Japanese Students' English Improves, but Still Below Goals
Japanese students are getting better at English, but they're still not achieving government goals, according to a survey by Japan's education ministry.
By the time they finish junior high school the Japanese government wants 50% of students to have an English proficiency score of A1 or higher on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). And the government wants at least half of all graduating high school students to get a score of A2 or higher.
The CEFR is used around the world to measure language skills. Levels go from A1 to C2, with A1 being the lowest. For the survey, A1 was considered the same as passing the Grade 3 Eiken exam, a test used to check English proficiency across Japan.
According to the survey, 47% of graduating junior high school students had CEFR English proficiency levels of A1 or higher in 2021. While still below the government's goal, this was 3% higher than in the last survey in 2019 — and much higher than the 32% result from the first survey in 2013.
Around 46% of graduating high school students had proficiency levels of A2 or higher, an increase of 2.5% compared with the last survey, and up from 31% in 2013.
The prefecture with the best results was Fukui on the west coast of Japan, where almost 86% of graduating junior high school students had A1 or higher, and almost 60% of graduating high school students had A2.
The lowest junior high school results were in Saga prefecture, at just under 32%, while the lowest high school results were in Fukushima, at 36%.
