What is Bellmark?
What is Bellmark?
Bellmark is a special coupon birthed in Bellmark Organization. It is a non-profit organization. Bell means Let’s ring “bells of love” for our friends at home and abroad. Some merchandises, in particular packages of food, have Bellmark, so you can find many merchandises which have Bellmark in the supermarkets and convenience store in Japan. If a school or PTA tries to collect Bellmark and send them to Bellmark Organization,the school can get equipment for the school without paying money. Because 1 point of Bellmark is 1 yen. As it were, Bellmark is like money used only in educational world.
Mainly, many public elementary schools collect Bellmark to get equipment. Some public junior high schools collect it, but it seems so rare. Anyway, almost alll Japanese know Bellmark.
Why was Bellmark born?
After World War Ⅱ, Japan got so poor. New legislation for public education was introduced, but all schools were lack of everything for schooling. Especially, it was really hard for rural areas to prepare better environment for teachers and pupils. In addition, most education boards don’t have enough budget to buy equipment for school. For the purpose of creating a better environment in isolated district, Bellmark Organization was established and Bellmark Campaign launched in 1960. Gradually, Bellmark Campaign spread, at the same time, many companies attend Bellmark Campaign. Today, several commodities have Bellmark and everyone takes part in Bellmark Campaign at ease. Quite a few schools collect Bellmark and they got equipment.
How to get equipment by Bellmark?
1. Each family finds Bellmark at home from merchandises.
2. They cut Bellmark from each merchandise.
3. Parents or pupils bring Bellmark to school.
4. At school, PTA, fundamentally parents of pupils, counts Bellmark.
5. They put Bellmark in order on Bellmark sheets.
6. School send Bellmark sheets with Bellmark.
7. According to Bellmark points, school can get each equipment it want to have
There were so many procedures to get something by Bellmark.
What can school get with Bellmark?
Through Bellmark, schools can get a variety of things. For examples, they can get bookshelves, electric water cooler, balls, pipe chairs, books, copy machine and so on. There is a wide range of price, for example, 1 badminton racket is about 2200 yen, a grand piano is about 2 million yen. Anyway, everything is useful for students and teachers.
Criticism against Bellmark
In fact, there are criticisms against Bellmark Campaign. I raise examples of criticism against Bellmark below.
・1 point is 1 yen, so even though many people gather Bellmark, they can’t collect enough points to get equipment soon.
・To collect, count and calculate Bellmark is really troublesome work.
・Fundraising is easier and more effective than collecting Bellmark.
Many parents criticize them above. Particularly, parents complain about collecting, counting and calculating Bellmark, because it takes so much time to get something by Bellmark. In addition, without them above, there are some criticisms against Bellmark. Because of Bellmark, some parents don’t want to enter PTA.
Depending on the times, Bellmark system need to be changed?
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