Making High School Education Free: Debate on Educational Effects not taking place

Editorial

15:00 JST, February 22, 2025

What kind of educational effects will there be if high school tuition is made free? If debates on such matters continue not to take place, it is inevitable that there will be criticism that this is just a handout policy aimed at winning votes.

Regarding an idea to make high school tuition free — a focus of discussion in the current Diet session — the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito plus the opposition Japan Innovation Party have effectively agreed to implement the policy from the new fiscal year for all households with high school students.

Under the current system, households with an annual income of lower than ¥9.1 million receive ¥118,800 per student per year, regardless of whether the student’s school is public or private. If the household’s annual income is less than ¥5.9 million and the student attends a private school, an additional allowance is provided.

In contrast, the current agreement between the ruling parties and the JIP will abolish the ¥9.1 million income standard in the new fiscal year, and the additional allowance for households with children attending private schools will also be expanded starting in fiscal 2026.

The aim of the envisioned system appears to be to enable students to attend their desired school regardless of their family’s income level, but there are also a number of issues.

In Osaka Prefecture, which is already implementing its own free high school education program, the burden for private school tuition fees has been reduced and the popularity of private high schools has increased. However, half of public high schools in the prefecture have seen their student numbers fall below capacity. In Tokyo, which has also made tuition free, there has also been a shift away from public high schools.

There also are arguments that many private schools will raise their tuition fees one after another to take advantage of the new free tuition. There are also concerns that the number of students going to private high schools with regular courses will increase, while public technical and agricultural high schools may go into decline as a result.

The current agreement does not address these issues.

If the aim of the agreed proposal is to improve education, it should be the role of the Diet to engage in a fundamental debate on issues such as why making education free for all, even including families with high incomes, would help motivate students to learn, or how it would develop children with a rich sense of humanity.

It is disappointing that the minority ruling coalition agreed to the demands of the JIP without deepening debate on the issue, as a way to pass the budget for fiscal 2025. The source of the over ¥500 billion per year needed to implement tuition-free education is also unclear. Can it be said that the LDP and Komeito have fulfilled their responsibilities as the ruling parties?

The JIP’s intent to materialize its signature policy of free high school education to gain public support for the party is obvious. Every party is probably hoping to make an appeal to the public ahead of the House of Councillors election this summer, but if that is the case, voters would see right through them.

The three parties are also said to be planning to make elementary school lunches free from fiscal 2026, and then expand the program to junior high schools. While the significance of reducing the burden on families and allowing children to lead their school lives in peace is great, this will also require a huge amount of funding.

It is important that all these policies are thoroughly discussed in terms of their effects and the fiscal resources for them, rather than as part of a political maneuver.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Feb. 22, 2025)