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Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > JAPANESE GOVERNMENT POLICIES IN EDUCATION,SCIENCE AND CULTURE1991 > PART2 Chapter3 10

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PART 2 Recent Trends and Developments in Government Policies in Education, Science and Culture
Chapter 3 Improvement and Enrichment of Elementary and Secondary Education
10 Improvements in Various Educational Conditions


Optimization of class size and securing appropriate numbers of teachers are among the most important educational conditions for improvement. On the basis of successive yearly planning, improvements are continually being introduced. In 1992 an urgent task was to secure the required fixed number of educational personnel. As of 1993, in order to guarantee the systematic hiring and placement of teachers and to insure the development of a diversified education that is sensitive to the needs of individual pupils at all compulsory level schools, the Ministry is promoting investigations on the next plan for improvement of placement of educational personnel at compulsory education schools. Regarding reforms in upper secondary education, a new plan is to be instituted which encourages both a reduction of the size of classes in general education courses to 40 students and a more diverse upper secondary school curriculum.

In the effort to continue quality improvements in public school education it is important to upgrade and enrich public school facilities in order to ensure an environment which is conducive to study and other school activities. In 1992 there was a major expansion in the number of construction and renovation projects, principally at elementary and lower secondary schools.

In regard to improvement of school facilities, it is also important to strive for qualitative enrichments of school facilities; to create facilities which are conducive to diverse teaching and learning methods and those which enhance educational processes for furthering each child's creativity and individual development. In line with these goals, a variety of efforts are being made to upgrade and improve national government systems for educational funding.

Since 1991, the Ministry has been conducting investigative studies on "Creation of Guidelines for Upgrading School Facilities," and acting on the results of these studies set down the "Guidelines for Upgrading Elementary School Facilities" as well as "Guidelines for Upgrading Lower Secondary School Facilities" on March 31st, 1992 and sent directives to prefectural boards of education to inform them of these guidelines.

To complement the full implementation of the revised Course of Study, in March of 1991 the Ministry also established "the Standard Lists of Teaching Materials" which sets down standard items of teaching materials and standard quantities required for schools. A plan was established to systematically deal with standardizing teaching materials for a 10 year period between 1991 and the year 2000. In order to finance this plan 800 billion yen will be allocated from "Local Allocation Tax." (for the year 1992, 59 billion yen was allocated).


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