Twelve more correspondence high schools around the nation have been found to have recruited students with inappropriate claims regarding government subsidies, the education ministry said Wednesday.
The ministry released the results of an emergency probe conducted after Wits Aoyama Gakugen high school in the city of Iga, Mie Prefecture, was recently found to have given its correspondence students credits for off-campus activities such as counting change at theme parks and having lunch at restaurants.
Wits Aoyama has been ordered to stop recruiting students and to return the state subsidies paid to support the enrollment of five students.
For one, Koyo Gakuen high school in Ibaraki Prefecture advertised that, in a new course to be introduced in April, students would be able to cover the costs to obtain a driver's license with the school's tuition. Kumamoto Prefecture-based Hitotsuba high school meanwhile described government subsidies for the students as a "bonus" in its promotional materials.
The subsidies have not been paid yet at both schools. The schools will correct the ads as instructed by the ministry.
Nine other schools have been found to have doled out state subsidies to students who were not qualified to receive them or given more amounts than permitted due to accounting errors, the ministry said.