DiTT will become the engine to propel the digitization of education

OECD has published this year’s edition of their worldwide academic ability study “PISA.” One of the reasons that we established The Association of Digital Textbooks and Teaching (DiTT) is because Japan, which had ranked #1 and #2 for math and science back in 2000, has since fallen dramatically in the ranks. We are very pleased that Japan has regained its former position.

However, this year’s PISA identified a decrease in the reading comprehension of Japanese students. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology responded with a statement citing the main cause as “the change from test questions and answers being written on paper to being done via computer.” If so, then the late adoption of the digitization of education has caused this drop in academic ability.

DiTT held an extraordinary general meeting yesterday. Chairman Hiroshi Komiyama gave the following address:

“In the United States, there is a wealth imbalance where 0.1% of people own 30% of the country’s wealth. Communism has been defeated, but capitalism is now showing its limits. Meanwhile, Japan’s aim has not been to maximize profits, but to ensure the welfare of all stakeholders. We are a good society.

However, we are “slow.” The world is leaving us behind. We need people with ideas to “take action.”  As we move from a government-lead system to autonomous decentralized coordinative system , we must be able to face the government as we move forward as well.

After my leaving my post as president of the University of Tokyo, I have declined over 10 job offers from the government in order to carry forward with my beliefs. I do not mind if my students consider me wrong, but being called a liar is one thing that I cannot endure. I will become independent and do what needs to be done, all while remaining true to myself.”

From the mention of digital textbooks in the Intellectual Property Strategic Program, the mention of the promotion of the digitization of education by the IT headquarters and other organizations, the government decision to provide one PC per student by 2020, the standardization of digital textbooks, the application of the radio use fee, and the new requirement for programming education in schools, we can see that DiTT’s proposals have become reality, and that we are the leaders in the field.

The company is setting about in earnest in regards to the business dealings of this field. We also teamed up with the heads of municipalities that had taken an advanced stance towards this issue, and also formed a bipartisan National Diet caucus. We believe that there have already been results in the Diet, government, municipalities, schools, and the industrial world.

However, Japan remains an underdeveloped country. It is no exaggeration that in this field, we are at the lowest level of all OECD member countries. Now that we have finally begun to tackle the issue, we must bring ourselves up to a higher level immediately. While the Diet and government work from their end, the private sector must also do its part. I feel that for the time being, the only engine that is “propelling” the digitization of education is DiTT.