Thursday, March 12, 2009

Meeting on Education Rebuilding

Prime Minister Taro Aso held the 8th Meeting on Education Rebuilding at the Prime Minister's Office.

At the meeting, discussions took place with a renewed membership joined by six new members including Dr. Makoto Kobayashi, a winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics and an Executive Director of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The members decided to conduct discussions going forward on the themes of (i) global strategy for education; (ii) a society with a reassuring education system; (iii) development of creative human resources for science and technology; and (iv) a Sports Nation Japan. It was also decided to establish two working groups that would each deliberate on the board of education system and on sovereignty education.

In his address, Prime Minister Aso said, "I am very thankful that we can jump-start discussions at the Meeting on Education Rebuilding with an even further enhanced membership. For a nation of scarce resources, the essence of nation-building lies particularly in human resources development. We have selected issues to be deliberated. Globalization has advanced so much as to make the abilities of reading, writing, arithmetic, and English speaking all the more important. We also need to consider issues such as the quality of public schools and equal educational opportunities. We place great expectations on potentials to be fulfilled by those strong in science and math. Sports play a significant role in inspiring the people."