The government plans to offer educational support to Afghanistan by constructing schools and dispatching teachers as part of efforts to rebuild the war-torn country.
A project team will be set up on Tuesday by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to discuss educational aid for the reconstruction of the country after the fighting, government officials said.
The aid will be a key element of Tokyo's Afghan support plan, to be announced at a ministerial meeting in late January of donors assisting efforts to rebuild the country, they said. The conference will be hosted by Japan.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi instructed officials to prepare the educational aid plan after meeting with education minister Atsuko Toyama on Tuesday.
Toyama told Koizumi that education will help save children in Afghanistan whose lives have been marked by hatred and sadness.
The officials said the government is studying a plan to build 100 schools in Afghanistan by utilizing its official development assistance to the country and also to set up one or more teacher training schools.
Tokyo also plans a long-term dispatch of teachers and staff to each Afghan school to oversee management and set teaching policies, they said.
The planned project team will draw up policies that can be immediately implemented, according to Fumio Kishida, senior vice education minister, who will head the team.
However, it remains unclear how soon school-building projects can be started, as fighting continues in Afghanistan.
The education ministry will gather information on desirable sites and construction methods for schools with cooperation from the Foreign Ministry. It will also work out details of staff dispatch for the schools from Japan, the officials said.