Tokyo Report: Public Schools Lack Funds for Teaching Aids

Tokyo, July 27 (Jiji Press)--Japanese municipal budgets to cover
microscopes, globes and other teaching materials at public elementary and
junior high schools have dropped by half from the peak levels of 20 years
ago, hindering efforts to upgrade education, especially in science, under
the education ministry's revised curriculum guidelines.
The central government used to pay for teaching materials at public
elementary and junior high schools. Starting in fiscal 1985, however,
municipal governments took over the budgetary role, while the state
government provides additional funds determined by such factors as the
number of schools in each municipality.
According to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science
and Technology, municipal budgets for teaching materials initially stood at
an average 126.0 pct of the additional funds provided as part of tax revenue
grants. In other words, municipal governments as a whole added the grants in
full to their budgets for educational tools.
But since then, the share has been on the decline, hitting 65.3 pct
in fiscal 2007.
As local governments are allowed to decide how to use tax revenue
grants, municipalities in financial difficulty may be using the additional
funds for public works projects and personnel costs, causing the sharp drop
in the share. The figure for fiscal 2007 means that nearly 35 pct of the
grants were used for purposes other than teaching materials.
The share stood above 100 pct only in Tokyo and two other
prefectures, while falling below the level in the remaining 44 prefectures
in fiscal 2007. It was as low as 26.9 percent in Akita Prefecture. Between
smaller municipalities, the differences are believed to be much wider.
In a fiscal 2008 survey conducted by the Japan Science and
Technology Agency, 53.6 pct of science teachers at public elementary schools
complained that they were short of equipment for observations and
experiments. In addition, 47.2 pct and 75.5 pct of science teachers at
public elementary and junior high schools, respectively, said they have
purchased teaching tools at their own expense.
The revised curriculum guidelines project an increase in the use of
teaching materials, especially for science. The education ministry's fiscal
2009 supplementary budget therefore includes 20 billion yen to cover a
subsidy program for educational equipment for the subject.
But subsidies and local tax grants become available to schools only
after municipal governments include them in their budgets. In late May,
therefore, the ministry began calling on municipal education boards to
demand that budgets are allocated to teaching materials.
"We expect positive financial support from local governments for
the children, who carry the future of Japan," says an official at the
ministry's school curriculum division.