## 3 Ensuring safe and secure educational environment

## (1) Creating safe and secure school facilities

## [Promotion of Earthquake Resistant Public School Facilities]

Public school facilities are not only places where schoolchildren spend almost all day, they also serve as temporary evacuation centers for local residents when earthquakes or other disasters occur. Therefore, our top priority is to improve earthquake resistance so as to ensure safety of these facilities.

In order to improve earthquake resistance of public school facilities efficiently. MEXT provides state subsidies to cover the expenses for projects to improve earthquake resistance implemented by local governments, such as expenses for reconstruction, seismic reinforcement and the seismic diagnosis which are a prerequisite for improving earthquake resistance.

According to a survey conducted by MEXT in April 2007, however, less than 60% of public elementary and junior high school (including the first half of secondary school) facilities were earthquake-resistant. And also there were large regional gaps in the progress in improving earthquake resistance. This survey also revealed that there was a certain percentage of buildings which would have a high risk of collapse in an earthquake exceeding magnitude 6 in seismic intensity.

MEXT implements necessary measures for improving earthquake resistance of public school facilities such as providing guidance for local governments (e.g. through notifications) of publishing earthquake resistance of each school facility and setting priorities on improvement of earthquake resistance of school facilities at especially high risk.

Thus, MEXT strives to create safe and secure school facilities (see Part II, Chapter 12, Section 2, Part II, Chapter 13 Topics).

## [Anti-crime measures at school facilities]

Because school facilities are a place where many schoolchildren undergoing mental and physical growth spend time learning and living part of their lives, it is important to ensure safety against crime. In order to protect children's safety, teaching staff and other concerned parties must collaborate closely with a crisis management consciousness and implement specific anti-crime measures on an ongoing basis. These measures must be comprehensive in scope, including not only equipment and facilities but also administrative measures.

In school facilities improvement guidelines, MEXT describes the basic approach to anti-crime measures for school facilities and indicates key points relating to planning and design. MEXT also prepares handbooks that present examples of measures taken by schools and makes these known to concerned parties of schools (see Part II, Chapter 12, Section 2). MEXT will continue encouraging schools to implement systematic and ongoing anti-crime measures.

## (2) Ensuring children’s safety on and off school grounds (see Part II, Chapter 8, Section 6-3)

Incidents where children are subjected to crime occur not only on school grounds but also when they are on their way to and from school, and ensuring children’s safety at these times has become a major problem. In order that children may receive education safely and without worry, protecting children from crime at school and on streets used by students is an extremely important priority.

To ensure the safety of schoolchildren when traveling to and from school, the community as a whole must establish a protection system, and it is important to create an atmosphere that assures that schoolchildren's safety is being protected by the entire community. This can be achieved by enlisting the cooperation of volunteers who could watch over children on their way to and from school while greeting and talking with them, and by setting up signs.

▲School safety volunteers leaving school with children (Kumamoto Prefecture)