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A comprehensive survey of the developments of school education in Japan since the 1960s and summarization of its future problems are to be made below.

First, on the improvement of educational content in primary and secondary education. Upper secondary education in particular has rapidly spread in recent years with more than 90% of the relevant age group being enrolled in upper secondary schools. It has thus become an important task to review the whole course of elementary, lower secondary and upper secondary school education from a new angle, and study the desirable form of its fundamental educational content, securing the close relationship among these three levels of school education.

Second, on the improvement and expansion of higher education. While higher education in Japan has remarkably expanded in scale, there are still regional imbalances in its capacity, distribution of fields of specialization, etc. and much room for necessary study of its qualitative aspects. It is an important task for the future to undertake the systematic development of higher education with an emphasis on its qualitative aspects in response to the advancement of social and economic conditions and to the demand of the people and society for higher education.

Third, on the need to promote mutual linkage and cooperation between school education and other forms of education, in response to the many varied demands of the people for education.

With the background of the elevation of the standards of the people's educational background, resulting from the popularization of school education, and the change in the industrial structure, the social role of school graduates and the social appraisal of educational background have been undergoing modification. In the meantime, with the demand for various educational and cultural activities other than school education growing due to the alteration of economic and social conditions in recent years, the call has come for the systematic development of the so-called lifelong education.

If qualitatively substantial, diversified educational opportunities, including those for school education, are made available in the future, with the further promotion of mutual and linkage, it will produce the momentum to prompt an alteration of the inclination of the contemporary Japanese society to attach too much importance to educational background.