nuclear-news

The textbooks are the first to be screened and approved by the education ministry since the triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The results of the screening were announced April 4.

子どもたちに、どう東日本大震災を伝えるか。４日に発表された震災後初の小学生向け教科書には、出版各社の苦悩がにじむ。原子について習わない小学生に原発事故の教訓を伝えようと、教科書検定の壁と格闘した理科の編集者がいた。被災地の子どもの気持ちを考え、津波の生々しい描写を避けた教科書もあった。

Five of the six publishers considered taking up the topic, but four eventually gave up. This was mainly because the word “atom” is not included in the education ministry’s curriculum guidelines for science in elementary school, making teaching how a nuclear plant works even harder than it is.

An editor at one publisher also said, “We could not deal with the issue negatively when our textbook is used in some municipalities hosting a nuclear plant.”

Even the science textbook from Dainippon Tosho Publishing Co., the only one that covers the accident, simply wrote: “The earthquake off the Pacific coast of the Tohoku region triggered an accident at a nuclear power plant.” The textbook mentioned effective use of resources as a lesson from the accident.

One publisher, though, tried hard to include an analysis of radiation in its science textbook for sixth graders.

“(Radiation) is an issue we will face for years,” said Takahiro Yano, editor in chief of the elementary school science textbooks division at Gakko Tosho Co. “We thought that if it is a science textbook, the issue should be included.”

But as the word “radiation” is also not included in the guidelines, publishers cannot take up the issue directly.

Under the circumstances, Gakko Tosho tried to include an explanation of radiation at the bottom of a one-page column on the life of Marie Curie, a Polish-born physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radiation.

The publisher tried to relate the column with the guidelines and included two lines on a water solution–which is taught under the guidelines for sixth-graders–because Curie used a water solution in her study.

However, the textbook failed to pass the ministry’s screening.

“There is no appropriate relation with the curriculum guidelines,” the education ministry’s comment said.

The publisher finally gave up on including the column after repeated discussions did not change the ministry’s view.

Nelson

Live from Lalaland