Alarmed that its students are falling behind those in rival nations such as South Korea and Hong Kong, Japan is adding about 1,200 pages to elementary school textbooks, bringing the total across all subjects for six years from 4,900 pages today to nearly 6,100.

It’s a move that has divided the country’s education experts, as it is a clear sign that Japan is going back to basics after a 10-year experiment in “pressure-free education,” which encouraged more application of knowledge and less rote memorization.

Science and math textbooks will see the biggest additions, getting 60% more pages compared to earlier this decade. Among new concepts: Fifth-graders will learn how to calculate the area of a trapezoid and sixth-graders will learn about electricity.

An hour or two of school will be added each week, depending on the grade, and English will be introduced in fifth grade instead of seventh. Middle and high school students can expect similar changes in subsequent years.

Does this herald a return to the “cram education” of the past then? The system that stressed memorization and was geared toward passing rigorous university entrance examinations? Though some colleges have introduced essay sections, they largely test ability to recall information, including finicky questions about English grammar that would baffle many native speakers.

Of course, even today, tens of thousands of children attend private “cram schools” in the afternoons to get an extra edge for these exams. Getting into the right university goes a long way toward determining one’s job, income level and place in society.

It was partly in reaction to criticism that the ministry of education about 10 years ago launched what popularly came to be called “pressure-free education.” The aim was to boost students’ skills in applying knowledge and expressing their own opinions, viewed as weaknesses in a system whose strengths have been in solving math problems and memorizing complicated kanji characters used in Japanese writing.

Curricular requirements were reduced, Saturday half-day classes were phased out, and teachers were told to take three hours each week to engage in learning driven by students’ questions, such as “Why doesn’t a sleeping bird fall from its perch on a branch?”

But ever since, Japan’s PISA scores have fallen, setting off what the Japanese media here called “PISA shock.”

Japan’s rank in math in the test, conducted by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, dropped from first in 2000 to 10th in 2006, the most recent year for which results have been released. Science rankings slid from second to 6th, and reading comprehension declined from 8th to 15th.

The slide is puzzling because the exam is designed to test the ability to apply knowledge in real-life situations — one of the supposed goals of “pressure-free education.”

Japan’s performance in another test that does measure knowledge acquired in school, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS, has been mixed. Middle school students’ rank in math has slipped from 3rd in 1995 to 5th in 2007, while their rank in science, which fell from 3rd to 6th in 2003, improved to 3rd again in 2007.

If you spend time reading through the relevant Japanese media, there’s a sense of crisis, with some believing that the new guidelines are a step in the right direction. Others see the revisions as misguided and believe the emphasis on independent thinking needed more time to bear fruit.

One potential positive for teachers is that faced with the prospect of teaching more material next year, Japanese teachers are pushing for smaller class sizes, which now can be as high as 40. The education ministry says it is considering the request and plans to hire more new educators.

Photo Credit:  Asahiko / Wikimedia