The government is considering two draft plans -- a simultaneous implementation and a phased shift -- for the introduction of a September enrollment system for elementary schools, it has been learned.
The tentative plans for shifting school enrollments and the start of the academic year from April to September were presented Tuesday to the government, which is considering the issue in the wake of the new coronavirus. Regarding elementary school students subject to the possible September enrollment next year, one draft plan calls for the simultaneous implementation for all 6-year-old children, while another plan seeks a phased implementation that will take five years.
The government held the first meeting of a study team comprising senior officials of relevant ministries and agencies, including vice ministers, and launched discussions using the draft plans as the springboard.
Under the simultaneous implementation plan, if the new system is introduced in September next year, all children who have reached the age of 6 -- that is, those born between April 2, 2014, to Sept. 1, 2015 -- will enter elementary school.
On the other hand, the phased implementation plan envisages that children born between April 2, 2014, and May 1, 2015, will start elementary school next year. Children born during the subsequent 13 months will then be enrolled the following year, and so on for five years.
What this means specifically is that in 2022, the second year of the possible introduction of the new system, students entering elementary school would be those born between May 2, 2015, and June 1, 2016. Children born between June 2, 2016, and July 1, 2017, would be enrolled in 2023. The transition period is expected to end in 2025, when those born up until Sept. 1, 2019, would be the last group.
The draft plans also envisage that elementary, junior high and high schools will all be subject to the September start from next year. Under both plans, students already enrolled will stay in their current grades until the end of August next year and advance to higher grades or higher educational institutions in September, in principle. Kindergarten children in their final year will graduate at the end of August next year.
Regarding high school students, the drafts stipulate that they could graduate at the end of March if they have the credits required for graduation and have completed three years of study.
The draft plans also envision that universities will shift to the September admission system, to which students including those currently in the third year of high school will be subject. But students who are already at university will graduate in March for the time being. From 2025 when the current third-year high school students will graduate from university, graduations will be in August, completing a shift to the September admission system. The plans also refer to the possibility that admissions and the start of the academic year at universities could be in August or October.
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