High school general course education in Japan up for reform

May 13, 2019

Tokyo--The general course of high schools in Japan, which has remained untouched since the current school system was established after World War II, will undergo reform as the main part of a drastic revamping of high school education.

The general course is expected to be split into categories, such as an emphasis on math and science education or developing human resources for local communities, in line with the focus of individual schools, according to officials familiar with reform discussions.

Japanese high schools currently teach the general course, as well as special subject options that provide specialized education including on agriculture and engineering. In 1994, an integrated course was created to allow students to choose from a broad range of subjects both in general and special subject courses.

At present, about 70 pct of students are enrolled in the general course.

Hiroyuki Yoshiie, a member of a special team of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's Headquarters for the Revitalization of Education, calls for speedy reform of the current high school education system. "This is completely a Showa system," he said, referring to the 1926-1989 Showa era.

In particular, the general course has one-size-fits-all educational content, and most students select high schools according to their junior high school grades, including test scores, instead of choosing schools from the perspective of what they want to study, Yoshiie said.

The forthcoming reform reflects a sense of crisis among educational authorities about declines in the amounts of time that high school students spend studying and their willingness to study.

According to surveys conducted by the education ministry and others with children who were born in 2001, 9.3 pct of junior high school first-graders said they do not study at all after school on weekdays, with the figure rising to 25.4 pct for those in senior high school first grade.

The surveys also showed that 37.7 pct of junior high school first-graders think that school studies will be very useful for the future, while the figure falls to 27.4 pct for senior high school first-graders.

The LDP special team and the government's Education Rebuilding Implementation Council plan to work out proposals for high school education reform this month.

During LDP discussions, some have called for scrapping the general course. The special team, however, concluded that the framework should be maintained, to provide the general education needed in society.

Under the proposals, the general course would be split into categories, such as one stressing science education and one meant to develop human resources who can play active roles in local communities, according to the officials.

The education ministry plans to revise high school standards to allow for reform of the general course, the officials said.

Following the proposals, the Central Council for Education, an advisory panel to the education minister, will discuss specific categories for the revised general course. The ministry hopes to amend high school standards after the panel reaches a conclusion.

The ministry will next look at the education curriculum, textbooks and teachers for the revamped general course.

In discussions on high school education reform, points raised included that a large share of students advance to university liberal arts courses and many students give up studying science subjects at an early stage in order to set their sights on university entrance exams, according to Yoshiie.

Therefore, devising a system to encourage students to study liberal arts and science in a balanced way is expected to be a key topic of discussions. Jiji Press