The government has said that a high school program violated the basic education law,?which mandates political neutrality, following a fatal accident in Okinawa Prefecture in March
In its report on the accident, the education ministry said Friday that the school program about the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in the Okinawan city of Ginowan to the Henoko coastal area in Nago violated the law.
On March 16, two small boats capsized off Henoko during a study trip by Doshisha International Senior High School in Kyoto Prefecture. The accident resulted in the deaths of Hajime Kanai, 71, the captain of one of the boats, and Tomoka Takeishi, a 17-year-old second-year female student aboard the other vessel.
It was the first time since the current basic education law was enacted that the education ministry has found a case in violation of the law on the grounds of political neutrality.
In the report, the ministry criticized the school¡¯s safety management as ¡°extremely inappropriate,¡± noting that it failed to conduct preliminary inspections and that no supervising teachers accompanied the students on the day of the boat tour.
The ministry issued a notice to the Doshisha incorporated educational institution, which operates the high school, and to the Kyoto Prefectural Government, which has jurisdiction over the school, urging improvements.
¡°There are big problems with the educational institution¡¯s management system and with the school¡¯s governance, and their responsibility is extremely heavy,¡± education minister Yohei Matsumoto told a news conference Friday. He also disclosed plans to conduct a survey of schools nationwide on safety in off-campus activities and the state of educational programs.
Kyoto Gov. Takatoshi Nishiwaki told a separate news conference, that the prefectural government has ¡°no choice but to reduce¡± its subsidies for the private high school¡¯s operating costs, which amount to approximately ?200 million annually.
On April 24, the ministry dispatched officials to the Doshisha incorporated educational institution to interview Eiji Hatta, who chairs its Board of Trustees, and Kikuo Nishida, principal of the high school, about safety controls, the history of study trips and educational activities.
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