Japanese Education Today: Time to Move On
A Society of Lifelong Learning
What sort of impact are these changes likely to have on Japanese education? The biggest concern is that they are bound to cause a rapid decline in enthusiasm and motivation to study hard and get into good high schools so as to gain admission to “name” colleges. The problem is compounded by the fact that boards of education, high schools, and many experts in the field are oblivious to the changes.
Even though the collapse of the existing school system has already begun, we see pronouncements like this (from the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education): “In 2013 we will review the high schools prioritized for improved college admission performance. We need to see at least 15 students [from each such school] admitted to medical faculties or to the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Hitotsubashi University, or Tokyo Institute of Technology.” This shows an amazing degree of obtuseness and inability to see the actual state of affairs—namely, the crisis of collapsing incentives to learn.
What should we do? For one thing, we should undertake a shift in the meaning we assign to universities: Instead of seeing learning as a means of getting into college, we should encourage learning for the sake of living one’s life fully and being of use in society—in other words, learning as culture and as a lifelong pursuit. This will require a change from the current approach to letting students graduate from school after completing the requisite number of years (six grades of elementary school, three of junior high school, and three of high school) regardless of their academic ability. Instead we need an approach that focuses on pupils’ mastery of the material, seeing to it that they acquire the minimum academic knowledge and skills through instruction matching their individual abilities and levels—and not refraining from making them repeat grades if required even during the years of compulsory education (the nine grades through junior high school).
Second, we should introduce a high school graduation qualification system, which would assure that anybody with a high school diploma had sufficient academic ability to attend college. The national government should take proper responsibility for the solid fostering of academic ability of each pupil and focus on developing the power of discernment—centering, as noted above, on such elements as the ability to produce ideas, to think critically, to be logical, to express oneself, and to communicate globally—to meet the demands of the twenty-first century. This should make it possible to construct a richer society of lifelong learning. What is called for is not a return to the previous era’s East Asian, cognitive approach to academic ability relying mainly on memorization, but a shift to a style of learning aimed at the building of a world in which people can coexist in peace as globalization and information technology progress; we should also restructure our universities to meet this need.
We must quickly end the “national seclusion” of Japanese education, rebuild the path from school to the workplace, and boldly shift, as the Europeans have, to a society of lifelong learning. Otherwise, Japan’s future is truly in jeopardy.
Translated from an original article in Japanese written for Japan Echo Web.
Ogi Naoki
Graduated from Waseda University, where he studied Japanese literature in the School of Education. Had 22 years of experience as a teacher at junior and senior high schools. Is now a professor at Hōsei University and also active as an educational analyst. Author of Kodomo kakusa–Kowareru kodomo to kyōiku genba (Gaps Among Children: The Breakdown of Children and the Front Lines of Education) and other works.
