Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > Japanese Government Policies in Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 2001 >Chapter4 Section1.2

Schools should live up to the expectation of parents and residents by providing creative and distinctive education under the leadership of principals, in accordance with the situations of children and communities. In order for schools to fulfill such responsibilities, it is important to establish school autonomy and self-discipline by making schools open to surrounding communities and expanding their level of discretion.

In order to unite schools with families and communities in the education of children, schools should make efforts to be accountable in giving full explanations of their concrete educational targets and activities. Schools that are held accountable are also required to conduct a self-evaluation of targets and activities, of which the results should also be reported to parents and local residents.

  The December 2000 report of the National Commission on Education Reform makes recommendations to the same effect, and MEXT, in its Education Reform Plan for the 21^st Century, proposed the introduction of a school adviser system and school self-evaluation system to make schools more open and responsive to surrounding communities.

  The school adviser system was institutionalized in April 2000. It is a mechanism whereby a school principal reflects the opinions of parents and local residents in school management. As of April 2001, about 90% of prefectures and designated cities and about 40% of municipalities had set up or decided to create School Councilor or other similar positions.

  The introduction of the school adviser system will work toward increasing opportunities for schools to explain their educational targets, plans and implementation status and perceived public views can be reflected in school-building. It will also make it possible that schools more actively promote various educational activities including the Period of Integrated Study, experiential learning, school events and extracurricular club activities with the understanding of and cooperation from parents and local residents. In particular, the school adviser system is expected to serve as a countermeasure to juvenile crimes and other problematic incidents when communication and coordination among schools, families and communities are strongly needed to prevent such incidents. It is hoped that this system will be actively utilized in the effort to build confidence in schools and that schools in close coordination with families and communities support the growth of children.

  With respect to a school's self-evaluation, each school ought to evaluate its own management and activities, and fulfill its accountability to parents and local communities by announcing evaluation results, which should then be used to improve school management and educational activities. MEXT intends to prepare necessary provisions concerning self-evaluation in a ministerial ordinance by the end of FY2001.

Boards of education are expected to take measures to expand the discretion of each school, so that it can extend distinctive educational services in accordance with the situations of its students and the surrounding community. An example of one such measure is the revision of School Management Regulations, which define the relationship between boards of education and schools. As of April 2001, 31 prefectures revised the regulations. One such revision, for example, was to require schools to file reports with the board of education but not to require board approval like in the past.

  As for school budgets, the preference of each school should be accommodated as much as possible by holding budget preparation sessions and securing a special outlay under the principal's discretion. MEXT, for its part, has defined educational standards more broadly and flexibly. For instance, it has established a Period of Integrated Study and expanded the range of elective courses in school curriculum.

  In addition, the Law Concerning Organization and Functions of Local Educational Administration was amended in June 2001, specifying that municipal boards of education must attach, if applicable, the opinions of principals to education reports submitted to prefectural boards on personnel changes of teachers or payroll. This amendment intends to expand principals' discretion and MEXT will continue to make efforts to expand the discretion of each school.

Participation in school education by working adults and local residents, who have a wide range of experiences and excellent knowledge and skills, is particularly important in building schools more open to society and realizing diverse and vigorous school education. In order to facilitate such participation, the following measures have been taken.

{1} Utilization of Part-time Outside Teachers (Special Arrangements for Part-time Teachers without Teacher Certificates, etc.)

Under the special part-time teacher system, working adults and local residents with professional knowledge and skills are allowed to work as teachers in certain subject areas (every subject at an elementary or secondary school) by only notifying the prefectural boards of education, even if they do not have a teacher certificate. As of FY2000, 11,607 teachers had engaged in school education under this system all over the country. In order to further promote the utilization of the special part-time teacher system, MEXT since FY2001 has carried out the Project for Mutual Exchange Between Schools and Society, in which those associated with schools and those associated with economic and other organizations in the community systematically cooperate with each other. Along with these measures, MEXT intends to promote the Plan for Lively Schools, which sets a target of securing approximately 50,000 working adults over three years to work as assistants to teachers across the country. The plan will be funded by the Emergency Special Grants for Creating Local Employment in the FY2001 supplementary budget and other sources. Besides the measures described above, there are other movements through which local residents support a school in educating its students.

Figure 1-4-1 Current State of Special Part-time Teachers

Figure 1-4-2 Examples of Teaching Content by Special Part-time Teachers (FY2000)

{2} Appointment of a Principal from the Private Sector

In order to broadly gather talented people for the post of principal or vice-principal, required qualifications have been relaxed since FY2000, so that people without educational personnel certification can be appointed. As of July 2001, six personnel from the private sector have assumed the position of principal.

Figure 1-4-3 Examples of a Principal from the Private Sector

Examples of Community-wide Support for School Education - Mitaka Daiyon Elementary School in Tokyo Learning Advisor System - Mitaka Daiyon Elementary School has been promoting the concept of the Dream-raising School, which aims at building a school where children enjoy learning and grow up physically and mentally sound. The school expects that the concept, in cooperation with local residents, will contribute to the betterment of the surrounding community.   In other words, the concept of the Dream-raising School tries to establish a new type of "community school," where children interact with various people and have a range of experiences.   More than 100 local residents have registered as education volunteers at the school, either as community teachers (CT) or study assistants (SA), and have helped school education raise children's dreams. - Kisarazu City Volunteers for School Assistance - Kisarazu City, in FY1998, started a volunteer system for school assistance, through which parents and local professionals help a school as volunteers. This system aims to utilize local educational expertise in school education and realize a "more open school."   Volunteers for school assistance have engaged in environmental management support such as mowing a school yard and filing books at a library, as well as educational activity support like assisting a teacher in a class or club activity.   Volunteer activities for such school assistance have been spreading nationwide and Kisarazu City hosted the 2001 Kisarazu Summit of Volunteers for School Assistance in Japan in August 2001 to further strengthen this trend. In that conference, volunteers for school assistance from various regions exchanged their views and presented major efforts they had made so far.