To ease the pressures typical to schoolchildren in Japan, an advisory council to the Education Minister said Monday that schools should be given more freedom to practice their own teaching methods and to make decisions based on the needs of their students.
The Curriculum Council's revised draft of the government's curriculum guidelines, to be used after the 2002 introduction of a five-day school week, suggests the nation's educational system will likely become more individualized, empowering local schools to make many of their own decisions for the first time. The council, tasked by the ministry in 1996, plans to compile its final draft of the report in July.
"(With the report,) Japanese education has made a major turn, as schools shift from 'a place (for teachers) to teach' to 'a place for students to actively learn,'" said Shumon Miura, chairman of the advisory panel, after submitting the report to Education Minister Nobutaka Machimura on Monday afternoon.