JAPANESE GOVERMENT POLICICIES IN EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND CULTURE 1994[PART II Chapter 3 Section 10 1]

PART II Recent Trends and Developments in Government Policies in Education, Science and Culture

Ensuring that classes, which are the unit for schoolchildren's learning activities and school life, are of an appropriate size and providing enough teachers to ensure the smooth implementation of educational activities are key requirements for the improvement of educational conditions. The government has therefore set legal standards for class sizes and staffing levels of teachers and other personnel in public compulsory education and upper secondary schools and has worked systematically to attain these standards. This effort has been rewarded with great success in improving educational conditions, such as the reduction of class size to 40 students or fewer in elementary and lower secondary schools.

The Sixth Improvement Plan on Public Compulsory Education School Teaching Staff Deployment is being implemented over a six-year period (fiscal 1993-98) with the aim of providing diversified education according to children's individual needs through improvements in teaching staff deployment in public compulsory education schools. Concrete measures include

(1) the development of innovative instruction methods, such as team teaching,
(2) responsiveness to students' problems, such as refusal to attend school, and
(3) the provision of individually targeted instruction for foreign children and others.

Under the Fifth Improvement Plan on Public Upper Secondary School Class Composition and Teaching Staff Deployment, efforts are being made to improve various aspects of education in public upper secondary schools and the upper secondary departments of special education schools. In order to provide diversified upper secondary education, measures under the plan, which covers the six-year period from fiscal 1993 to fiscal 1998, include

(1) the reduction of class size to 40 students or fewer in full-day general course schools,
(2) the improvement of instruction, including the use of small-group instruction, to meet needs created by internationalization and the shift to an information-oriented society, and
(3) the improvement of teaching staff deployment, including the allocation of more teachers to schools that offer diversified subject areas and subjects and to new types of schools and courses.

Under the relevant laws, teaching staff and other personnel in public compulsory education schools are paid more generously than ordinary public servants. Prefectures are responsible for remuneration costs, but in principle the central government covers half of compulsory education expenditures from treasury funds on the basis of the Law Concerning the National Treasury's Share of Compulsory Education Expenses.


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