英字新聞

The Yomiuri Shimbun 8:47 pm, April 15, 2014
Local boards of education must act in conformity with revision of law
竹富町の教科書　法改正の趣旨踏まえた対応に

The town board of education in Taketomi, Okinawa Prefecture, which has deviated from rules regarding the selection of textbooks for use in public schools and continues to use a textbook of its own choice, recently announced that it will not comply with a demand for corrective action from the education ministry.
　ルールを逸脱し、独自採択した教科書を使用し続けている沖縄県の竹富町教育委員会が、文部科学省の是正要求に応じない方針を表明した。

The law on the free provision of school textbooks stipulates that a joint textbook adoption district−comprising more than one municipality−must adopt the same textbook throughout.
　教科書無償措置法は、複数の自治体で構成する共同採択地区では、同一の教科書を採択するよう定めている。

The Taketomi Board of Education’s adoption of a textbook of its own choice clearly violates the law. It was only to be expected that the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology ministry would issue a demand for corrective action, based on the Local Government Law.
　竹富町教委だけが独自に異なる教科書を採択したのは、明らかに違法行為である。文科省が地方自治法に基づき、是正要求を発動したのは当然のことだった。

The town board of education’s refusal to obey the corrective order shows a lack of willingness to comply with the law that is notable for an institution responsible for the administration of education. Such a position can hardly be tolerated.
　是正要求に従おうとしない竹富町教委の姿勢は、教育行政を担う機関として、順法精神に欠け、許されるものではない。

If a board of education has a problem with a demand from the ministry for corrective action, it can file a formal objection and seek a review by a committee dedicated to settling national-local disputes, a third-party organization affiliated with the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry. It is hard to understand why the Taketomi board has not sought recourse via this process.
　是正要求に不服がある場合、第三者機関である国地方係争処理委員会に審査を申し立てることができる。竹富町教委がこの手続きをとらないことも理解に苦しむ。

In 2011, the textbook selection council of the Yaeyama district, comprising the city of Ishigaki and the towns of Taketomi and Yonaguni, selected a civic studies textbook published by Ikuhosha Publishing Inc. for use in middle schools. The problem started when the Taketomi Board of Education decided alone to adopt a textbook published by Tokyo Shoseki Co.
　石垣市、竹富町、与那国町による八重山地区の採択地区協議会は２０１１年、中学校の公民教科書に育鵬社の教科書を選んだ。これに対し、竹富町教委が東京書籍版を採択したのが問題の発端だ。

Little coverage of territories

The textbook published by Ikuhosha contains a full description of territorial issues, including the government’s perspective on Takeshima island and the Senkaku Islands.
　育鵬社版は、竹島や尖閣諸島についての政府見解を書き込むなど、領土に関する説明が充実している。

The text published by Tokyo Shoseki, on the other hand, contains little description regarding territorial issues, while covering issues concerning U.S. military bases in Okinawa Prefecture in detail.
東京書籍版は、領土の記述が少ない一方で、沖縄の在日米軍基地問題に詳しく触れている。

Objections within the prefecture to the Ikuhosha textbook, the authors of which include former members of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, may also have influenced the Taketomi Board of Education’s textbook choice.
　「新しい歴史教科書をつくる会」の元メンバーらが執筆する育鵬社版に対し、沖縄県内で反発があることも、竹富町教委の独自採択に影響しているのだろう。

The board is seeking independence from Yaeyama district’s textbook selection council, and is working toward securing autonomy to select textbooks for use in the town from the next fiscal year onward. This course of action is also questionable.
　竹富町教委は八重山地区の協議会からの離脱を要望し、来年度から使う教科書の単独採択を目指すという。これも疑問である。

A revised law on the free provision of school textbooks was enacted on April 9. The wording of the revised law to describe administrative units of joint textbook adoption districts was changed from “cities and counties” to “cities, towns and villages.” Based on this change, the Taketomi Board of Education asserts that it is now possible for it to adopt a textbook of its own choice.
　今月９日に改正教科書無償措置法が成立し、採択地区の設定単位が「市郡」から「市町村」に改められた。それを根拠に、竹富町教委は単独採択が可能になったと主張している。

Yet the purpose of the revision is to allow textbooks to be selected by educational districts that combine towns and villages more flexibly, rather than being bound to county divisions that no longer correspond to the distribution of local communities and their livelihoods due to merger of cities, town and villages in recent years.
　だが、改正の目的は、市町村合併で郡が実際の生活圏と重ならなくなったため、郡にとらわれず、町村の柔軟な組み合わせを可能にする点にある。
　
The joint textbook selection system is absolutely intended to remain in place, and the legal revision is by no means intended to fragment educational districts.
あくまで共同採択制度は維持しており、採択地区の細分化を図ったわけではない。

It is inevitable that the Taketomi Board of Education’s policy of breaking away from the educational district will be criticized as an attempt at distorting the legal revision to its own advantage.
竹富町教委の離脱方針は、法改正を逆手にとったものと批判されても仕方あるまい。

The joint textbook selection system has merits, such as the ability for smaller municipalities to cooperate with one another in the careful adoption of textbooks.
　共同採択制度には、小規模自治体が協力し合うことで、丁寧に教科書を選べる利点がある。

It is the Okinawa Prefectural Board of Education that will decide how municipalities will combine to form textbook selection districts. We hope the prefectural board will make its decision according to the spirit in which the legal revision was intended.
　採択地区の構成を決めるのは沖縄県教委だ。法改正の趣旨をしっかり踏まえ、適切な判断をしてもらいたい。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, April 15, 2014)