On August 31, a special committee of the Central Council for Education (an advisory body to the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) presented a draft summary of its deliberations that will provide an overall picture of the next curriculum guidelines. In light of the progress of the digital society, including the spread of AI, we have set the goal of incorporating "information" as a subject from elementary and junior high schools and improving their ability to utilize information. Meanwhile, in English, the use of AI was clearly specified for the first time.
The Central Education Council will finalize the details and compile a report by the end of the year, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology will revise it by the end of 2026. Full implementation of the new curriculum guidelines will begin in 2030 for elementary schools, 2031 for junior high schools, and 2032 for high schools (revised in 2017).
The deliberation summary draft clearly states that children are ``creators of a democratic and sustainable society.'' With the development of AI, misinformation and false information (fake news) on the Internet have become a problem, and a senior Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology official said, ``There was an awareness of the issue of whether we should leave a situation where society is divided and we are unable to make appropriate decisions as sovereigns and voters.'' As a concrete measure for this purpose, information education will be significantly expanded, including the creation of new subjects.
From the perspective of maintaining basic academic ability, the standard number of class hours required for teaching each subject will be maintained at the current level of 1,015 classes per year from the fourth year of elementary school to the third year of junior high school. The plan is to secure the class time necessary for information education by extracting it little by little from subjects with a large number of classes, and concrete measures will be decided before the report is submitted.
Story by Tokyo Gakugei University Professor Naoki Omori (History of Education)
It is true that information education, which is a centerpiece of the next curriculum guidelines, is necessary for children, but caution is needed in its introduction. Digital devices are already pervasive in children's learning environments, and are enriching their research and learning in subjects such as social studies and science. We must avoid "information education for information education's sake" from turning learning into a mere token.
Generally, in new subjects, there is often no established educational system, such as what to teach and in what order. It is also necessary to prepare comprehensive guidelines for teachers, and if preparations cannot be made in time, it may be a good idea to postpone the preparations rather than bringing them forward. On that basis, I am clearly opposed to introducing information education to third and fourth graders. Children of this age are most in need of learning Japanese, arithmetic, and experiencing nature through their five senses. Learning about nature using AI will be superficial unless a child knows the comfort of the wind on their cheeks.
The research training time for teachers included in the adjusted class hours will reduce the burden on children by one period a week. Although the hurdles for introducing the system are high as there is strong opposition to the reduction in study time, I would like to see a system that creates ``white space'' in education. (story)
