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CHAPTER 5, THE LONG-TERM OVERALL EDUCATIONAL PLANNING--FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF EDUCATIONAL INVESTMENT
2. Factors to Be Considered in Educational Planning
(3) Role of the National Government in the Educational Investment


As previously shown, the bulk of the burden for the financial support of public education in Japan has been transferred gradually from the municipalities to the prefectures and the national government. Around 50 percent of total public educational expenditures is provided by the national treasury.

This trend resulted from a series of actions intended to increase the national level of education and to provide a system of universal education that would eliminate radical differences among the various regions of the country. This was made possible by the gradual diffusion of industry throughout the country with a resultant reduction of formerly great disparities in regional socio-economic status.

Technological advances, economic growth and social development result in corresponding expansion, improvement and change in education to meet employment needs. The entire nation shares in the advantages thus secured. The mobility of the population and school graduates increases, as the socio-economic status is improved. Such made it necessary to advance educational measures on the national scale and resultantly the role to be played by the national government in educational investment has become important.

Similar trends in other countries, including the United Kingdom and the U.S.A., were motivated, although in the U.S.A. the local burden has been transferred largely to the individual states which have primary responsibility for public education under the federal constitution.

The increase in the ratio of private school expenses to the total school expenditures has been getting higher in recent years in Japan, and private school expenses for higher education recently has reached over 40 per cent. From the investment viewpoint, the private school expenses are forming the educational capital together with the expenses for public education and contributing to social and economic development of Japan. The private school will also form a part of overall educational planning in its broader sense, when the planning of education be proceeded from the viewpoint of investment in education. At the same time, the role played by the private school for the public will become more important. For this reason, the new approach will be necessitated to the close relations between the educational expenses for private school and the public investment for education.

Who is to assume the responsibility for educational investment should be given closer examination from the overall viewpoint and is an important factor to be taken into consideration in the long-term and overall educational planning. In so doing, in connection to social and economic developments, due consideration should be given to the share of the national government and local authorities in the public expenditure, and to the expenses of private schools.


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