Reuters
Wednesday, January 24, 2007; 11:15 AM
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese students need to work harder, spend more time in school and face stricter discipline, advisers to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday in a report the premier described as "wonderful."
Abe pledged when he took office last year to revive patriotism in the nation's classrooms, part of his goal of making Japan a "beautiful country" proud of its past and committed to a greater global role.
The panel also proposed revising a 1940s ban on physical punishment of students, according to a copy of the report published by Kyodo news agency.
The panel suggested the government increase classroom hours by about 10 percent to strengthen academic fundamentals and introduce a license renewal system for teachers.
It recommended allowing the suspension of students as one method of dealing with bullying, a persistent problem in Japanese schools.
The education system has come under fire recently for a series of student suicides linked to bullying as well as a scandal in which hundreds of schools let students skip courses so they could focus on studying for highly competitive university entrance exams.
"Now we have to make this into law, reform the system and then carry it out in schools, which is the really important thing," Abe told reporters.
"It may take a long time for results to be seen, but it is my responsibility to do everything that I can now," he said.
Parliament last month enacted a law that would help inject more patriotism into Japanese schools, although critics said this would do little to resolve problems such as bullying.
Long known for its emphasis on rote learning, Japan in 2002 adopted a policy of "yutori kyoiku" -- "pressure-free education" -- that included introduction of a two-day weekend in order to help promote creative self-starters.
But the system has been criticized for weakening academic performance.
"The new proposals don't reject the idea of pressure-free education itself, it's simply that the original intentions of the system have not been realized," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told a news conference.
"There has been a drop in academic performance, and that's why the proposals included more class hours," he added.