More than 50 percent of municipal boards of education have yet to start preparations for computer programming education, which will be mandatory at elementary schools from the 2020 academic year, according to a survey commissioned by the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry.
By region, about 80 percent of the education boards in Hokkaido had not started preparations, followed by the Tohoku region with about 70 percent, illustrating the disparities among regions in their preparations for the new course of study.
Programming education is designed to cultivate students' ability to think logically through such means as learning about protocols that are used in computing. It will be taught in arithmetic or science classes.
The survey was conducted by a research company commissioned by the ministry in February and March, targeting municipal boards of education across the country. About 40 percent of education boards -- 722 in total -- responded to the survey.
Efforts toward programming education becoming mandatory were analyzed, with the results divided into four categories: 57 percent of municipal boards had not taken any particular measures; 13 percent said they had appointed officials to be in charge of the issue; and another 13 percent said they had held training sessions for teachers. Sixteen percent said that their schools had held programming classes.
By region, 82 percent of education boards in Hokkaido said they had not taken any particular measures toward programming education becoming mandatory, followed by 73 percent in Tohoku region -- a significant difference when compared to the 34 percent figure in the Kanto region, which recorded the lowest result.
Asked why they had not taken measures for programming education, with multiple answers allowed, 64 percent said they lacked information about the intentions and purpose of programming education, while 56 percent said they had a shortage of human resources. Forty-four percent said they had insufficient budgets to prepare tablet devices, personal computers and other necessary items.
"We'll provide examples of procedures to prepare equipment and to conduct mock classes so that all boards of education can start preparations by the end of this school year," a ministry official in charge of the matter said.
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