A Japanese government scheme to drive digitalization in classrooms, accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic, is facing an uphill struggle, as an insufficient percentage of elementary and junior high school students are utilizing newly provided digital devices on a daily basis.
Teachers' lack of familiarity with the new technology, which has been supplied by the central government under the Global and Innovation Gateway for All (GIGA) school program, is creating a challenging situation, with faculty not fully trained to put it to proper use. Only about 30% of students use the devices daily, with wide variation among schools.
Progress has been mixed in municipalities across Japan concerning their training of teachers to achieve the objectives of GIGA, an initiative aimed at providing "one device for each student with a high-speed network."