In the last election of the House of Councilors the ruling coalition government won the majority. The consumption tax rate will be surged  in October as scheduled. In parallel the pledge of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) made during the 2017 general election will be implemented – free education for children in a kindergarten and a nursery school. A question remains – does the policy’s priority rightly respond to urgent needs?

LIMITED NUMBER OF CHILDREN CAN ENJOY BENEFITS

The policy that will start in October covers ‘all children between three and five years old who attend a kindergarten or a nursery school and those between zero and two years old attending a nursery whose parents are categorized as a low-income household’.

A few children do not attend a kindergarten or nursery school when they are between three years old and five. For infants from zero to two years old tuition fee is higher than that for 3-5 years old children. Many infants wait for vacancy of a nursery school. Priority should be given to those younger children between zero and two years old.

Parents pay for lunch

The state sets standards for school lunch: 3,000 Yen for rice and 4,500 Yen for side dishes, or meat/fish and vegetable, a month, respectively. For a kindergarten child his/her parents pay for actual costs for the both, while for a nursery school child his/her parents pay for the actual cost for rice when the child is between 3 and 5 years old. The actual costs for dishes are included in the monthly fee. For children between zero and two all lunch costs are included in the monthly fee.

For a certified nursery school, the monthly fee is calculated on the basis of the income of parents in the proportional ratio. A lunch is not charged separately. And therefore, some municipalities will charge lunch and some will not (because administrative procedures are complicated), or will remain the same as today.

The Cabinet Office decided last May on an exemption measure for a household whose annual income does not reach 3.6 million Yen; they are exempted from paying for costs of side dishes of lunch.

The government’s new policy for children has contradictions.

Children cannot wait

According to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper (dated August 31), the number of children waiting for vacancy of a nursery school counts around 17 thousand as of April 1this year, which is the record lowest (in 2017 the figure was 17,926, which was the lowest). For parents who cannot send their children to a nursery school the new policy does not bring any benefits.

The government announced a decision ‘to build nursery facilities to accept 320 thousand children by the end of the 2020 fiscal to reduce the number of waiting children’. This may be a goal, and priority should be put on this urgent need.

The new policy covers no-certified nursery schools, too. Certified nursery schools increase in number these days in the vicinity of big cities. No-certified nursery, basically, should not exist. In fact accidents occur more frequently than in the certified school. Even though among new nursery schools a few are publicly constructed and managed. Many of them are publicly built but managed by a private sector, or privately built and managed. They do not have their own yard for children to play. Sometimes they have scrambles in the parks. Furthermore, nursery teachers are scarce as privatization worsens working conditions of teachers.

Make investments for children

The new policy covers a limited number of children. It has contradictions. If the government talks about a support system for childcare, it must propose a comprehensive program in which all children should enjoy free education programs before entering the elementary school, no children should wait for vacancy of a nursery school, nursery teachers should enjoy right working conditions and parents should receive right childcare allowances. The government should invest in childcare plans as the future relies on the younger generations.

September 17, 2019