EducationNews.org

The average number of library books checked out by primary school students in the 2007 academic year hit a record high of 35.9, the Education, Science and Technology Ministry said Thursday.

The Education, Science and Technology Ministry has started studying concrete ways of granting benefits to make public high school education effectively free--one of the main election pledges of the Democratic Party of Japan--ahead of the formation of a DPJ-led government.

Schools began second terms Tuesday, with many taking special measures to prevent students becoming infected en masse with the new strain of influenza, such as the conducting of opening ceremonies via TV monitors or outdoors instead of inside school gyms.

The Education, Science and Technology Ministry is demanding the suspension of a procedure the government conducts before assessing whether each ministry and agency is using its budget for certain policies efficiently, it was learned Saturday.

Tohoku University allowed a former student of an Iranian research institute on a government list of entities that could contribute to the development of nuclear weapons to study nuclear technologies connected with the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Thursday.  

The Liberal Democratic Party will introduce free education for preschool children aged between 3 and 5 over the next four years and take quick steps to support people's livelihoods

Chirstopher Bishop, a computer science professor at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, told children attending his Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on Friday