Japan sets roadmap for transition to digital textbooks

According to the Japanese newspaper Mainichi, initially, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology will use electronic textbooks in English for students from grade 5 to junior high school. After that, schools will use e-books for other subjects from 2025 at the earliest.

The plan of the Japanese Ministry of Education was approved on August 25. From now until 2024, electronic textbooks will be used in parallel with printed textbooks.

The Japanese Ministry of Education said the first application of electronic textbooks for English subjects aims to exploit the benefits of direct listening to practice pronunciation.

In the 2021 school year, the Japanese Ministry of Education launched a pilot project for e-textbooks in 40% of elementary and junior high schools nationwide. Government-provided “GIGA School Program” digital devices, which look like tablets, were distributed to students.

The Central Education Council’s working group discussed several scenarios related to the transition to digital textbooks, including the option of replacing paper textbooks with e-textbooks for all subjects. After English, the Ministry also plans to prioritize the implementation of e-textbooks for Mathematics from the beginning of the 2025 school year. This decision was based on positive feedback from students participating in the pilot project. They found that e-textbooks improved the effectiveness of knowledge acquisition when learning about three-dimensional objects.

However, the digital transformation of textbooks will face some major challenges, including ensuring Internet connection at schools and ensuring students' eyesight.

In a survey on inconveniences when using electronic textbooks conducted by the Ministry of Education, up to 48.5% of teachers responded that they lost time when the screen froze or encountered errors. 40.8% of teachers complained that students had problems accessing devices during class due to Internet connection problems at school.

The impact on students' eyesight is another concern. In a school health survey conducted in the 2021 school year, 60.28% of junior high school students had vision below 1.0 (the standard vision level in Japan). This is a record high. There are growing concerns about the link between the use of technological devices and myopia in children. In response to these concerns, the Ministry of Education has issued guidelines on how to use electronic devices to avoid affecting students' eye health.

According to Tin Tuc Newspaper