2021 Volume 47 Pages 84-104
One aim of this paper was to ascertain how policies to implement informatization of schools would be formulated by different policymakers pursuant to policies to create a Digital Society. A second aim was to identify issues that would subsequently arise in educational administration.
Policies to create a Digital Society originated with the concept of “Society 5.0” in the mid-2010s. Those policies have been rapidly promoted as lifestyles, attitudes, and the nature of society have changed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Policies to implement informatization of schools were similarly promoted as part of the same policies to create a Digital Society. Policies to implement informatization of schools sought to implement methods of education that did not heretofore exist and to expand educational opportunities. Those policies are evolving into a concept of more radical school reform. In other words, restructuring of the existing system of education as was previously accepted (e.g. standard class hours, grades, and years) and the relationship between public and private education (the private education industry and homeschooling) is approaching in the form of “Adaptive Learning” and “Data-driven Education.” Those concepts were conceived by and are being promoted by policymakers outside of educational administration such as the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the Office of the Prime Minister, and the Cabinet Office. There are two factors underlying that situation. The first is the fact that the Prime Minister's Office has played a stronger leadership role in policymaking since the second Abe Administration of the 2010s. The second is that the crux of policies promoted by the Prime Minister's Office is comprehensive and active support for business, i.e. “a growth strategy.” Policies to create a Digital society lie at the heart of that strategy.
Based on that system of policy implementation, policies to implement informatization of school (as part of policies to create a Digital Society) have advanced through the following 4 stages. Educational technology, or EdTech, has been developed by private entities such as social entrepreneurs and large educational companies since the 2000s. In the first stage, METI incorporated EdTech in its policies, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) devised policy concepts in conjunction with that move by METI. In the second stage, policies devised by MEXT and METI to implement informatization of school were authorized by the Prime Minister's Office and implemented. In the third stage, policies to implement informatization of schools (provision of distance learning) were required as part of efforts to prevent infection during the COVID-19 pandemic, and policies to implement informatization of school as part of a growth strategy were accelerated in conjunction with those policies. The growth strategy in question had been promoted prior to COVID-19. In the fourth stage, a transition to “Data-driven Education” was initiated as an educational concept with an eye toward circumstances after COVID-19.
The policies to implement informatization of schools that have thus developed have raised fundamental questions about educational administration, such as what role MEXT should play and the nature of its existence. Restructuring of education as part of a national growth strategy is urgently needed given the primary goal of economic growth. However, what MEXT needs to do is to determine the fundamental nature of the relationship between humans and education, which is considered to be immutable despite the increasing adoption of digital and information technologies in society and schools and which is completely irrelevant to value in the economic realm. MEXT should envision and implement an educational system grounded in that relationship.
