The Education Ministry on Wednesday submitted a 7.01 trillion yen budget request for fiscal 2003, up 6.7 percent from its initial fiscal 2002 budget and with a major increase in funds earmarked for English teaching, ministry officials said.
Expanded efforts to improve the quality of English education will require 2.49 billion yen, more than eight times the amount spent in the current fiscal year, they said.
"We want to improve the current English education by providing more money," said Yasutaka Moriguchi, director of the ministry's budget and accounts division.
Moriguchi said the extra funds would be used to provide intensive training programs for all 60,000 English teachers at junior high and high schools nationwide.
The project also includes increasing the number of Super English Language High Schools, which are assigned to develop effective English teaching methods and curricula, from 16 to 58.
The planned budget is about five times the current budget.
In the budget request, the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry also envisions allocating 7.72 billion yen to improve students' academic achievements in general.
Moriguchi said the ministry plans to provide better instruction to children of different levels of understanding by offering lessons from basic to advanced levels.