social Education Law were revised in the 151st Ordinary Session of the Diet to clearly stipulate that: {1} schools, in carrying out instructions on subjects, should seek cooperation with social education-related organizations to expand and improve experiential activities, including volunteer activities and other social service learning activities as well as experiences in a natural environment; and {2} the boards of education should also undertake projects for providing opportunities of various experiential activities.

  Further, the Children's Dream Fund was newly created at the National Olympics Memorial Youth Center, an independent administrative institution, to start providing subsidies in the current fiscal year to youth organization projects such as: {1} children's experience activities including outdoor activities and social-service experiential activities; {2} reading societies and other book-reading activities for children; and {3} development and distribution of teaching materials for children available on the Internet.

  Efforts are also being made to train leaders for children's outdoor activities, including support provided to the Council for Outdoor and Nature Experiences, which operates the unified registration system for leaders of outdoor activities as a cooperative project by youth-related and other private sector organizations.

  In FY1999, MEXT mapped out the National Children's Plan (Emergency 3-Year Strategy) and is promoting it in cooperation with other ministries and agencies concerned with the improving the environment for community-based child rearing and establishing a system for promoting joint activities by parents and children.

  Under the National Children's Plan, MEXT in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries sponsors the Children's Long-term Nature Experience Village project, under which children leave parents during summer vacation to stay at farm houses or youth hostels for about two weeks for various experiences in a natural environment, farming experiences, and exchanges with local children. In cooperation with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and its Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, MEXT is also promoting the Children's Work Experience - Internship for Children Internship project, which allows children to become familiar with a variety of jobs and professions in neighborhood shopping districts.

(2) Enhancement of the Educational Functions of Families, Communities

Amid the trend toward the nuclear family and the decline in the number of children per family in recent years, the decline in the educational functions of families has emerged as an educational issue. The Central Council for Education, in its report in June 1998, pointed out that problems in education in the home, such as overprotection and excessive meddling, the spread of anxieties over child rearing and parents' loss of confidence in disciplining children, have taken on so serious proportions that something has to be done about them.

  Under the circumstances, MEXT launched a number of initiatives, such as the expansion of community-based networks to support child rearing, the national campaign to promote child rearing learning, the production and distribution of the Education in the Home Handbook and Education in the Home Notebook, and the expansion of the 24-hour Telephone Counseling Education in the Home (Parenting Hotline). Moreover, the Social Education Law was revised in June 2001 in order to revamp the setup of social education administration to help enhance the educational functions of families.

  MEXT is also promoting the National Children's Plan (Emergency 3-Year Strategy) in a coordinated and planned way to help improve the educational functions of local communities where children live.

  Further, using surplus classrooms at schools as the Regional Communication and Exchange Center, Community Exchange Projects are under way to promote community-based exchanges between children and the elderly and other people as well as for exchanges among different generations.

(3) Promotion of Moral Education

Moral education is of great importance in fostering children with rich humanity. From that standpoint, moral education is being promoted at every level of educational activities at school. At elementary and lower secondary schools in particular, "Moral Education" is set aside to help cultivate morality among children.

"Challenges of 14 Year Olds" Program to Learn from Society - Toyama

In Toyama, all second graders of lower secondary schools have five consecutive days away from their schools for workplace experiences or volunteer activities in local communities. The program is designed to help them develop a higher degree of consciousness about rules and sociality and provide them an opportunity to think about their own futures so that they can overcome the various challenges and anxieties they will face as they grow. Each school organizes a committee to promote the program, made up of teachers, parents, community representatives and officials of hosting organizations, to map out a basic plan and find sponsoring companies and other entities willing to offer experience opportunities to children.

  After participating in the activities of businesses or other organizations, children return noticeably more matured, realizing the fact that they can contribute to society and experiencing firsthand how tough work can be, as well as the importance of exchanging a few words of greeting in working life.

Trying out the selection of fish at Himi Fishing Port

  In recent years, however, it has been pointed out that there is much to be desired about basic manners and ethics of children and their moral development, presumably as a result of the rapid changes in the social environment. It is deemed particularly necessary to have children learn basic styles and manners of life in kindergarten and lower grades of elementary schools and to help them gain the sound judgment needed to distinguish between good and bad.

