Students aren't completing their work-and they still graduate.

The health ministry plans to crack down on ``sloppy'' schools that churn out licensed specialists, including care workers, despite inadequate curriculums and unqualified teachers.

At one school for students seeking to become nursing-care workers, a nurse was found to be teaching a general medical class in place of a physician. In another class, a social welfare worker was in charge of a mental health class instead of a psychiatrist.

Many other schools allowed students to graduate without putting in the required number of class hours.

The problems with the schools were uncovered in a survey conducted by the Kanto Regional Administrative Evaluation Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

The survey covered 97 major vocational schools and junior colleges in the Kanto and Koshin regions between August and November 2004.

Alarmed by such ``sloppy'' operations, the internal affairs ministry asked the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare for tighter inspections of schools it sanctions.

The health ministry has instructed its regional bureaus to regularly inspect the schools. Ministry officials also plan to order schools to correct their problems.

Some of the schools argue that the lax rules are needed because there are not enough teachers to go around.

But the internal affairs ministry says there is no excuse for insufficient studies or for putting unqualified people in positions that deal with public health.

``That could lead to a lower quality (of professionals) when many concern qualifications that could affect human life,'' a ministry official said.

At these schools, graduates can obtain government qualifications or licenses as certified care workers, social welfare secretaries, cooks, nutritionists and nursery school teachers simply by completing the accredited courses.

Graduates of other courses for barbers, cosmetologists, certified social workers, mental welfare specialists and confectionary hygienists qualify to take national examinations for certification in their fields.

To obtain the qualifications, students must attend a certain number of hours in class of the required subjects. But at 19 schools, students obtained qualifications although the actual timetable did not provide a sufficient number of class hours.

Students at 32 schools surveyed were allowed to graduate without attending classes for the required number of hours. One cooking school graduated 10 students who studied 10 to 98 hours below the requirements.

Twelve schools even had rules that openly acknowledge such leniency. One said if students attend at least two-thirds of the required number of classes, they can take a graduation examination.

Unqualified people were giving lessons at 33 schools.

A similar survey at the Hokkaido Regional Administrative Evaluation Bureau found some of the same problems at 17 of the 20 schools covered. The internal affairs ministry's five other regional bureaus are either conducting or planning their own surveys.

Some school operators admit they have difficulty strictly abiding by government regulations.

``Schools are already near saturation and some cannot sign on a sufficient number of qualified teachers,'' said a source with ties to a nursing care worker training school in Saitama.

The Japan Association of Dietitian Training Institutes, meantime, says its members at least stick to the principle that students should not be allowed to graduate without passing their graduation exams.(IHT/Asahi: February 8,2005)