Students, parents and officials in Saitama Prefecture are sharply divided over a move to make girls- and boys-only public high schools coed, after a prefectural panel said last year that rejecting girls at boys-only schools is against the United Nations convention on discrimination against women.
On Thursday, the prefecture's education board said in a report that it will “actively promote making (high schools) coed,” without citing a specific timeline or high school names.
“We need to make it a goal to make 12 schools coed,” said Toru Hiyoshi, Saitama’s education superintendent.