School textbooks for English in Japan to go digital from 2024

The ministry originally planned to fully introduce digital textbooks from 2024, but now intends to distribute printed textbooks for each subject, and limit the use of digital textbooks to English alone. Acknowledging the view that paper textbooks provide a strong foundation in traditional learning, the ministry has decided to initially introduce digital textbooks for the English language, including features such as text-to-speech.

The plan will be presented next week at a meeting of the Central Council for Education’s working group on digital textbooks, with the expectation that all elementary and junior high schools will be able to use digital English textbooks from 2024.

The ministry has made these digital textbooks available to some schools as part of a pilot project and learned that there is a great demand for the text-to-speech function.

The digital textbook campaign is part of the ministry’s Global and Innovation Gateway for All (GIGA) concept.

Though some working group members focused on the benefits of the high-tech books — such as being able to learn through repeatedly listening to audio recordings – several others strongly emphasised the importance of paper textbooks, saying such books “are also important” and that they “should be used in combination” with digital devices.

Communication-related issues may arise following the introduction of digital textbooks. When the ministry asked teachers — with multiple responses possible — to flag inconveniences with digital textbooks, 48.6% said, “it’s necessary to deal with screen freezes and error messages”.

In light of such feedback, the ministry intends to maintain the use of paper textbooks while gradually expanding the use of digital textbooks.

The Japan News

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