SDGs4：What is “high-quality education”? Working with high-school students to identify Japan’s future educational needs

The SB Student Ambassador National Convention was an event held across two days in Tokyo and Osaka. The Tokyo part of the convention took place on October 17, 2020 at the campus of Nihon University College of Economics, with high school students from across eastern Japan participating in various rooms split by discussion topic. The speech on the topic of education was given by Benesse Educational Research and Development Institute’s Mr. Shunpei Komura.

At the beginning of his speech, Mr. Komura stated:
“I’ve sometimes wondered why we spend a lot of time thinking about poverty issues in far-off Africa while ignoring problems right here at home. While both are obviously important, today I’d like to talk about Japanese education, an issue right in front of us.”

Mr. Komura first described the major shifts currently underway in Japanese education. One driver of these changes is the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s “GIGA School Program” (GIGA standing for Global and Innovation Gateway for All), which aims to change frontline education provision using digital devices, such as equipping every school in the country with one PC per student. Another factor behind these changes is the educational impact of the graying of Japanese society and its declining birthrate.

“While it is said that the average life of a company is about 30 years, the ever-increasing lifespan of human beings means we are in an age where most people have 60 years of life following their graduation from university. They will therefore change jobs numerous times during their life, and we must consider what kind of skill and personal development they should pursue while working. That is the era in which all of us live.”

As the students listened attentively, Mr. Komura next highlighted objective data showing the strengths and weaknesses of Japanese education in an international context. For example, Japanese compulsory education is among the best in all OECD member countries. Japanese students also have very strong science and mathematical capabilities on a global level, and Japan is actually a nation with a lot of potential scientists, on a par with the US and China.

On the other hand, Japan has issues with students’ abilities to explain their own thinking using evidence, and despite the nation ranking a lofty 2nd among OECD countries for scientific literacy, few of its students believe that science is useful or say they really want to become scientists in the future. Moreover, Japanese students’ “sense of happiness” is far below average, and surveys show a high level of pessimism about the country’s future, with Japan having the lowest score among all nations when students were asked “I believe I have the power to change my country and society.”

At the same time, while surveys report issues with the motivation and attitude toward learning of Japanese students, they also show that a growing number of junior high and high school students are actively involved in educational projects in all regions across Japan. In recent years, there has been an increase in academic research being conducted in schools and in the creation of opportunities for activities aimed at solving a variety of social issues, all of which raises a question about the changing role of schools.

Following Mr. Komura’s speech detailing a variety of issues and circumstances in Japanese education, the students got together in workshops. Forming into groups, they engaged in lively debate about how they wanted education and learning to change going forward, and what they themselves could do to realize this.

After an hour exchanging opinions, each group made a presentation. So, what do high school students in the current Japanese education system think learning in the next generation should be like?

Opinions raised by several of the groups included “Education today is a one-dimensional process of simply inputting knowledge” and “There is very little learning about society, so we never develop an understanding of whether our interests can be useful to society.” There were also strong ideas about future reforms to encourage more autonomous active learning and requests for more diverse learning, including “It is important for schools to be a communication space centered around the students,” “Linking learning to actual society would clarify the meaning and purpose of studying, and lead to increased motivation,” and “We need flexible learning which can first establish each student’s dreams and goals and then mold a curriculum to achieve them.”

After the event, we asked Mr. Komura about his impressions of the day and what he had learned from it.

“I was interested in what the students would identify as problem areas and what they think is important on the topic of education. Their presentations communicated that their underlying feeling is that rather than having adults playing the role of defining their education, they want to implement their own ideas more and take action to shape society. To that end, unless the style of learning is also more flexible, they will have no capacity to do this.”

“As I talk to lots of students and teachers in various schools almost every week, I know myself that this is an opinion shared across the country. Taking this idea on board, I think we have to prepare learning that enables that students who want to make their own choices to do so. This selection process itself can be a learning opportunity, giving students the chance to think about what kind of things they like and what they might be suited to. Providing such an opportunity becomes more and more important the higher up the grades students go.”

“In addition, they seem to want to find ways to learn that are in line with their own interests and concerns, rather than just studying for entrance exams and tests. When each individual thinks about their own life, it is important we allow them to express their individuality and identify their dreams as far as possible, and that we give them the motivation to “take pleasure” in learning. Students have strong motivations deep down, and I want Benesse to be a company that nurtures these motivations through learning and opportunities that are not all of a uniform type, so that we can support the “well-being” of the next generation.”