Japanese Schools Get More Digital
Japan was one of the strongest proponents of ‘at-home’ learning during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the country's GIGA program, which was actually developed in 2018 (pre-pandemic) to move Japan’s 13m primary and secondary school students more quickly into the digital age, as tight educational budgets had limited the number of computers available in the country’s 35,000 schools, but as COVID became an issue, the plans were pulled forward.
The program’s mantra was “1 device for 1 student”, with 2/3 of the program’s budget going toward PCs, with the rest going toward programs to help teachers develop digital learning environments that will help them learn about the best ways to search for information, assemble presentations, and become familiar with digital testing, with the ‘added benefit’ of helping shy students express their ideas without having to raise their hands, although we find that more of a crutch than a panacea.
While the GIGA program, at least the hardware side, has ended, the Ministry of Education has decided to start testing the use of digital textbooks at elementary and high schools, providing free digital textbooks, primarily to learn English, to 5th and 6th grader and junior high school students. Both digital and paper textbooks will be given so that the Ministry can study the effect of the digital implementation, although the program is expected to go fully digital by 2024.
90% of Japan’s municipalities have already completed the distribution of tablets to school children, but many schools are said to still be struggling to integrate them in daily teaching routines, but the digital textbooks will allow students who are learning English to hear how to pronounce words to see if that helps to improve language skills, and those schools that have an interest can pick one additional subject (math, science, music, arts & crafts, technical arts, homemaking, or health & physical education) to be supplied digitally.
While it is hard to gauge the impact of digital textbooks on such a narrow subject field, and while the Ministry is still trying to come up with a plan as to how to introduce digital textbooks effectively, it seems they have made up their minds about a full-scale introduction in 2024, which will mark the end to paper content in Japanese schools. As to the program’s effect on tablet or notebook sales in Japan, with much of the student population already equip with a laptop or tablet, the effect should be minimal unless students find that those devices given out in 2020 and 2021 are a generation or so behind what is then necessary for digital textbook content in all subjects. At that point however, we expect the burden and cost of upgrading to a more modern laptop or tablet will fall to families rather than the government, which we expect will limit the upgrade cycle a bit.
The program’s mantra was “1 device for 1 student”, with 2/3 of the program’s budget going toward PCs, with the rest going toward programs to help teachers develop digital learning environments that will help them learn about the best ways to search for information, assemble presentations, and become familiar with digital testing, with the ‘added benefit’ of helping shy students express their ideas without having to raise their hands, although we find that more of a crutch than a panacea.
While the GIGA program, at least the hardware side, has ended, the Ministry of Education has decided to start testing the use of digital textbooks at elementary and high schools, providing free digital textbooks, primarily to learn English, to 5th and 6th grader and junior high school students. Both digital and paper textbooks will be given so that the Ministry can study the effect of the digital implementation, although the program is expected to go fully digital by 2024.
90% of Japan’s municipalities have already completed the distribution of tablets to school children, but many schools are said to still be struggling to integrate them in daily teaching routines, but the digital textbooks will allow students who are learning English to hear how to pronounce words to see if that helps to improve language skills, and those schools that have an interest can pick one additional subject (math, science, music, arts & crafts, technical arts, homemaking, or health & physical education) to be supplied digitally.
While it is hard to gauge the impact of digital textbooks on such a narrow subject field, and while the Ministry is still trying to come up with a plan as to how to introduce digital textbooks effectively, it seems they have made up their minds about a full-scale introduction in 2024, which will mark the end to paper content in Japanese schools. As to the program’s effect on tablet or notebook sales in Japan, with much of the student population already equip with a laptop or tablet, the effect should be minimal unless students find that those devices given out in 2020 and 2021 are a generation or so behind what is then necessary for digital textbook content in all subjects. At that point however, we expect the burden and cost of upgrading to a more modern laptop or tablet will fall to families rather than the government, which we expect will limit the upgrade cycle a bit.
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