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PART Recent Trends and Developments in Government Policies in Education, Science and Culture

The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, which has been carrying out a variety of measures related to educational reform, deems it very important to examine the direction of Japan's educational system, in medium- and long-term perspectives, and in view of the Japanese society in the 21st century. For this reason, in April 1989 the Minister asked the Central Council for Education to consider "reforms of various systems in education to make them relevant to a new age." The Council has been deliberating this issue from diverse angles.

The Council has been discussing two main subjects: "reforms of upper secondary education and related issues of higher education" and "the development of an infrastructure for lifelong learning." Regarding reforms of upper secondary education and the related issues of higher education, the Council is now considering such issues as: more flexibility in the duration of an upper secondary school course (specifically, the feasibility of creating four year upper secondary schools. in addition to the existing three-year ones); the restructuring of upper secondary school courses; more extensive use of the credit system; the encouragement of creating new types of upper secondary schools; whether or not exceptional arrangements should be made for students who have demonstrated outstanding abilities in certain fields; the expansion of colleges of technology; and the issue of encouraging junior colleges to set up "lifelong learning centers" with a view to enhancing their functions as lifelong learning institutions.

The subjects considered by the Council with regard to the development of an infrastructure for lifelong learning include: the development of legal frameworks for structures for promoting lifelong learning; government assistance to educational enterprises in the private sector; the development of "lifelong learning centers" which will be key community centers for lifelong learning; and the creation of a system under which the results of lifelong learning may be duly evaluated and acertain number of credits in formal education may be awarded for these results.

In January 1990, the Council submitted to the Minister a report on the "Development of an Infrastructure for Lifelong Learning." in which it offered a number of recommendations on government policies and measures for supporting lifelong learning. In response to this report, in May 1990, the Ministry submitted to the National Diet a "Bill Concerning the Development of Mechanisms and Measures for Promoting Lifelong Learning." The bill passed the Diet in June 1990 and was put into effect the next month. The issue of the evaluation of the results of lifelong learning is still being deliberated from diverse angles by the Council's Sub-committee on Lifelong Learning.