Evaluation of Tablet-Recorded Audio in the Philippines
Proceeding Despite Concerns Over Fairness and Privacy Leakage
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Junran] For the first time, an English speaking test was conducted in the Tokyo Metropolitan High School entrance exam in Japan.
According to local media such as Yomiuri Shimbun and Nikkei on the 27th, about 76,000 third-year students of Tokyo metropolitan public junior high schools, accounting for 95% of the total, took the English speaking test from 1 p.m. at 197 locations including high schools and conference halls in Tokyo.
The test was conducted by having examinees wear headsets with microphones for 15 minutes and explain situations or express opinions in English while looking at sentences and pictures displayed on tablets. The perfect score for the English speaking test is 20 points, which is known to be added to the perfect score of 1000 points for the overall academic test and document evaluation.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education has been promoting the introduction of the speaking test since 2013 to move away from grammar and reading-centered English education and improve students' English communication skills. After expert meetings and other processes, the implementation was finalized in 2017, and the English speaking test to be used for the metropolitan high school entrance exam for students entering in April next year was conducted for the first time on this day.
The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology also established English subjects in elementary schools in 2013 to diversify English classes and set a policy to basically conduct English classes in English in junior high schools.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education decided to operate this test by outsourcing it to a private company. The major correspondence education company Benesse Corporation was in charge of test operation, and it is known that 670 employees of the Board of Education were deployed as test supervisors. Scoring is done in pairs by bachelor's degree holders residing in the Philippines.
This is the first time in Japan that an English test operated by a private company is uniformly introduced into public high school entrance exams. Students of national and private junior high schools were excluded from the target.
Regarding this, parents and researchers are concerned about the possibility of fairness issues in the scoring process of the speaking test. There were also concerns about personal information leakage. Local public broadcaster NHK reported, "Parents are worried about the lack of transparency in the criteria and methods of scoring."
Nevertheless, English speaking tests are expected to spread further in Japan. A representative of the Fukui Prefectural Board of Education told Yomiuri, "We have delayed the introduction of the English speaking test due to issues such as considerable costs and long scoring periods, but we have not given up on the speaking test," adding, "We are paying attention to how Tokyo will solve these challenges."
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