The “Super-Education Association” founding prospectus

 ■The “Super-Education Association” founding prospectus           

　The founding prospectus of the Super-Education Association has been released.

　The lack of IT talent has been an issue in our country for 30 years. However, while IT has penetrated all levels of our society and economy in recent years, and the demand for IT talent has increased not just in the IT and content industries but in all industries and domains, the shrinking workforce has also meant that the difficulty in meeting that demand has been further worsened.

　Furthermore, the fourth Industrial Revolution driven by AI and IoT is also seen as Society5.0 - the fifth reform of society after hunting, agriculture, industry, and information - and mastery of IT, as well as the ability to create new value based on it, is predicted to become essential knowledge for all people, not just in industry but in all areas of society, culture, and life.

　The government has released a plan to prepare an environment for students to learn with information terminals and digital textbooks in elementary, middle, and high schools by 2020, as well as to make programming a compulsory subject. The enhancement of online education in universities, the establishment of professional universities that nurture students’ IT readiness, as well as the expansion of “recurrent education” for relearning are also preparing an educational environment for the new age.

　Educational businesses run by private enterprises are also becoming active under the general term of EdTech. These are not just enterprises in the education sector; rather, businesses in the transmission, IT, gaming, and toy industries are also joining in one after another to provide hardware and software. The use of apps and digital teaching materials in cram schools, correspondence education, and families is progressing. Participation in programming-education business, such as through the building up of classrooms and the development of teaching tools, is also happening. Services to integrate AI or big data such as educational history into the development of teaching materials are also being provided, and changes in the environment of in-family and extracurricular learning are occurring.　

　However, from the perspective of the computerization of and introduction of IT into education, Japan is an underdeveloped country. The ratio of students to information terminal devices in elementary schools is 6 to 1, and Japan has the lowest level of IT application among the OECD countries. Apart from preparing an IT environment, there are many issues we have to deal with, such as curriculum development and nurturing instructors. While foreign countries place an emphasis on STEM education and computer-science education, including programming, and move forward with the transition to the cloud and the use of social media and big data, Japan is still far from that point.

　As computerization moves into the next stages of digitization and transition to smart technology, it’s a certainty that a series of technological waves - AI, IoT, robots, blockchains, etc. - will advance on the field of education as well.

　As technology has advanced, education has also changed. The invention of printing created textbooks and established the education method of mass teaching. In the 20th century, new media such as film, radio, and television was used in education. In the 21st century, the type of talent that is sought after by society has changed as a result of IT and AI, which will reform education again.

　This new era is one where the world will continue to change. Society will demand that people keep learning throughout their lives, from childhood to old age. We must create places for learning, within and outside schools and in families, workplaces, and regions, and link them together in a coordinated way.

　We need to open up new territory and put effort into the development of a learning and education environment. We need to work on the preparation of infrastructure for IT education, as well as the development of cutting-edge AI and IoT education - both to catch up with the world and to lead it. 

　This is also our experiment in creating the concept of “super-education” - learning that breaks down the framework of a conventional school. We need a design that treats all learners as subjects. In this process, it will be important to combine the wisdom of many parts of society that have an interest in this area, and to take action.