Japanese Government Policies in Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 2001 [4.1.1]

To develop children's "zest for living" and to realize individually targeted education, schools in coordination with families and local communities should offer education in line with the situations of children and the surrounding areas. Boards of education, at the same time, should actively pursue educational administration rooted in local communities and support the efforts of schools and communities.

For the realization of responsible educational administration to occur, the decentralization of educational administration needs to be promoted and the functions of boards of education need to be enhanced.

From these viewpoints, the so-called Decentralization Law that took effect in April 2000 revised the Law Concerning Organization and Functions of Local Educational Administration and other relevant laws, taking into consideration the Decentralization Program (Cabinet decision in May 1998) and the Central Council for Education's report on How the Local Administration on Education Should Be (September 1998).

{1} abolishing the approval of appointments for superintendents with a view to reforming external interference of central or prefectural governments over local government personnel affairs;
{2} amending the provision stipulating "central or prefectural governments shall extend instruction, advice and assistance to local governments," by changing "shall" to "can," so that central or prefectural governments would not excessively restrict local government judgments;
{3} allowing local ordinances to increase the number of board members in prefectures and designated cities from five to six with the standpoint of grasping and reflecting various local opinions in the administration; and
{4} abolishing the authority of prefectural boards of education to set basic standards on the management of municipal schools so as to respect municipal autonomy and independence.

With regard to educational administration, national, prefectural and municipal governments should fulfill their respective responsibilities and roles, while coordinating and cooperating with one another.

MEXT will continue to promote the decentralization of educational administration, while fulfilling its central government role, such as establishing the basic framework of an education system, setting national standards and offering necessary assistance, instruction and advice concerning infrastructure for local education.

Boards of education need to be revitalized to respond precisely to the diversifying demands of local residents, to support the efforts of schools and communities and to actively deploy regional-based educational administration in broad areas such as education, culture and sports.

MEXT, therefore, facilitated the revitalization of boards of education in the past through the use of case models to select board members, manage boards of education and conduct public relations, based on the second report of the National Council on Educational Reform in 1986 and other recommendations.

In December 2000, the National Commission on Education Reform reported the necessity to further improve the board of education system.

In taking this recommendation into consideration, MEXT partly revised the Law Concerning Organization and Functions of Local Educational Administration in June 2001, which was promulgated on 11 July 2001 and scheduled to take effect on 11 January 2002. The revision's aim is to contribute to the revitalization of boards of education by accommodating and reflecting the various views of residents and parents in educational administration.

{1} local governments shall give due consideration to diversity among board members and try to include a guardian to a child as a board member;
{2} meetings of boards of education shall, in principle, be open to the public; and
{3} an information and counseling desk on educational administration shall be publicly designated.


	Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > Japanese Government Policies in Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 2001 >Chapter4 Section1.1