Regarding the Sept. 28 article "Tokai tasked with continuing education reforms": Increasing the number of teachers in the schools is not the solution. Improving the attitudes and integrity of everyone concerned -- from the education minister to the classroom teachers -- can help a lot.
The conclusion that Education Minister Kisaburo Tokai gives clearly illustrates the root of our problem. A minister who has been chosen to guide reform of the school system should not avoid his responsibility with comments like "(Ministers) shouldn't say anything" about the textbook screening process because the panel, which is made up of academics and schoolteachers, checks textbook drafts and judges whether the drafts have errors and inappropriate descriptions.
Even worse than shirking his responsibility is that he does not seem to care about the truth. (Did the Japanese military force Okinawans to commit mass suicide in 1945 or not?) Tokai shows that he is only concerned about politics.
"I think (screening) should be done more carefully in dealing with (historical descriptions), taking into account the feelings of the people in Okinawa," he said.
Sadly, education in Japan will not begin to improve until we face the honest truth about ourselves, past and present.
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