Tokyo

Japanese education minister Koichi Hagiuda said Tuesday his ministry has dropped plans to introduce descriptive questions for Japanese and mathematics subjects in a new unified university entrance examination system in fiscal 2020.

The ministry found it difficult to dispel concerns among students preparing for the exam over the quality and fairness of test scoring.

In November, the ministry decided to postpone the use of private-sector English proficiency examinations that were to be introduced as part of the new exam system.

The introduction of private-sector English tests and open-ended questions was a key pillar of the government-led reform for the unified university entrance exam system.

The use of descriptive questions is intended to measure test-takers’ ability to think, make decisions and express their thoughts that cannot be measured by bubble answer sheets adopted for the current exam system.

Jiji Press