EDITORIAL: Careful thought needed on reorganizing education boards

Are prefectural and municipal boards of education really living up to their responsibility? Some people say they have become mere names. Osaka Ishin-no-Kai (Osaka Restoration Association), a regional political party headed by Osaka Governor Toru Hashimoto, is stirring up the education world with a proposed basic ordinance on education it plans to submit to the prefectural assembly this month.

With an aim to reflect popular will in educational administration, the bill specifies that local government leaders decide the objectives of schools and have the right to dismiss education board members who do not fulfill their duties. It also proposes to choose principals by open recruitment and incorporates a clause to dismiss teachers who refuse to stand while singing the Kimigayo national anthem at school functions.

Boards of education were established after World War II based on a reflection on prewar nationalistic education. To secure neutrality, the boards are run under a council system independent from local government leaders.

At one time in the past, members were publicly elected. But now, local government heads appoint them with the agreement of local assemblies. Each board comprises about five part-time members who meet once a month or so. In reality, the actual work in many education boards is done by the secretariats and their chiefs.

Leaving educational administration as a whole to the heads of local governments does not agree with the principle of education boards that are run under a council system. It could even lead to the denial of their raison d'etre.

Unions of teachers and staff members at schools and some other organizations are voicing concern about what they see as political intervention in education.

Even if principals are chosen from among applicants who respond to open recruitment, there is no guarantee that competent personnel will apply. It is also questionable that a fair selection would be made.

Nevertheless, the proposal serves as a chance to think how education boards ought to be. We urge the assembly to carefully deliberate on the roles and authority of local government leaders and education boards.

There have also been attempts to reform boards of education in the past.

Tokyo's Nakano Ward once introduced a "semi-public election system" to choose candidates for board membership by popular vote of ward residents.

Izumo, Shimane Prefecture, and Kanazawa transferred social education and cultural administration to the mayor's office to have education boards devote themselves to school education.

If individual local governments tackle educational administration with their own will and creativity, it would be an attempt to decentralize the centralized structure of the education ministry supervising education boards.

Last year, the Research Center for Decentralized Policies and Systems headed by former Chiba University professor of public administration Muneyuki Shindo, proposed a revision of the law on regional education administration to allow local governments to choose the survival or abolition of education boards.

There is no need to standardize regional education systems into a single mold. Giving bigger powers to local government heads is not the only way to reflect popular will in school education. If residents so desire, reviving the public election of board members should also be considered an option.

How should boards of education be organized to deal with the diversified problems in school, such as bullying, refusal to go to school and widening gaps in the scholastic abilities of children? Are they really necessary in the first place? Both residents of the local community and guardians of children need to pay attention.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 15