Fewer than half of sixth-grade elementary school students who took this academic year's national academic achievement tests said they enjoyed their school lives, the first time the ratio has fallen below 50% since the question was included in the 2013 academic year in a survey conducted as part of the tests, according to results released by the education ministry.
This low ratio indicates how hard it is for children to have a school life amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry conducts national academic achievement tests on sixth-grade elementary school students and third-year junior high school students. Last year's tests were canceled as schools were closed nationwide due to the pandemic. Conducted in May, this year's tests were taken by about 1.94 million schoolchildren in two subjects: Japanese and mathematics. The results were released on Tuesday.
When the survey asked the children if they thought it is fun to go to school, 48% of the sixth-grade elementary school students said they agreed, six percentage points lower than when the previous tests were administered in the 2019 academic year.
"The result is probably triggered by the fact that children are facing restrictions in enjoying activities at school amid the pandemic, such as interacting with friends and having chats during lunchtime," a ministry official said.
The survey also asked the children about what they did when they had questions regarding their schoolwork while studying at home. For this question, to which multiple answers were allowed, asking family members was the most widely preferred choice among the sixth-grade elementary school students, at 78.7%. Meanwhile, the top choice for the third-year junior high school students was doing their own research, chosen by 61.5%. Fewer than 10% in either group said they asked their teachers.
Among the elementary school students, 10.1% chose leaving what they could not understand as it was, an answer that was also chosen by 14.3% of the third-year students of junior high schools.
Meanwhile, the results of the national tests showed that the more frequently schoolchildren read newspapers, the higher average scores they achieved. The elementary and junior high school students who said they read newspapers "almost every day" got much higher scores in all subjects than the group of students who said they read newspapers "seldom" or "not at all."
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