The Education Ministry will ask for nearly double its previous share of tax money in fiscal 2000 to put more of the nation's schools online, according to its draft budget request for next year, released Friday.
The ministry plans to allocate 5.2 billion yen of its budget to promote information technology in schools and train teachers to teach students how to use computers. The amount is 2.5 billion yen more than the 1999 figure of 2.6 billion yen.
About 40 percent will be used to develop education software and establish a digital national library that about 8,000 schools will have access to by 2005.
Despite efforts to promote computers in schools, a ministry survey early this month showed that two out of five public school teachers cannot even use personal computers, while three out of four said they could not conduct classes involving computers.
The draft includes requests for additional funding for new projects, including proposals to set up community foreign language classes and local offices to promote volunteer activities within schools.
These projects boost the ministry budget estimate to a total of 5.9 trillion yen, up 1.3 percent from the fiscal 1999 budget of 5.87 trillion yen.
One of the proposals the ministry is studying involves adding listening comprehension tests to a set of English-language exams required for entering all public universities and more than half of all private institutions.
The proposal would affect more than half a million senior high school students and is being reviewed by the National Center for University Entrance Examination.
If the tests are approved, the ministry plans to set up a committee within the center sometime in fiscal 2000, which begins on April 1, 2000.
The committee would be composed of officials from senior high schools and universities who would study probable costs, the number of exam proctors and other considerations.