[MEXT] “Subcommittee to Review School Facilities for the New Era” Held

On February 15th, 2021, MEXT held the first meeting of its "Subcommittee to Review School Facilities for the New Era". This subcommittee was set up to conduct concrete and professional studies to deliberate on the ideal nature of school facilities in a new era. MEXT considers that in an environment of “one student, one tablet”, it is necessary to review the ideal nature of school facilities to create the “Reiwa standard”, and to steadily promote this in order to create learning environments which are best suited to individual and collaborative learning opportunities. The discussion has been accelerated by the Central Council for Education, which proposed the improvement of learning environments for students in their report entitled “Aiming to Build Japanese-Style School Education in Reiwa”, and the Education Rebuilding Implementation Council, which has been discussing new ways of learning for the New Normal lifestyle.  

The committee is planning to discuss the following issues:

  • Ideal nature of school facilities to create learning environments in a new era
  • Development of facilities to create learning environments best suited to individual and collaborative learning opportunities, including small-group teaching.
  • Accommodation of facilities to various learning activities
  • Provision of healthy environments for students to spend time and study at school as part of the New Normal lifestyle
  • Improvement of existing facilities in an efficient and effective manner, taking population trends and other changes into account
  • Promotion measures
  • Presentation of a new model for facilities through research into the leading models
  • Enhancement of the financial support system
  • Review of construction and maintenance guidelines
  • Dissemination of information on good practices, etc.

A budget request is scheduled to be made in July 2021 and a final report is to be published in March 2022. The contents of the report will be reflected thereafter in the school facility maintenance guidelines. For further information, please visit the following link (Japanese only). https://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/chousa/shisetu/044/005/index.html

menu