A private-sector English-speaking test will be introduced at the
The test will be implemented for the entrance exam on
Some parents and experts are demanding that the test be called off due to the need for more transparency on who will score it and the standard for deducting points.
Meanwhile, some junior high school classes in
"I have tried to create an environment where speaking English is normal," said
According to the
According to the board, the roughly 76,000 students who have applied to take the tests account for around 95 percent of third-year public junior high school students in
Students taking the test will don headsets with microphones and record verbal answers to eight questions shown on tablets. They will also wear earmuffs to shut out noise.
The students will be scored on a six-tier scale for grammar and pronunciation, among other aspects of speaking ability, with "A" being the highest and "F" the lowest.
An "A" is worth 20 points, while an "F" would add zero to the total score of next year's entrance exams, which include an achievement test with a possible total score of 700 and a school report with a maximum of 300 points.
For those who miss the speaking test due to illness or other reasons, the scores are calculated by averaging the speaking test results of students with the same level as the absentee's English score on the achievement test.
Worried about fairness, parents and education experts against the speaking test have launched a petition drive to urge the metropolitan government to halt its implementation, collecting more than 23,000 signatures as of
"Who will mark the answers of some 80,000 students? The scorers are likely not aware of grading criteria, and I think it would be difficult to score it fairly," said a 52-year-old mother of a second-year junior high school student in
Because English teaching levels at junior high schools in
Some also call the treatment of students who skip the test due to illness or other reasons unreasonable. They say students may think it is better not to prepare and receive a "virtual" score by sitting out the exam.
The opposition to the English-speaking test is a reminder of when the government put off the planned introduction of private-sector English proficiency tests as part of
At that time, critics said using private-sector tests would discriminate against students living in remote areas and questioned the lack of support measures for disadvantaged households.
The Iwate prefectural government previously introduced an English conversation test on entrance exams for prefecture-run high schools in fiscal 2004. However, it was canceled after three years due to lengthy waiting times for students taking the tests.
The Fukui prefectural government also experimentally tested students using
In refuting the opposition, the
As for the grading, an education board official has said fairness would be ensured as "multiple people will mark the exams, and if the scoring differs, a senior person will make adjustments."
If the English-speaking tests are to be incorporated into high school entrance exams, "they should dispel worries by making the grading open, such as by publishing the answer examples for each evaluation," she said.
==Kyodo
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