High school tuition in Nara to become free

OSAKA, Oct 19 (News On Japan) - Nara Prefecture plans to introduce a system next year to subsidize high school students, effectively making tuition free for households with an annual income below 9.1 million yen.

Governor Yamashita of Nara Prefecture disclosed the new system on Wednesday, with plans for the next fiscal year to provide subsidies of up to 630,000 yen per student per year for high school tuition, including private high schools. Parents or guardians will bear the costs that exceed this amount.

The target group includes 1st to 3rd-year high school students attending schools within the prefecture. An income limitation is set, applying to households with an annual income of less than 9.10 million yen. Even for households above this threshhold, if they are raising three or more children, they will receive a subsidy of up to 60,000 yen per child.

The move to make high school tuition free was a pledge made by Governor Yamashita during the gubernatorial elections in April of this year, with plans to increase the budget more than 10 times to incorporate the newly proposed system.

by Brian Dentry

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