2008 Volume 114 Issue 4 Pages 157-162
Opportunities to study Earth Science have been decreased in high schools. Such decrease was mainly caused by the National Course of Study enforced in 2003. A school hours allotted for the existing subjects were reduced due to the introduction of new subjects “Information” and “Period for integrated study”. Furthermore, at least one subject should be chosen from three new subjects of Science, “Science A”, “Science B” and “Basic Science”. In such a situation, Earth Science would have be most affected because it is less concerning the university entrance examination.
The ratio of enrollment “Earth Science I” is only 3.1%, which is the smallest percentage among the 7 subjects of Science. One of the serious problems is the decreasing of Earth Science teachers in high school. The total number of high school students has been decreasing since 1987. The recruitment of Earth Science teachers, to fill the vacancy of the retired teacher, has not been performed in most of prefectures for over a decade. The number of Earth Science teachers must be acceleratingly decreasing after many Earth Science teachers of the boomer-generation are recently retired.
Earth Science is lightly treated in the university entrance examination because it is regarded as a less important subject. This fact is caused by the recent situation that a student's course after graduation is thought to be most dominant in school education. The high school education should be reconsidered from wide viewpoints and recover its primary aim of the study.
