On Dec. 13, the Central Council for Education handed education minister Hakubun Shimomura two sets of proposals to reform boards of education. One of them would give local government heads the final responsibility for local education administration and downgrade boards of education. The other would let boards of education retain the final responsibility for local education administration but allow local government heads to appoint heads of the secretariats of boards who will carry out day-to-day administrative work.
Under the latter proposal, local government heads could not give direct instructions to secretariat heads.
The Abe administration plans to submit a bill to revise the local education administration law by incorporating the first proposal to the Diet next year. Clearly this proposal will increase the chances of local government heads — prefectural governors and municipal mayors — intervening in local education and influencing it according to their political and social views. The administration should refrain from incorporating the council's first proposal into the revision bill.