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CHAPTER IMPROVEMENT OF CONTENT OF- EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENTOF ABILITY

Fundamental principles of curriculum in the elementary school and the secondary school of our country are as follows:

1) To strengthen moral education.

2) To improve pupils' basic abilities and expand scientific and technical education.

3) To provide well-balanced education in order to develop the all-round man.

4) To provide pupils with education best suited to their abilities, aptitudes, and future career.

The curriculums of elementary and secondary schools in other countries are developed according to the following principles.

The U.S.A. . . . . . . To provide a broad program which considers the great variety, both in type and degree, of talents, aptitudes, and interest represented in the entire population. Physical and mental health, intellectual ability, economic efficiency, moral responsibility, aesthetic appreciation, and a spiritual foundation that will give direction and meaning to life are the ends sought for every individual. (As described in the U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Education in the United States of America, 1960, p.4)

England and Wales. . . . . . . Schools available for an area shall not be deemed sufficient unless they are sufficient in number, character, and equipment to afford for all pupils opportunities for education offering such variety of instruction and training as may be desirable in view of their different ages, abilities, and aptitudes. . . . . . (The Education Act, 1944).

Federal Republic of Germany. . . . . . . Schools should develop the abilities of all pupils to the fullest extent possible, and provide pupils with the ability to think and the fundamental knowledge. (Berlin School Edu-cation Law)

At the European Education Ministers' Conference, which was held in London in 1964, it was also pointed out that the curriculums should be so organized as to match the mental and physical growth and development of school children and that curriculums at the secondary school level be flexible and adapted to the differing levels of intelligence or to the vocational bent of pupils, although the age at which specialization must begin tends to be postponed. Primary school curricula, for example, are recommended to be organized in keeping with the following principles:

l) First place should be given to all activities having an influence on health and metal and physical hygiene.

2) Necessity for knowledge of the mother tongue and the basic operations: reading, writing and arithmetic.

3) Initiation first into moral and spiritual value, then social relations and civics.

4) Concrete illustrations to bring a child into touch with reality.

5) Finally, the child's creative instinct should be drawn on, and an attempt made to develope his artistic sense.

Based on the above mentioned principles, each country except the U.S.A. has actually an identical curriculum for the whole country, although it has different authorities responsible for the preparation and revision of the curriculum.

In our country, the Ministry of Education, which is the central educational authority, formulates courses of study as a basic curriculum to be used as a basis by local boards of education. The courses of study provide the minimum number of teaching hours or credits to be allotted for each teaching subject, objectives, content, and instructions to be followed by teachers in teaching the subjects.

In France, where the administration is centralized more strongly than in the other countries discussed here, the Ministry of Education decides upon the number of teaching hours for each subject for every week and detailed aims and content of education; while in the U.S.A., Federal Republic of Germany, and the U.S.S.R., all of which are federal, curriculums are drawn up usually by their respective composing units. Of these three federal countries, in many states of the U.S.A. the local school systems or county school agencies develop their own curricula based on State curriculum guides. On the other hand, in the Federal Republic of Germany and the U.S.S.R., the Land or constituent Republic prescribes the curriculums and teaching materials to be used for each grade and for each subject. But in these two countries, the curriculums are almost the same for the whole country, because in the German Federal Republic efforts are being made to coordinate the curriculum of the Lander, and in the U.S.S.R. the curriculum made in the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic is used as a basis by other constituent Republics.

In England and Wales, curricula do not constitute a matter within the competence of the Minister or the education authorities with the exception of religious instruction. The schools themselves draw up the curriculums on the responsibility of head teachers and with the collaboration of teaching staffs. However, actually through guidebooks for teachers prepared by the Ministry of Education, Her Majesty's inspectors and examinations, the curriculums tend to vary little between one school and another.