earticle

영어

For Japan to maintain economic and social vitality and build a society where children can embrace their dreams and hopes and cultivate their future, it is necessary to position education as the most important political task and steadily promote educational reform to improve human resources as a national strategy.
The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has promoted educational reform by presenting its roadmap with specific policies and steps, while considering the opinions of the Central Council for Education. This introduces programs promoting educational reform to date, programs to revise Fundamental Law of Education, and the most recent movements for compulsory educational reform.
Today, the Japanese education system and the people concerned with it must adequately respond to rapid global changes such as economic and market growth caused by rapid technological developments, population flow on a global scale, and the advent of the IT society.
The 21st century is said to be the era of “knowledge-based society,” and it is essential for a country like Japan, that is not blessed with natural resources, to foster excellent talent in order to maintain its vitality and further develop as a nation with wealth and education. However, there are challenges with regard to children's Academic Ability, as children are not always sufficiently equipped with the ability to apply knowledge and skills they have learned, such as reading
comprehension. In addition, it is especially concerning that Japanese children have a poor desire to learn and have not mastered good learning habits. We must foster Academic Ability for the children to master the basics so that they can learn to educate themselves, think for themselves, and have the ability to solve problems even better.
For these reason, the MEXT promotes the following as goals for the 21st century: (1) foster robust Japanese citizens that possess self initiative, (2) foster top-level talents that will lead the “century of knowledge,” (3) foster Japanese citizens who will inherit and create an emotionally enriched culture and society, and (4) foster Japanese citizens educated to live in the international community. As such, MEXT promotes various educational reforms, including university reform, aimed at establishing Academic Ability, ethical value, public spirits and
consideration for others, and sound bodies.
In order to realize this educational reform, the MEXT is working for the entire education system to respond to public expectations and demands promptly and to be more sensitive to social change, through such efforts as improving the quality of teachers, schools, and boards of education responsible for education, increasing independence of regions and local schools, information disclosure and emphasis on accountability, and appropriate evaluation and improvements based on these results.

한국어

최근 일본교육은 자유화 및 개성화 교육에 바탕을 두고 있는 새로운 학제 개혁을 모색하고 있다. 이는 일본이 교육적인 평등 이상으로 국제 경쟁력을 갖춘 인재를 양성하는 것에 기반을 두고있음을 의미한다. 이미 학제개편은 지난 1980년대 임시교육심의회와 중앙교육심의회의 노력을 통해 지속적으로 추진되었으며, 오부치 내각의 교육개혁국민회의 발족을 통해 본격적으로 추진되었다. 교육개혁국민회의는 교육기본법 개정과 교육진흥기본계획에 대한 새로운 개혁 구상을 완성하였으며, 문부과학성을 통해 “21세기 신생플랜”이라는 실천강령을 추진하였다. 현재 일본의 학제개편과 관련된 골자는 대체로 ‘유아교육’과 ‘고교교육’을 의무교육에 연계하는 개혁, 그리고 중·고 연계 등 다양한 고교개혁이 핵심 내용이라고 할 수 있다. 사실상 의무교육에 대한 재검토는 고등학교 체제까지의 무상교육을 강조하면서도 교육 수혜자가 원하는 교육을 자유롭게 받을 수 있도록 하는 평등과 수월성이 공존하는 시장교육체제를 선언한 것으로 이해할 수 있다. 그러면서도 교육재생회의의 개혁방안과 교육기본법 개정 등은 국가주의와 신자유주의를 결합시키고 있다는 측면에서 일본의 ‘교육총력전’이 가져올 새로운 변화가 주변국들의 우려를 불러일으키는 요인이 된다고 볼 수 있다.