TOKYO – The average percentage of correct answers for junior high school students in the science portion of the national achievement exam for the 2022 school year was below 50%, the education ministry announced on July 28.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology released the results of the achievement exam for sixth-year elementary school and third-year junior high school students the same day. It was the first exam for junior high school students since the implementation of new curriculum guidelines that emphasize the development of thinking, judgment, and expression skills.
The exam marked the first time in four years for students to be tested in science. Scores were particularly low for questions that test scientific inquiry through observation and experimentation — a skill required under the new guidelines.
The education ministry commented, “An absolute value of under 50% (of correct answers) suggests there are many challenges,” indicating that classes are not fully adapted to the new guidelines.
In April, approximately 1.9 million targeted students from national, public, and private schools across Japan took the examination in three subjects: Japanese, arithmetic/mathematics, and science. In each subject, the average percentage of correct answers was low for questions that focus on “independent, interactive, and deep learning,” such as the exploration of issues set out in the new curriculum guidelines.
In arithmetic and mathematics, the percentage of correct answers fell for questions involving the use of data and those requiring thinking in line with daily life. Although a simple comparison with the previous year is not possible because the level of difficulty type and content of the questions in the three subjects were different, the average score of sixth graders in arithmetic dropped 7.0 percentage points from the previous year to 63.3%, and that of third-year junior high school students dropped 5.5 points to 52.0%.
In Japanese, the percentage of correct responses increased for both grades, but challenges were seen in the writing section. The average score in science among sixth graders was 63.4%, up 3.0 points.
Meanwhile, the average percentage of correct answers in the science test among junior high school students stood at 49.7% — 16.8 points lower than the previous time.
An official from the National Institute for Educational Policy Research, who was involved in creating the questions, said, “In many of the (science) questions, we set up situations that are not found in textbooks.”
Analyzing the results, the official said that the low percentage of correct answers in science was likely due to the fact that the questions were challenging and differed from the experiments and observations conducted in classes.
