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

Recognizing that educational reform is a responsibility to be addressed by the Government as a whole, a Ministerial Conference for the Implementation of Educational Reform was created immediately after presentation of the first report from the National Council on Educational Reform. Upon receiving each of the four successive reports from the Council, the government made it clear, by a cabinet decision, that it would place great importance on the Council's reports. Further, in October 1987, the Cabinet set forth a policy paper entitled "Policy Guidelines for the Implementation of Educational Reform." In this policy paper, the Government clarified the strategies for implementing the Council's recommendations with regard to important policy issues.

Upon the basis of the Council's reports and the Cabinet's policy guidelines, the Government has tried to implement educational reform with the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture taking the leading role. In June 1991, the Ministerial Conference at its seventh meeting gathered information in a report on the progress of educational reform in which it outlined the main steps taken and the plans to be carried out by the entire Government for educational reform and continues active efforts towards promoting educational reforms.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture also set up a "Ministry's Headquarters for the Implementation of Educational Reform," chaired by the Minister, and has carried out comprehensive and dynamic plans for educational reform.