  Also, it is often pointed out that moral education previously placed too much emphasis on teaching children what are virtues and what are not virtues, without linking those lessons to actual behaviors. It is not sufficient for children to simply know the idea of right and wrong or basic rules of social life. They need to acquire moral power to practice these values in actual life. To achieve that goal, efforts should be made to make moral education classes more interesting to children. Aware of these problems, MESSC revised the Courses of Study in 1998 to put more teeth into the judgment of right and wrong and improved the contents of moral education to more deeply touch the minds of children on the strength of experiential activities in order to more actively develop morality among children.

  In FY2001, the kokoro no note (notebook for moral education) will be distributed to all students of elementary and lower secondary schools to explain morals they are expected to develop in easy-to-understand terms and thus help them think about and understand moral values on their own. The kokoro no note is not limited for use in moral education classes; rather, it can be used for lessons on other subjects and also as a notebook for children's everyday life to serve as a bridge between their parents and teachers at school.

Figure 1-2-12 Mechanism of Policy Measures to Support Education in the Home

Kasumigaseki Nursery

The Mutual Aid Association of MEXT decided to establish the Kasumigaseki Day Care Center as the first such attempt in the Kasumigaseki central government district to demonstrate its initiative toward creating a workplace environment that allows employees with children to work without undue worries.

MEXT employees with infant babies who have yet to reach the age of entering elementary school are, in principle, eligible to use the nursery. If the facility's capacity allows it, the Day Care Center also accommodates infants of employees in other ministries and private companies.

  As of the end of October 2001, the nursery was taking care of 15 infants, who are releasing a chorus of merry voices in a tiny corner of the Kasumigaseki district during the daytime.

Kasumigaseki Nursery

  In view of the importance of infancy as a period of basic character building, practical research is under way to improve kindergarten education by focusing on the awakening of morals in that period. In FY2001, the Collection of Case Studies on Cultivating the Awakening of Morals in Kindergarten Children was given to all kindergartens as a reference for teachers in guiding children.

Twilight School - Nagoya City

In a project called Twilight School (after-school classes), the City of Nagoya is making school facilities available after school for the playing and experiencing of children's activities as well as community-based events to promote contacts and exchanges between different generations. Including after-school classrooms being modified from elementary school classrooms so that they are more suited for children's play, various school facilities, including gymnasiums and sports grounds, are being used to provide children with places to play after school on weekdays, on Saturdays or during long vacation periods. With the cooperation of volunteers, school facilities are used for various other activities, including lessons on traditional play and handicraft, recreational activities and sports.

  For the Twilight School project, employees with long years of teaching experience at the incorporated foundation of the Nagoya City Education and Sports Promotion Agency serve as operation leaders and are responsible for the center's day-to-day management and operations. In addition, various people from communities participate as cooperative members to play with children and teach children as project volunteers their favorite fields.



(4) Improved Counseling

Problem behavior by children remains in a worrying state, drawing attention as a major social problem.

  The striking feature of problem behavior of late has been raising the number of cases where children seem to have acted on the spur of the moment after stresses and dissatisfaction had built up within them to uncontrollable levels.

  For prevention, early detection and early solutions to such problem behavior, it is crucially important to look into what is going on in the minds of children. For that purpose, school counselors and "advisors in the classrooms for easing children's minds" are being placed so as to improve the setup of counseling at schools.

  In FY2001, a total of 3,750 schools across Japan had school counselors placed on their campuses. The current plans are to continue deploying such school counselors so that every child who wishes to speak up can readily find a school counselor willing to listen to him or her.
(5) Promotion of Efforts to Protect Children from Harmful Information

There has been great concern over the potentially adverse impact of harmful media information about sex and violence on the immature minds of young people who are still mentally and physically developing and as such, have yet to acquire adequate judgment and a strong sense of responsibility. Fully aware of the seriousness of the problem, the government as a whole, especially the Cabinet Office, has been making various efforts to improve the situation.

  MEXT has asked related industries to further strengthen their self-regulatory measures, while supporting PTA organizations in their nationwide monitoring of television programs. In addition, beginning this fiscal year with the cooperation of scholars and intellectuals, the ministry is conducting surveys on efforts by overseas nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and other entities to deal with similar problems in order to gather information and materials that can be utilized in addressing the harmful environment surrounding young people in Japan.


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