Significance and issues of the Educational Information Technology Promotion Act

■Significance and issues of the Educational Information Technology Promotion Act

A symposium commemorating the enactment of the Educational Information Promotion Act was held in Akasaka, Tokyo. The significance and issues of the law passed in the Diet will be discussed at the round-table of government, industry, and academia. 

In 2018, "digital textbooks" were institutionalized due to revisions such as the School Education Act submitted by the government. This law is another engine in which the computerization of school education has greatly progressed through comprehensive measures such as the formulation and implementation of promotion plans by local governments. 

It was formulated by the bipartisan Parliamentarians' League of Parliamentarians Aiming to Promote ICT Utilization in Education, in which 83 people, which included experienced ministers from the ruling and opposition parties. We also participated as private advisers in this work, drafted a bill, submitted it to the Diet, and passed it. 

It was originally a proposal by the Digital Textbook Teaching Materials Council DiTT (now the Higher Education Association) to enact the Act on Promotion of Educational Information Technology in June 2015. There were many twists and turns in the drafting of the bill and the adjustment of the ruling and opposition parties, but in the end it was passed unanimously in the Diet. 

The table participants included Diet members Endo, Nakagawa, Moriyama, Ishibashi, Takatani of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Asano of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and Yoshida of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. 

The bill was introduced by Mr. Moriyama, a member of the Diet. As a former legal expert bureaucrat, I coordinated with ministries, legislative bureaus, and ruling and opposition parties. I explained the purpose, definition, basic philosophy, national responsibilities, promotion plan, basic measures, etc., and pointed out that "the issue is how to make good use of this". 

What is the significance of this law? "It is important not only to instruct but also to improve the abilities of each child. I want to position ICT education as one of the three pillars of English education and science education," said Mr. Endo, chairman of the Parliamentary League (former Minister of the Olympic and Paralympic Games). 

What are its issues? Former Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Mr. Nakagawa, says there may be two of them. "Paper textbooks are free, but how to consider the cost of digital textbooks? There is also a hard difference between cities, towns and villages. Costs are covered by local allocation tax, so it all depends on the judgment of the local government. How to work around this?"

Then, the issue is the cost of "textbook software" and hardware such as PCs and networks. What kind of budget expenses and what kind of burden will the national government, local governments, and households share in preparation for digital textbooks and ICT environments? 

Certain economic measures are the answer to this. With the supplementary budget, 231.8 billion yen was put aside for each person. The results of the Advancement Measures Act seem to be already showing up.

Representative Ishibashi brought up the effects of legislation. "1. The elimination of disparities between local governments and schools, 2. The promotion of financial measures and budget execution, 3. The reduction of introduction costs." It is expected that counting with the support of the law will make it easier to take financial measures, promote spread and reduce costs.

He further emphasizes that "the normalization of true digital textbooks" is important. "For now, we have turned paper textbooks into digital textbooks, but in the future we will aim to use the digital textbooks themselves as certified textbooks. This is the starting point."

This is also important. Digital textbooks were institutionalized by compromising on using paper textbooks in PDF format. It shows that there is a great deal of meaningless anxiety about digital. The advantages of digital such as videos and links cannot be fully utilized yet. I hope children get to reap the benefits of them as soon as possible. 

I also inquired with people in charge of three related ministries. Mr. Takatani, chief of the Ministry of Education, reiterated the fact that schools are lagging behind in ICT internationally and that regional disparities are large. He expressed his intention to improve the ICT environment by utilizing the cloud and using inexpensive terminals. Furthermore, he announced that he would work on the utilization of advanced technology and educational big data. 

We have had fierce exchanges with the Ministry of Education, but due to changes in the department in charge, there have been significant policy changes corresponding with the timing of this institutionalization, cooperation with the enactment of this law, and also positivism towards cloud and AI usage. Really reliable. 

Mr. Yoshida, Chief of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, explained the budget measures for demonstration projects such as regional ICT clubs. However, it seems that our presence has diminished comparatively due to the fact that the Ministry of Education is driving this policy. It is necessary to have a prospect of how to get out of the demonstration stage and make it a national infrastructure. 

From an industrial perspective, I think that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's entry into EdTech as a growth strategy is stimulating both ministries. As civilians, this is welcome. While explaining the initiatives of the Future Classroom, Mr. Asano displayed the prospects of expanding the movements of school education, private education, industry and university through innovation. 

I was surprised that Mr. Asano emphasized that ICT should be used as "stationery". Let's make it a natural thing for everyone. Even if the government does not distribute it, it is already possible for households to bear the burden of BYOD, such as vertical flutes and abacus. Isn't a PC better than buying a school bag that costs 60,000 yen, isn't it? 

Mr. Ishido reminisced that "the predecessor of the movement to promote digital textbooks was the 'digital school bag'". Digital textbooks were created matching Masayoshi Son's "electronic textbook" concept, which remarked "wanting the impact of a textbook." That was 10 years ago. At that time, it was already calculated that the distribution of all PCs would cost 855.9 billion yen, 2% of the fiscal expenditure. If this is achieved with this budget measure, both the system and the budget will be aligned, and I think that our work will be pretty much done. 

With this legislation, it was pointed out that "it is important to have an awareness of investing into this as a consensus of the people". I agree with this. The government official also showed enthusiasm to "make the world's most advanced education in the age of AI a reality". Mr. Ishido concluded that this would be "preparation and determination".