The Osaka Prefectural Assembly passed a package of ordinances Friday designed to reinforce the governor's control over school education and toughen disciplinary action against incompetent teachers.
Under the ordinances crafted by the Osaka Restoration Association, led by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, the Osaka governor will set educational achievement targets in consultation with the prefectural board of education.
While board members will be responsible for self-assessing their achievements, the governor will decide whether to remove them from the board if they fail to live up to the targets.
In addition, teachers, subject to complaints of incompetence filed by parents of schoolchildren, will be dismissed if they fail to improve after receiving training. The criteria for gauging competence was not specified.
Among other measures set by the ordinances, teachers will be evaluated on a five-point scale, starting in fiscal 2013, and those remaining at the lowest 5 percent evaluation level for two years in a row will be subject to dismissal.
Along with the Osaka Restoration Association, the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito also voted for the ordinances.
But schoolteachers and educational experts are strongly opposed to the ordinances, claiming they will lead to tightening the governor's supervision of education.