Education policy rethink urged; Saturday classes in offing?

Education minister Nariaki Nakayama asked a panel Tuesday to reassess the ministry's three-year-old "education with latitude" policy in an apparent move to beef it up, and possibly resurrect Saturday classes.

Recent surveys show Japanese schoolchildren have been dropping in international academic rankings over the past few years. The review, said officials of the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, is aimed at bringing Japan's academic standards back to the world's top levels.

To strengthen the curricula for Japanese, science and mathematics, the ministry may have schools resume classes on Saturdays -- which only recently became school holidays -- and trim summer vacations and other holidays.

The controversial "latitude policy" was introduced at public elementary and junior high schools in 2002. It was designed to put greater emphasis on building children's ability to learn and think for themselves and de-emphasize the role of rote memorization. As part of the policy, class hours were cut and curricula streamlined for the first nine years of compulsory education.

Nakayama said the policy was not a mistake.

"At issue is whether that objective has been fully realized, and whether adequate steps have been taken," he said.

But Nakayama also expressed concern about students' declining academic skills and lowered motivation, saying, "It's necessary to review the overall school curricula in order to enrich education for children in the 21st century."

As part of the review, the Central Council for Education will also consider measures to strengthen programs on ethics, the arts, culture and physical education, the officials said.

The education ministry aims to outline new education guidelines this fall, according to the officials.

In December, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released a survey that indicated there was a drop in reading abilities among Japanese high school students in 2003 from three years earlier.