いじめ対策 教育委員会の在り方問い直せ

The Yomiuri Shimbun (Aug. 3, 2012)
Education boards must improve their responses to bullying
いじめ対策　教育委員会の在り方問い直せ（8月2日付・読売社説）

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry has set up a new office specializing in bullying issues in response to a case in which a second-year middle school student committed suicide in Otsu last October.
　文部科学省がいじめ対策を専門に扱う新組織を発足させた。大津市で中学２年生が自殺した問題を受けた措置だ。

In addition, two other serious middle school bullying cases have recently been revealed--one in Soka, Saitama Prefecture, and the other in Neyagawa, Osaka Prefecture--both of which resulted in severe injuries to the bullied students.
　埼玉県草加市や大阪府寝屋川市でも中学生がいじめで重傷を負っていた。

Bullying-related issues continue to appear. We urge the ministry to make effective use of the new office to deter bullying, which causes serious suffering to children.
　いじめを巡る問題は後を絶たない。新たな対策室を有効に機能させ、子供を苦しめるいじめの抑止に役立ててもらいたい。

The new office, established Wednesday, comprises about 20 officials, including some from the National Police Agency. When serious bullying cases are revealed or students commit suicide as a result of bullying, the office is supposed to provide schools and boards of education with instructions and advice regarding how to probe such cases and prevent their recurrence.
　新組織は約２０人の体制だ。警察庁の職員も参加する。深刻ないじめや、いじめを苦にした自殺が起きた際、学校や教育委員会に対し、原因究明や防止策を指導、助言することを想定している。

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Ministry's commitment needed

The ministry used to leave how to respond to bullying cases up to schools and boards of education whenever they came to light. It can be said that the ministry has responded slowly to bullying issues so far even though it is aware of the overall trend of bullying nationwide.
　文科省は従来、個別のいじめの対応については、学校や教委に委ねてきた。全国的な傾向の把握には取り組んできたが、対策は後手に回っていたと言えよう。

Setting up the new office suggests that the ministry has concluded it would be difficult to solve bullying cases as long as it leaves them up to schools and boards of education.
　対策室の設置は、現場任せでは問題は解決しないと判断した結果だろう。

It is necessary for the ministry to gather information related to bullying and establish a framework that will allow it to swiftly respond to emergency cases.
文科省はいじめに関する情報を集約し、緊急を要する事案に対処できる体制を構築していく必要がある。

It is also important for the ministry to dispatch experts to schools and boards of education to give them appropriate advice on preventing children from killing themselves.
　子供の自殺防止のため、専門家を派遣して、適切なアドバイスをすることも重要だ。

It would, however, be unreasonable to expect the ministry to directly respond to every single bullying case. Only schools and boards of education are responsible for dealing with the issue firsthand.
　ただ、文科省がすべてのいじめに直接対応するのは無理がある。最前線でいじめ対策を担うのは、やはり学校や教育委員会だ。

The Otsu case has revealed how dysfunctional the city's board of education was in responding to the problem. Reforming education boards is an urgent task.
　大津市の問題では市教委の機能不全が浮き彫りになった。教委の立て直しは喫緊の課題である。

The Otsu Municipal Board of Education rushed to wrap up its investigation even though many students at the public school the boy attended told how he was bullied when the board surveyed them following his suicide.
　大津市教委は生徒の自殺後に実施したアンケートで、多くの生徒からいじめに関する情報を得ながら、早々に調査を打ち切った。

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Board showed no understanding

Members of the board, moreover, reportedly did not raise any questions or express any opinions regarding the case during their regular meetings following the suicide. The board did not show that it understood the seriousness of the case or that it was committed to probing the cause of the suicide.
　自殺後に開かれた市教委の定例会では、教育委員からいじめ問題への質問や意見は出なかったという。市教委には、問題の重大性の認識も、自殺の原因を究明しようという姿勢も感じられない。

This seriously calls into question whether boards of education are really necessary.
　教育委員会の存在意義が厳しく問われている。

It has long been said that boards of education--most of whose members are appointed from among local communities--lack substance. Although the boards are independent from the heads of local governments, it is often the case that the majority of board members simply rubber-stamp decisions made by their secretariats, which handle practical affairs.
　地域住民から任命された委員らで構成する教委については、かねて形骸化が指摘されている。首長から独立した機関であるにもかかわらず、実務を担う事務局の方針を追認するケースが目立つ。

Many boards of education have former teachers as their superintendents--the heads of the secretariats. A common criticism is that such superintendents fail to respond properly when problems arise because they feel camaraderie with the teachers involved.
　事務局を統括する教育長の多くは教師出身者だ。学校で問題が生じた際に、「仲間意識」が働いて適切な対応がとれていないとの批判も絶えない。

Some observers strongly feel that boards of education are unnecessary.
　教委不要論も根強い。

Some heads of local governments insist that it should be up to them to decide whether to even have such boards, in light of moves toward the decentralization of power.
地方分権の観点から、教委の設置を自治体の選択制にすべきだと主張する首長もいる。

Should boards of education be left as they are?
教育委員会は現状のままでいいのか。

It is necessary for the ministry to review the system.
文科省はその在り方を再検討する必要があろう。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Aug. 2, 2012)
（2012年8月2日01時26分 読売新聞）