EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM & PRACTICE IN JAPAN

74	“VII Cooperation between School and Local Community”	Previous	Next	JAPANESE

	Under compulsory education, tuition fees are free at national and public elementary and lower secondary schools, and textbooks are also supplied for free. However, parents incur expenditures such as teaching materials except for textbooks, experiments and practical activities, and school events. Elementary and lower secondary schools that serve school luncheons, charge parents for a part of the costs. Depending on local autonomous bodies or schools, school lunch fees are collected by directly charging bank accounts or are collected in classes directly as monthly class expenditures. Families with economic difficulties may not be able to afford such school expenditures. They can benefit from welfare services and receive assistance such as school supplies, educational materials, and school luncheon fees that are needed for compulsory education in the form of “educational aid.” * Among the expenditures listed above, some are defrayed by parents separately, and others are collected at school. In these cases, the expenditures are charged directly to bank accounts or collected in the form of money as expenditure on class by a home-room teacher. (Class fee --> Ⅴ 41)