文科省要求改善教育質素及水平

Last month the Yomiuri News on-line reported the following:

必修でｂｅ動詞教える大学、文科省が改善要求

　文部科学省は１２日、新設の大学や学部などの運営状況を調べた２０１３年度の調査結果を発表した。

　中学校レベルの英語の授業で単位認定を行っていたり、教員数が大学設置基準を満たしていなかったりした２６６校に改善を要求した。

　調査は、卒業生がまだ出ていない新設の大学や短大、大学院を中心に、全国５２８校が対象。学生数が定員と大幅に異なったり、定年に達した教員を雇い続けたりする事例が目立ったほか、ヤマザキ学園大（東京都）では、必修科目の英語で、ｂｅ動詞の使い方などを教える授業が行われており、同省は大学教育にふさわしい水準に改めるよう求めた。

　仙台青葉学院短大（仙台市）では、新設の学科で専任教員の７割以上が大卒や専門学校卒の資格しかなく、教育を行う体制が不十分とされた。聖隷クリストファー大（浜松市）では、新設の学科で大学設置基準上８人必要な専任教員が、調査時に６人しかいなかった。中部大（愛知県）の新設学科でも、設置基準上、教授４人が必要だが、２人しかいない時期があり、現在も３人にとどまっている。

（2014年2月12日23時18分  読売新聞）

(試譯文)

On the 12th (February) the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology released the result of an investigation for the fiscal year 2013 which investigated management conditions in new universities and faculties etc.

Improvement was required of 266 schools in which unit authorization was not performed on English lessons at the junior high school level, or the number of teachers did not meet university establishment standards.

In this investigation, 528 schools across the country were the targets, centering on new universities, junior colleges, and graduate schools that had no graduates yet. Cases such as the institutional capacity failed to match the number of students by a large margin; the incidents that teachers who had obviously reached the retirement age continued their employment; in Yamazaki Gakuen University (Tokyo) where English was a compulsory subject, there were classes that taught how to use the “verb to be” etc. This ministry asked for changes in levels to make them suitable for university education.

At Sendai Aoba School junior college (Sendai) in a new teaching subject, only 70 percent or more of all full-time teachers had the qualification of a college graduate or special school graduate, and the educational structure was insufficient. In Seirei Christopher University (Hamamatsu), in a new teaching subject which needed eight full-time teachers by university establishment standards, at the time of investigation there were only six people. At Chubu University (Aichi Prefecture) although four professors were required for a new teaching subject based on the establishment criteria, there were only two people at times, and currently only three people stayed on.

(23:18 on February 12, 2014    Yomiuri Shimbun)

Obviously the government has the responsibility to ensure the quality of educational institutions.