Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > JAPANESE GOVERMENT POLICICIES IN EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND CULTURE 1994 > PART I Chapter 4 3 2

These problems in lower secondary school career guidance are the result of reliance on commercially produced tests over many years. This must be viewed as a key issue in relation to the basic philosophy of career guidance outlined in section 1. The elimination of reliance on standard score in commercially produced tests and the improvement of career guidance cannot be achieved simply by avoiding the use of commercially produced tests. The major task is to achieve a transition to a career guidance system that overcomes these problems and realizes the fundamental goals of career guidance.

In line with the basic thinking on career guidance discussed in section 1, career guidance must give priority to systematic and organized guidance and assistance through all three years of lower secondary school education, from the perspective of guiding students to a better understanding of life. Particular emphasis should be placed on the following aspects.

Students must be helped to understand the various choices that they can make about the future. They must also be provided with active guidance and assistance so that they become motivated to explore their own career paths.

Individual students have differing interests and concerns. They are unique individuals with their own abilities and aptitudes, and, as people in the process of growth and development, they have vast potential. There are many kinds of occupations and many different ways of life. Individuals live in society by pursuing work and ways of life that motivate them and give purpose to their lives. By gaining a deeper understanding of their individuality and future life, learning to believe in their own potential, and exploring career paths in search of their own approach to life, students can gain a better understanding of the diverse possibilities in their lives and learn to view the future with hope. When providing career guidance, it is most important that teachers recognize the diverse life choices their students face.

Career guidance must not consist merely of guidance on the selection of an upper secondary school as the next stage in each student's academic career. Students must be given guidance so that they can explore their career paths as they seek the ways of life that suit them as individuals and so that they can look ahead to their own future.

Students must be guided to understand the significance of learning in higher-level secondary schools in the light of their own approach to life so that they can choose the schools that they wish to enter with specific goals in mind.

A purposeful and meaningful school life enables students to develop their individuality and realize their potential more fully. Their choice of higher-level schools includes upper secondary schools, colleges of technology, special training colleges, and other schools. A variety of educational content and activities are available. In the case of upper secondary schools, for example, there are the general course and the specialized (vocational) course, as well as the new integrated course. When guiding students concerning the type of higher-level school that they should enter, it is important to provide guidance so that they can view entrance to a higher-level school as a process of searching for career paths that will enable them to realize their own hopes and dreams and choose schools that they themselves truly wish to enter.

Guidance on entrance to higher-level schools should be designed to expand knowledge and understanding not only about upper secondary schools but also about colleges of technology and special training colleges (upper secondary courses).

Students should be advised on their choice of target schools on the basis of their day-to-day scholastic performance, and they should be provided with the following guidance and assistance in order to achieve admission to their target schools.

Students must choose the target schools whose entrance examinations they will take from among the schools that they wish to enter. In choosing target schools, students must first obtain detailed information about the conditions for entrance and continuing study at their target schools, such as entrant selection methods, enrollment and tuition fees, and commuting times. They must also consult with their parents about the suitability of their choices. Next they must determine, partly through consultation with their teachers, whether their scholastic performance and achievements in various activities during their three years in lower secondary school are adequate in relation to the level of ability required to achieve entrance to their target schools.

It is important to help students understand and make these judgments by providing guidance on the basis of accumulated data about the success of earlier graduates in entering higher-level schools, as well as the performance of the students themselves in their day-to-day studies and activities. Teachers must also strive to eliminate anxiety and uncertainty about the attainability of goals, including the provision of help to overcome scholastic weaknesses that could hinder entrance to target schools, and must provide guidance and support in ways that will motivate students and encourage them to make sustained efforts.

Students must be provided with guidance so that they can make their own decisions about their future, including their choice of target schools, and take responsibility for those decisions.

By making their own decisions about their choice of future schools, students take responsibility for their own career paths and are better able to adjust to the schools that they enter. Students can develop the decision-making ability required for this process by organizing their thoughts about the career paths that will enable them to realize their hopes and dreams and by choosing a single option from a number of approaches to the realization of those hopes and dreams, according to their own criteria.

The purpose of career guidance during the three years of lower secondary school is to guide students to confront career-path problems as their own problems that they must overcome themselves so that they can acquire the abilities and attitudes that they will need to make choices about their own career paths and take responsibility for those decisions.