The boards of education in Tokyo and Nara Prefecture have decided to exclude some lesson content that third-year junior high school students are supposed to study from next spring's high school entrance examinations, in the wake of the monthslong school closures amid the coronavirus epidemic.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education and the Nara prefectural board of education made their respective decisions on Thursday because they believe some examinees would not be able to complete all curricula that supposed to be taught in the final year of junior high school.
Some other prefectural boards of education are considering similar steps, while others are concerned that excluding certain content from high school entrance exams would lead students to believe that they do not need the study the material.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education's decision will exclude some content from five major subjects -- Japanese, math, English, social studies and science -- when it administers general high school entrance exams next spring. Most of the excluded content is supposed to be taught over two or three months in the latter half of the third year of junior high school.
This means that, for example, the Japanese portion of the test will not feature all kanji that third-year students should know, the math portion will not cover the Pythagorean theorem and the science section will not include mechanical energy.
Junior high schools plan to make up for the delays by shortening the summer holiday and holding classes on Saturdays. However, the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education is concerned that even with these measures, the student will not be able to complete the curriculum.
When it comes to admission based on recommendations from their schools -- instead of taking a written exam, a student will be evaluated based on their extracurricular activities or their athletic ability -- examinees will not be required to submit documents to prove their achievements because many events and competitions have been canceled because of the coronavirus. Whether test-takers can pass this type of evaluation will be mostly based on their performance in a practical skills test.
"I'm relieved [about the decision]," said a principal at a public junior high school in Tokyo. "We sometimes don't follow the order in the textbooks when teaching, so we have to check our curricula as soon as possible."
The Nara prefectural board of education has also made a similar decision, under which 10% to 20% of math, social studies and science content for the final year of junior high school will be excluded from high school entrance exams next spring.
Some other prefectural boards of education are considering limiting the content on the test.
Among them is the Nagano prefectural board of education, because it has found that public junior high schools only covered about 30% of their curriculum as of the end of May.
"The length of time that schools were closed differed," said an official at the prefectural board of education. "Curriculum delays are also widening among them."
The Chiba and Tokushima prefectural boards of education are also reviewing some possibilities for high school entrance exams next spring, including narrowing the scope of content that will be on the test.
However, some educators are concerned that excluding particular material from entrance exams could discourage students from studying them.
"If teachers say, 'The material in this section of the textbook won't be on the test,' will students study them?" an official at the Kyoto prefectural board of education said. "I wonder if students will get a decent education this way."
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
