Korean schools urge gov`t not to exclude them from tuition-free plan

TOKYO, March 3 Kyodo -
Pro-Pyongyang high schools and their supporters urged the government Wednesday
not to make such schools an exception of a planned tuition-free program for
high schools, stressing that political and diplomatic reasons should be set
aside to provide all students with equal rights.
''Teachers, students and parents are all surprised and feel very strong anger
at (the possibility of the government) excluding Korean schools'' from the
program, said Choe In Tae, vice chairman of the Conference of Principals of
Korean High Schools in Japan during a press conference at the Foreign
Correspondents' Club of Japan.
He said Korean high schools are no different from other high schools in Japan
and that excluding them from the tuition-free program based on ''political and
diplomatic reasons,'' an action he said is a violation of human rights, would
encourage ''ethnic discrimination.''
The Democratic Party of Japan-led government has placed priority on making high
school education tuition-free since the party swept to power in the general
election last August.
But Hiroshi Nakai, state minister in charge of abduction issues involving North
Korea, has called on the education ministry to exclude high schools having
close relationships with the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan,
which supports North Korea, saying Japan should weigh the fact that it has
imposed sanctions on the reclusive nation.
Om Kwang Ja, the 47-year-old mother of a second-year student at Tokyo Korean
Junior & Senior High School in Tokyo, expressed disappointment as she had hoped
the DPJ-led government would improve the situation surrounding Korean residents
in Japan.
''As Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama advocates 'yuai' (fraternity), we did not
doubt at all that we would be included (in the program),'' she said, adding
that she does not want to pass a ''bitter legacy'' experienced by Korean
residents in Japan onto the next generation.
While expressing his willingness to see students from pro-Pyongyang senior high
schools to grasp the situation by himself, Hatoyama has stressed that North
Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals will not play a part in making a
decision.
Members of the Diet are divided over the issue of whether to exclude such
schools from the program, which is set to be established by a bill that has
been deliberated in the lower house for possible passage by the end of March.
During the press conference, Choe said he hopes Hatoyama will visit Korean
schools in Japan to see how they offer education.
In Japan, schools affiliated with North Korea, with which Tokyo does not have
diplomatic ties, are defined as vocational schools and supervised by local
governments.
==Kyodo