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Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > JAPANESE GOVERMENT POLICIES IN EDUCATION, SCIENCE, SPORTS AND CULTURE 1995 > Special Report 2 (2)

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Special Report. The Response of the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture to the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake
2. Restoration of Educational Facilities and improvement of Disaster Prevention Systems
(2) Normalization of School Education Activities


Although evacuation centers were gradually being closed, approximately 30,000 people were still living as evacuees as of May 29, more than four months after the disaster. Approximately 22,000 people, or about 70% of the total number of evacuees, were living in educational facilities, such as elementary schools, lower and upper secondary schools, and social education facilities. Despite the fact that many facilities were damaged or were being used as evacuation centers, by April, the start of the school year, classes had been resumed at all elementary schools and lower and upper secondary schools. This was achieved through such measures as the construction of temporary school buildings.

Since children evacuated to other areas, including other prefectures, were expected to return fairly soon, MESSC adopted special measures concerning the staffing levels of teachers and other personnel in Hyogo Prefecture required in fiscal 1995. First, steps were taken to guarantee that staffing levels would be sufficient to maintain school management and educational guidance in the disaster area as of April 1995, taking into account the number of children who were expected to return to the region by March 1996. Second, additional counseling personnel were hired to provide psychological care for schoolchildren traumatized by the earthquake. Through these measures MESSC provided the same number of teachers as had been projected prior to the disaster.

Boards of education and other organizations throughout Japan were requested to take appropriate steps to deal with schoolchildren's health problems. In addition, seminars were held for school health supervisors, and subsidies were provided for health advisory activities undertaken by the Hyogo Prefectural Board of Education and other organizations.

There was considerable concern that some schoolchildren who had experienced severe psychological trauma as a result of the earthquake might suffer from the condition known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) * . Approximately 100 million yen was provided in the first supplementary budget for fiscal 1995 for the enhancement of mental health care for schoolchildren, including the implementation of a survey of affected children and the preparation of guidelines for future health care systems based on the results of the survey.


* Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

This is an emotional disorder caused by experiences involving extreme fear. Symptoms include

(1) reliving of the terrifying experience;
(2) reduced responsiveness to surroundings, a kind of "emotional paralysis";
(3) continued stress, manifested in such forms as insomnia and irrational fear; and
(4) physical symptoms, such as headache, nausea, and vertigo.

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