By Agatsu Kimura

The new national curriculum standards, which were established in 1998, aim at the following four points.

1) To help children cultivate rich humanity, sociality and identity as Japanese living in the international community.

2) To help children develop ability to learn and think independently.

3) To help children acquire basic abilities and skills and grow their own individuality with plenty of scope for educational activities.

4) To encourage individual schools to show ingenuity in developing unique educational activities to make the school distinctive.

These ideas are based on the main principle, cultivating "zest for living" in children amid "room to grow." New trials such as the "Comprehensive Five-day School Week System" and the "Period for Integrated Study" have been established to realize the principle.

The present state of schools, however, is different from the aims. The "Comprehensive Five-day School Week System" has decreased the class hours. In one high school, however, students have seven classes a day, and extra classes in the morning and after school. Moreover, the period of the classes increases to 55 minute, and a semester system starts in April to try to maintain as many classes as possible, cutting the time for club activities and school events. It is impossible to "foster zest for living in children amid room to grow" in such a school life.

Many schools are making curriculums like this. One of the reasons is entrance examinations of universities. In elementary school, lower and upper secondary school, the educational contents are closely examined and limited to the very basics, therefore, the examinations must be according to the contents of the education. The Ministry of education, culture, sports, science and technology (MEXT) encourages improvement in selection methods for entry to universities. But still many schools such as the high school above are trying to raise the scholarly attainments. The students study for the old style examinations, which emphasize volumes of knowledge.

The pervasive argument about the deterioration of scholarship supports the view that this is not the new vision of study. As an example of the argument, it is said that elementary school students cannot calculate the area of trapezoids. This criticizes the course of study for not describing the formula for calculating the area, but that is completely wrong. If students master the basics, and develop ability to learn and think independently, they will notice that a trapezoid consists of two different triangles. They do not need to memorize the formula.

According to a Daily Yomiuri poll, 70% of those surveyed felt that university students and young graduates have not acquired adequate knowledge or academic ability. Specifying the lack of academic ability, however, they point out the insufficiency of the ability to think, analyze, and judge saying "students do not acquire the habit of thinking in an orderly and logical fashion (54%);ﾓ ﾒthey lack the ability to analyze and judge (47%);" "they do not have enough ability in the Japanese language (44%);" and "they cannot express their ideas (41%)." What they are insisting on are not the old scholarly attainments. Rather these abilities are what MEXT tries to foster in children by the new national curriculum standards.

Some worry about studentsﾕ who do not have enough basic knowledge entering universities. Universities then should compensate their lack. Some private universities already have supplementary lessons by inviting in teachers of preparatory schools. Universities can devise new curriculums by changing the supplementary lessons to required ones etc. Today, many volumes of knowledge are not required, but the capability to discover problems by oneself, to learn and to think independently, to judge by oneself, and to solve those problems properly is needed.

Our lack of interest toward education causes the inadequacy of universities and the pervasive argument about the deterioration of scholarship. How many of you have checked the Center Examination this year? Some indicate that there were skewed questions in "ethics" and "politics and economics." We must think more seriously about what kind of education children are receiving because school education needs cooperation among schools, families, and communities to solve childrenﾕs problematic behavior such as bullying, their refusal to go to school, and childrenﾕs low morality and sociality. MEXT, and everyone, must denounce the universities that continue to create the same examinations as before, ignoring the new national curriculum standards.