inoccupied children tend to make problems ?
The education ministry on Friday unveiled a draft of new teaching guidelines for primary and middle schools that would increase classroom hours for arithmetic and mathematics as well as science subjects by around 15 percent during the nine-year study period, in a departure from the current guidelines, which emphasize "education with latitude."
The new guidelines, which were designed to respond to the criticism that children's scholastic abilities have declined due to the education-with-latitude policy, are scheduled to be implemented from fiscal 2011 at primary schools and fiscal 2012 at middle schools, according to the Education, Science and Technology Ministry.
However, the ministry will invite members of the public to submit opinions on the draft before officially announcing the introduction of the new guidelines in late March, ministry officials said.
It is the first time in 10 years that the guidelines have been totally revised, and the increase in classroom hours would be the first since the ministry started to cut classroom hours in 1977.
Class hours allotted for arithmetic, mathematics and some science subjects will be increased from fiscal 2009, in advance of the implementation of the rest of the guidelines.
Some content cut in the current teaching guidelines will be revived.
The so-called general studies classes, symbolizing the education-with-latitude policy, will be cut in both primary and middle school, to two classes a week from the current three at the primary school level, for instance.
The guidelines for kindergartens, to be revised concurrently, will be fully implemented from fiscal 2009, while a draft on teaching guidelines for high schools will be announced around autumn, according to the officials.
The draft was formulated along with a report issued in January by the Central Education Council, an advisory body to the education minister.
As in the current guidelines, the new guidelines' basic philosophy is "to foster the power to live." To improve the ability to think, judge and express oneself, the new guidelines attach importance to activities such as observation, conducting experiments and writing reports.
At the same time, the ministry says the guidelines are minimum requirements, enabling schools to teach advanced content at their own discretion.
Under the draft guidelines, the number of 45-minute classes will be increased by two a week for first- and second-year primary school students and by one a week for third- to sixth-year students at primary school. This means that the number of classes during the six primary school years will rise by 278 to 5,645.
Meanwhile, the number of 50-minute classes for first- to third-grade middle school students will be increased by one a week, meaning that they will have 3,045 classes, up 105, during the three middle school years.
The number of classes will be increased by more than 10 percent for major subjects at primary and middle school, including Japanese, arithmetic (or mathematics at middle school), science and social studies.
Under the draft, hours allotted for arithmetic and science at primary school will return to almost the same level before the education-with-latitude policy was implemented.
At middle school, the number of mathematics and foreign-language lessons will return to a level similar to that set in the previous guidelines. The number of science classes will rise by 33 percent from the current level.
The draft stipulates that fifth- and sixth-year primary school students be taught English once a week as a compulsory subject.
Concerning the content of some subjects that was cut under the current teaching guidelines, the formula for calculating the area of a trapezoid and studies of the Jomon period (ca 10,000 B.C.-ca 300 B.C.) will be reinstated in primary school arithmetic and Japanese history classes, respectively. At middle school, the quadratic formula will be back in mathematics textbooks.
A plan to make moral education a subject for grading under the teaching guidelines was shelved this time.
Under the banner of education with latitude, the current teaching guidelines, which were implemented in fiscal 2002, placed more importance on fostering students' ability to think for themselves by slashing learning content by about 30 percent.
However, the guidelines drew criticism for causing students' overall academic ability to decline.
(Feb. 16, 2008)
/https%3A%2F%2Fassets.over-blog.com%2Ft%2Fcedistic%2Fcamera.png)
/http%3A%2F%2Fmdn.mainichi.jp%2Fnational%2Fnews%2Fimages%2F20080404p2a00m0na013000p_size5.jpg)