Japan to Raise No. of Elementary Class Hours

Japan will increase the number of class hours in elementary and middle schools for the first time in 40 years, and reinforce basic education such as math, science, English and Chinese characters.

Pressed by teachers who say they want to boost scholastic performance, the Japanese government has begun an about-face from “yutori (relaxed) education.”

The Japanese Education Ministry announced Friday revisions to educational guidelines and the basic guide for public education for elementary and middle schools. The new guidelines will take effect in elementary schools from 2011 and in middle schools from 2012. Several, however, will be implemented next year.

The biggest change will be the number of class hours, which has decreased since 1980. Thus an elementary school student from 2011 will take over a six-year period 5,645 hours of classes (45 minutes per class), up 5.2 percent from 5,367 hours now. Those in middle school from 2012 will take over three years 3,045 hours of classes (50 minutes per class), up 3.6 percent from 2,940 hours now.

“Combined education” hours representing yutori education will decrease. As a result, class time for core subjects such as Japanese, math, foreign language, science and social science will rise more than 10 percent. That of science will grow 33 percent and that of math 22 percent.

Math and science classes in elementary school and math and foreign language classes in middle school will return to the same level when the yutori era began.

Textbooks will also be thicker as well.

The Japanese Education Ministry in 1998 had cut textbook content 30 percent to relieve the academic burden of students. But the reduced content will now make a comeback.

In elementary school math, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to the diameter cubed will no longer be taught, and instead, the area formula for a trapezoid will be reintroduced.

In middle school math and science, students will again study rational and irrational numbers, the solution formula for quadratic equations, sample surveys, the atomic model and genetic regularity.

The number of English words taught in middle school will increase from 900 to 1,200. English classes conducted in English will also be required for fifth and sixth graders.

Elementary school students will also have to learn more Chinese characters. Japanese teachers will write difficult Chinese characters in their entirety and pronounce them in Japanese instead of writing half of them in Japanese and half in Chinese.

The drastic change stems from the view that yutori education has deteriorated academic performance by elementary school children.

Teachers say they are worried over the rise in teaching hours, but that they favor a reversal of the yutori system. The daily Yomiuri Shimbun said 65 of 100 elementary and middle school teachers it polled want to abandon yutori education.

Another newspaper, The Asahi Shimbun, quoted an education survey that as of last summer, 55 percent of elementary schools and 23 percent of middle schools have longer class hours than the rules stipulate.

iam@donga.com