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CHAPTER SUPPLY OF TEACHERS ANDPROVISION OF SCHOOL FACILITIES

As educational contents have recently been enriched and teaching methods modernized, the provision of new teaching materials and aids has become an urgent necessity. In this respect, the national government bears partial expenses or grants subsidies for the provision and improvement of teaching materials and aids. The following is a general outline of such assistance by the government:

As for the general teaching material relating to school subjects, such as machines, tools, specimens, models, charts, books, etc., assistance from the government is given as the national share of the expenditures for teaching aids under the provision of the Law conceming National Treasury' Share for Compulsory Education. As for science teaching material subsidies are provided under the Law for Promotion of Science Education. For the diffusion of teaching material for science in particular, the standard for the provision of such materials in schools was revised in accordance with the new Course of Study, and encouragement has been made for furnishing every school with at least 70 per cent of such teaching material as obligated by the standard under the four-year plan started in 1962. At the science education center set up in every prefecture, advice and instruction are given, upon request, for science teachers to study teaching materials for science education and to produce such materials.

Standards for equipment and facilities for experiments and practice in vocational education for public and private schools both of lower and upper secondary level, have been set up by the government on the basis of the Industrial Education Promotion Law, and efforts have been made in this field. A thorough modification of the standards was made in 1964 to meet the revised Courses of Study for upper secondary schools. Among the newly added equipment for experiments and practice in upper secondary schools are tractors of large type and milking machine for agricultural courses, lathes and various kinds of automatic controllers for the machinery courses, various electronic meters for electricity courses, and office equipment such as electric computers and bookkeeping and accounting machines for commercial courses. The cost for the equipment and facilities to be furnished schools in accordance with the revised standards are three or four times as much as the total amount previously provided for the respective vocational courses.

Although there are few appropriate data available for comparative study concerning standards for the provision of teaching materials and aids in other countries, in the United States subsidies amounting to 172.2 million dollars have been given to public secondary schools for the procurement of materials and aids for science, mathematics and foreign language teaching under the National Defense Education Act during the five years since 1958 when the Act was enacted.

In Japan, audio-visual materials such as 16 mm sound-film projectors, slide projectors, tape-recorders and television sets are very popular, and are widely diffused among, and effectively used by elementary and secondary schools. In particular, television sets have been furnished to schools so extensively that, as of 1963, 86% of the elementary schools, 75% of the lower secondary schools and 53% of the upper secondary schools were in possession of them, as compared with 13%, 10% and 12% respectively in 1958.