Japanese students' English skills improving, but targets unmet
As generative artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT, rapidly evolves, the country's education authorities are looking to utilize the technology as an educational tool to improve the English skills of students and help them develop into "global human resources."
The government has set targets based on the Eiken Test in Practical English Proficiency, a widely used exam in Japan backed by the ministry that assesses the skills of examinees on an eight-level scale, with Grade 1 being the highest.
The government's fiscal 2027 goal is for over 60 percent of students to attain English proficiency equivalent to Grade 3 or above upon completing junior high school, and Grade Pre-2 or higher by the end of senior high school.
Those who reached Grade 3 are expected to be able to understand and use English related to everyday topics. Those with Grade Pre-2 can participate in general aspects of daily life using English.
As of December, 52.4 percent of final-year junior high school students and 51.6 percent of senior high school students were judged to have met the targets, according to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
Among them, 27.8 percent of junior high school students actually passed the test, while another 24.5 percent were confirmed to have met targets set by their teachers. For senior high school students, the figures were 31.8 percent and 19.8 percent, respectively.
For junior high school students by prefecture and major city, Saitama had the highest passing rate at 89.2 percent, followed by Fukui Prefecture at 79.8 percent, Fukuoka at 65.9 percent and Yokohama at 65.4 percent.
As for English teachers who have passed Grade Pre-1 -- a level roughly equivalent to intermediate university English -- or higher, 46.2 percent of junior high and 82.2 percent of senior high school teachers met the target, the ministry said.
In the 2024 English Proficiency Index released by EF Education First, a Swiss company that operates language schools worldwide, Japan ranked 92nd out of 116 non-native-speaking nations and regions, below South Korea, Vietnam and China.
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