'Eigo Noto' avoids budget ax

今日のDY（09/08/10）の一面にあった記事です。DY onlineにもあったので，全文引用します。（院生 小山本）

'Eigo Noto' avoids budget ax
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The education ministry has decided to continue free distribution of "Eigo Noto" (English Notebook) teaching aids for primary school English classes even after fiscal 2011, although discontinuation after that time was decided in last year's budget screening, it was learned Tuesday.
Primary school English classes will be compulsory for fifth- and sixth-year students from the 2011 academic year, which starts from April next year, but it will not be regarded as a "subject" that requires student evaluations. Each school year, 35 classes are held for each grade.
The primary school English classes, conducted as part of "foreign language activities," aim to give pupils an opportunity to learn about different languages and cultures as well as develop basic communication skills.
Eigo Noto supplements use abundant illustrations. Greetings and how to count can be learned through games and quizzes.
Ahead of the official introduction from April next year, English classes have been conducted at almost all primary schools, although the number of classroom hours differs from school to school. The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry has been distributing the supplementary materials since the 2009 academic year.
As there are no textbooks for primary school English classes and teachers with good English teaching abilities are scarce, the Eigo Noto teaching aids have been welcomed as valuable teaching materials.
However, it was decided during the budget screening in November last year that the practice of distributing them will be abolished.
Screeners made such comments as, "Why should English be taught at primary schools?" or, "They should be distributed to each school by digitalizing them." The discontinuation of the program was decided after only about 30 minutes of discussion.
The ministry decided to continue free distribution of the materials until fiscal 2011 and study measures to digitalize the contents for Internet distribution from the 2012 academic year.
However, primary schools fiercely opposed this decision.
More than 2,000 e-mails and telephone calls opposing the decision flooded the ministry until the end of last year after it invited public opinions. On-the-spot interviews by the ministry at more than 100 schools and boards of education throughout the nation found strong opinions favoring the program's continuation.
Moreover, the ministry found the alternative measures would be quite costly, sources said.
The government's current method, whereby 2.6 million copies of the materials are printed, costs only 40 yen per copy. However, the total cost will be three to four times higher if boards of education or schools themselves have to print the digitalized materials, according to trial calculations by the ministry.
Furthermore, transmission of the digitalized materials via the Internet will incur copyright fees for illustrations and photos, according to the sources.
"In the end, the alternative measures run against the cost-cutting philosophy," a senior ministry official said.
Therefore, the ministry reversed the policy and decided to continue the Eigo Noto free distribution program. Use of the Internet will be adopted only partially. The ministry included expenses related to the program in its budget request for the next fiscal year.
It was finally decided to make primary school English classes compulsory after more than 20 years of discussion. But the central government's assistance measures to local governments in implementing the decision have not been satisfactory.
They include the free distribution of Eigo Noto and help with training costs for assistant language teachers.
Last year's budget screening eliminated research expenses for studying whether the classes should be regular subjects in which students are graded and whether the starting year should be changed. Therefore, the budget request for next fiscal year does not include those expenses.
(Sep. 8, 2010)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T100907004437.htm