Nationwide Test Reveals Japanese Students Score Lower in Math Applications

Based on the results of the first nationwide achievement test in more than 40 years, Japan's sixth-grade pupils and third-year junior high school students got lower marks than anticipated in applied mathematics. At the same time, they got generally high marks in basic knowledge.

Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology reported in late October that the average percentage of questions answered correctly was about 10 percentage points lower in applied skills (61–72%) than it was for basic mathematical knowledge. For example, 96% of students answered a basic knowledge question about how to calculate the area of a parallelogram, but the rate fell when it came to finding the area of a park in a parallelogram on a map.

Because schools with more students getting subsidies for school expenses due to economic difficulties tended to score lower, the ministry said it would try to improve the students' math skills by increasing the number of teachers at these schools. The good news, according to the ministry, was that Japan's public schools, in general, maintained academic levels and that the gap between scores in populated cities and in remote areas had shrunk by more than 10 points since the last nationwide exam, in 1964.

The ministry asked education boards across Japan not to disclose results by municipality and school in order to avoid promoting excessive competition or encouraging the grading of schools. Rather, said education minister Kisaburo Tokai, "It is important to use the results in future education policies, while continuing to address ways to empower each child."

Source: Japan Today, Oct. 25, 2007.