教育財政システムにおける学校分権の比較研究 : 日本・イギリス・スウェーデンを中心に(II 研究報告)

抄録

This article aims to clarify the importance of the devolution of power and authority to schools in the Japanese educational finance system. With this goal in mind, the systems of educational finance in Japan, the United Kingdom, and Sweden are analyzed from the perspective of authority distribution between the central government, local government, and schools. "School" here is defined as public compulsory primary and secondary schools. In the United Kingdom's educational finance system, the central government has great power, while in Sweden local government is the main authority in the educational finance system, yet both countries promote reform decentralization at the school level. There is, however, the reality that in the Japanese educational finance system the school is not actually given much authority or power. Japanese elementary and secondary schools thus have many difficulties facing them in terms of acquiring adequate school budgets for school administration and effective budget allocation. In recent years, contract research by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has shown that approximately 70-80% of Japanese head teachers feel a deficiency of budget and a lack of authority. On the other hand, MEXT has been emphasizing a policy of building up "attractive schools." Not surprisingly, this policy has not made much progress because of this lack of ultimate authority. In the international context countries such as the U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand, and various EU nations have seen decentralization at the school level in terms of teacher salaries, the right of employment, and allocation of the school budget. The actual situation of school decentralization, especially the political context in the U.K. and Sweden, are clarified here with the aim of promoting Japanese decentralization to schools. Nowadays, the Japanese government promotes not so much decentralization to schools but to local governments to build up effective and attractive schools. The importance of school-based management and budgets must therefore be recognized. Comparative analysis of the U.K, Sweden and Japan points to the importance of schools in the system of educational finance and administration. This paper first outlines the educational finance system of Japan, the U.K. and Sweden. Then the relevancy between the level of decentralization at the school level and the features of educational finance systems in general are examined. One finding is that there is little direct relevance, in terms of the level of decentralization for schools, concerning the political context of each country. The political background and context of decentralization to school are then investigated, followed by a discussion of the theoretical importance of decentralization to the school level, referring to the theory of School Based Management (SBM) and School Based Budget (SBF). Finally, the importance of the promotion of decentralization to schools, and the conditions needed to achieve this, are examined.