[MEXT] Presentation of Draft Outline of the Promotion Plan for the Informatization of School Education

On February 28, 2022, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) presented the draft outline of the "Promotion Plan for the Informatization of School Education" at the 2nd Expert Council for Promoting the Informatization of School Education. The Expert Council was established in accordance with the provisions of Article 22, Paragraph 2 of the "Act for Promoting the Informatization of School Education" (Act No. 47, 2019).

Article 22 of the Act stipulates in Paragraph 1 that "the government shall establish the council for promoting the informatization of school education in order to ramp up comprehensive, integrated, and effective informatization of school education through mutual coordination among the relevant administrative organs (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and other relevant administrative organs; the same applies in the following paragraph)." Paragraph 2 stipulates that "the relevant administrative organs shall establish the expert council for promoting the informatization of school education, which is composed of persons with expert knowledge on the informatization of school education, and shall listen to their recommendations when coordinating as stated in the preceding paragraph."

This promotion plan is positioned to show the direction and roadmap of future measures to accelerate the informatization of school education and as a reference for each local government when formulating a corresponding plan, which the Act requires to make efforts.

The draft outline presents the following four basic directions regarding the informatization of school education:

  1. Development of the qualities and abilities of students through the use of ICT
  2. Improvement of ICT utilization skills of teachers and staff and securing of human resources
  3. Environmental arrangements for the use of ICT
  4. Development of ICT promotion system and improvement of school administration

In addition, to realize those four basic directions, these respective measures are presented for implementation:

1. Development of the qualities and abilities of students through the use of ICT:

1.1 Promotion and effective use of ICT

1.2 Information ethics

1.3 Health considerations

1.4 Programming education

1.5 Enhanced response to bullying, suicide, school non-attendance, etc.

1.6 Improvement of the educational environment for children with disabilities (related to Article 12) 

1.7 Ensuring educational opportunities for children who are absent from school for a considerable period (related to Article 13) 

1.8 Improvement of education for children who need Japanese language instruction

2. Improvement of ICT utilization skills of teachers and staff and securing of human resources:

2.1 Improvement of the quality of school teachers (related to Article 14) 

2.2 Securing human resources (related to Article 18)

2.3 Support by a specialist such as ICT support staff

3. Environmental arrangements for the use of ICT

3.1  Developing the environment for ICT use in schools (related to Article 15). 

3.2  Promoting the use of educational data and educational DX (Digital Transformation)

3.3  Review of the system of textbooks (related to Article 11) 

3.4  Promotion of the development and dissemination of digital teaching materials, etc., and review of the system of textbooks (related to Articles 10 and 11).

3.5  Personal information protection, etc. (related to Article 17) 

3.6  Understanding of copyright

4.  Development of an ICT promotion system and improvement of the school administration

4.1  System development for continuous support for learning, etc. (related to Article 16) 

4.2  Improvement of the efficiency of school work through informatization

In relation to children with disabilities, the following statement specifies the basic direction of the "Development of the qualities and abilities of students through the use of ICT,"  that is, we will "promote the informatization of special needs education for students with special needs to reduce learning difficulties and increase the effectiveness of instruction through the use of ICT."

For more information, please visit the website below (Japanese only):
https://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/chousa/shotou/170/index.html

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