High school textbooks to get more difficult from 2009

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Many of the nation's high school textbooks will get more difficult in the 2009 academic year, in line with the planned scrapping of the cram-free education policy, according to the results of textbook screening released Tuesday.

The latest screening was effectively the last under the current teaching guidelines, which stipulate the cram-free education policy, under which curriculum content for primary and middle schools was cut by 30 percent. That policy is now seen to have failed to achieve its intended results, and the Education, Science and Technology Ministry plans to revise teaching guidelines for public schools to increase class hours in the 2009 academic year.

Levels of difficulty also will be increased in many textbooks for key subjects such as mathematics, Japanese and English.

The latest screening also threw up many detailed objections to expressions or descriptions used in the textbooks. In one case, a poster drawn by Japanese artist Tadanori Yokoo was replaced due to complaints that it was inconsistent with the healthy development of children.

Included in a textbook for Art III, published by Nihon Bunkyo Shuppan Co., and titled "A La Maison De M. Civecawa," the poster was accompanied by text that read, "My daughter on sale at an exhibition." The artist was apparently equating his love for his daughter with the passion he puts into his work.

Such moves likely will prompt questions about the appropriateness of the textbook screening system.

For the screening, 48 textbooks for seven subjects--Japanese, English, mathematics, science, art, technical education and commercial education--were submitted to the ministry by private textbook publishers. Most of them are for third-year high school students for use from the 2009 academic year, which begins in April next year.

The ministry approved 47 of the books, rejecting one for Biology II submitted by Tokyo Shoseki Co., which it said contained numerous errors.

While references to the mass suicides during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa have previously been the subject of discussion in the screening of high school social science textbooks, textbooks mentioning the subject were not among those screened this year.

While textbooks for primary school students also were due to be screened, none were submitted as new teaching guidelines are to be implemented from the 2011 academic year.

Meanwhile, the level of difficulty was increased in many textbooks due to requests from teachers, who have pointed out that while curriculum content was reduced under the cram-free education policy, university entrance examinations were not made any easier.

Among 11 textbooks for Mathematics III, seven dramatically increased content, including material not required under current guidelines.

As for textbooks for English reading, Sanseido Publishing Co. increased the number of new English words by 20 percent to 1,155 in its new textbook, while the number of pages increased by 3.8 percent on average among the 15 newly approved English textbooks.

Meanwhile, problems were found with elements publishers had never expected to pose difficulty, such as the Tadanori poster.

Ministry screeners also voiced concerns over a photographic portrait of a photographer holding a cigarette in a textbook for Art III published by Mitsumura Tosho Publishing Co. As a result, the image of the portrait was modified by deleting the cigarette.

(Mar. 26, 2008)

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