The education ministry eased the extra workload required for unqualified high school seniors to graduate next spring, following complaints that students were being punished for something that was not their fault, sources said.
The ruling parties and the ministry agreed Wednesday on a revised plan to untangle the mess caused by hundreds of schools that failed to teach or even offer subjects compulsory for graduation. Instead, the schools focused on subjects that appear on university entrance exams.
Under the ministry's initial plan, the students short of these credits would have to take 70 extra classes, even if they had missed more than that number for the mandatory subjects.
The new plan would require students who have missed up to 70 classes to receive up to 50 additional classes, 20 fewer than the initial plan.
The ruling coalition and the education ministry also agreed that students who have missed more than 70 classes will have to take 70 additional classes and submit reports.
Each extra class will be 50 minutes.
The new plan is based mainly on a proposal by New Komeito, which said the ministry's original proposal was unfair because it offered leniency only to students who have failed to take more than 70 classes.
If the original plan was put into practice, a student who missed 70 classes would be required to take 70 additional classes. But a student who missed as many as 140 classes would have the same extra workload.
Members of the Liberal Democratic Party and junior coalition partner New Komeito held a meeting Tuesday to discuss the issue.
New Komeito Secretary-General Kazuo Kitagawa said leniency should also be extended to those who missed 70 or fewer classes. He proposed reducing the number of their make-up classes to 50.
Bunmei Ibuki, the minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology, said Wednesday that about 10 percent of all senior high schools in Japan have evaded the curriculum requirements, and that more than 80,000 students have not taken subjects necessary for graduation.
"The figures are premised on the assumption that all senior high schools explained their situations truthfully," he said at the Lower House special committee on the Fundamental Law of Education.
The education ministry surveyed all 5,408 senior high schools in Japan. All schools had responded by Wednesday night except for two private schools.
According to the survey, 540 schools--314 public and 226 private--have failed to comply with curriculum requirements. They instead emphasized subjects that could help their students get into universities.
Ironically, 83,743 students at these schools might not be qualified to graduate or take those entrance examinations.
Among those students, 61,352, or 73.3 percent, failed to take up to 70 classes of mandatory subjects; 17,837, or 21.3 percent, have missed 71 to 140 classes; and 4,554, or 5.4 percent, have failed to take more than 140 classes.(IHT/Asahi: November 2,2006)
ASAHI WEEKLY