Japan Education Ministry to Boost School Safety Budget

August 31, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's education ministry aims to boost its budget for enhancing the safety of schools in the country, after a concrete block wall at an elementary school in the western prefecture of Osaka collapsed in a major earthquake in June and killed one of the students.

The ministry said Thursday it will seek a total of 5,935.1 billion yen under the government's general-account budget for fiscal 2019 from next April, up 11.8 pct from the amount earmarked under the fiscal 2018 budget.

Of the total, the ministry plans to allocate 243,231 million yen, up 3.6-fold, for measures to improve school facilities, including the removal and rebuilding of concrete block walls.

The ministry will also step up measures to protect schoolchildren from heat waves, including by installations of more air conditioners, in the wake of record-breaking hot weather this summer.

The ministry will request 46,151 million yen for sports-related measures, up 35.8 pct.

Among them are athlete training programs and projects to improve training facilities ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. The ministry will also beef up compliance education for sporting associations, following a recent series of scandals in the Japanese sporting world.

To promote work style reforms at schools, the ministry plans to increase the number of teachers and other staff at public elementary and junior high schools and special-needs schools by 2,861 in total. It also plans to conduct a model project to provide education utilizing artificial intelligence at elementary and junior high schools and kindergartens. Jiji Press