Measures for distance education have been included in the government’s emergency economic stimulus package to cope with COVID-19.

■Measures for distance education have been included in the government’s emergency economic stimulus package to cope with COVID-19.

The government's emergency economic stimulus package is the largest economic stimulus package in history, with 108 trillion yen in projects and 40 trillion yen in fiscal expenditures. I believe that the government has done a rather good job of putting together in this short period of time working restlessly day and night. 

What I also appreciate about the stimulus package is that the government has decided to take measures including not only financial measures but also relaxation of regulations. Japan had been languishing as a developing country with slow progress in terms of IT in education. In such situation, children and students were forced to stay and study at home as schools were all closed. These measures have been taken in order to raise the level of educational informatization in Japan drastically. 

The economic package includes the following five measures for distance education.

・Prompt development of ICT environment: Providing one PC per person ahead of schedule

・Review of requirements for distance learning: elimination of simultaneous interactive requirements

・Relaxation of the limit on the number of credits for distance learning: Reviewing of the upper limit of 60 school credits for universities

・Development of online curriculum: Using of NHK programs

・Establish copyright requirements for online learning: no license required, providing compensation payment

We are aware that the government has responded almost fully to our request in the "All Classes Online - Online Education Promotion Statement," which our group including the Chouiku Kyoukai (Association for Super Education), and other groups have been asking the government for many years.

I would like to express my gratitude and respect to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), and all others involved.

We have been advocating for 1 PC per person for the past 8 years. Various efforts have been made so that Japan would be able to get out of the disgrace of being the lowest in the OECD. The environment has improved. In the past two years, digital textbooks have been institutionalized, programming has been made compulsory, and the "School Education Informatization Promotion Act" has been passed by a bipartisan legislative body.

With the last supplementary budget, steps were taken toward realizing 1 PC per person, and we have the prospect of it being spread out over several years. And with this economic stimulus package, things will move forward furthermore ahead of schedule. From the perspective of six months ago, this is like a dream come true. I wish it had made it before COVID-19.

Looking back on my dreaming, when I first started to take the initiative for realizing 1 PC per person plus digital textbooks, I received objections and criticisms from researchers and academic heavyweights that it was premature. If these measures had been taken earlier, there would have been no confusion like this. I believe that those who opposed the project at the time should take responsibility and all of them should take this opportunity to leave.

The easing of restrictions on the number of school credits earned is likely to be implemented at first. The newly opened iU University has been offering remote classes since the beginning. I was hoping for the elimination of the upper limit of 60school credits.

It is not yet clear whether this will be a temporary measure or a permanent one. We will seek to make it permanent in order to realize the digital 1st in education.

Regarding the issue of copyright for online education, a revised law had passed the congress to make it license-free and compensatory after deliberations in the Cultural Council, however the law has not yet been enforced. The Chouiku Kyoukai (Association for Super Education) has also established a working group to coordinate the parties involved. The operation will be implemented at first. In the end, it is an economic issue of how to make compensation payment to rights holders, and this too needs to be addressed in the next fiscal year and beyond. We will continue to work on this.

Even though it was the result of a super-crisis of COVID-19, I highly appreciate the measures taken to transform the educational environment that forms the foundation of Japan.

Schools and local governments that implement this measure will have to work very hard, but they must recognize that this change, the measures to be taken for ICT are not a temporary one-time thing, but a permanent and irreversible shift.

I hope that COVID-19’s legacy will be the future of education.