Japan's ill-considered fling with progressive education could be coming to a close, though like every starred-crossed affair unfortunate consequences linger. Yomiuri Shimbun reports that education ministers are planning to roll back portions of Japan's 1990s experiment with yutori kyoiku or "loose education," which cut the school week, decreased reliance on traditional teaching methods, and focused on using "originality and ingenuity to teach students . . . international understanding, environmental matters, and welfare and health, by, for example, allowing them to garner practical experience." (See "Dewey does Tokyo.") Sound familiar? Once "loose" education was implemented, Japanese test scores and student performance on international assessments such as TIMMS sagged and a cottage industry of "back-to-basics" education arose (click here for more). The education minister now plans to "reexamine how to secure sufficient class hours for basic subjects, including Japanese, mathematics, science, and social studies. . . . Class hours should definitely be increased for Japanese and mathematics. In particular," he observed, "being able to read and write one's mother tongue is vital." Officials expect that some Saturday class time will be reinstituted, along with other reforms.
"Ministry to change 'pressure-free' education," Yomiuri Shimbun, January 17, 2005