61530    Particularly, it was intended to help children to develop practical academic skills and a well-rounded personality by freeing them from cramming down a hodge-podge of information and providing them more opportunity to go through a diverse range of experiences first hand.

61531    The five-day school week system must be based on that original intention.

61532    What should be done to achieve this?

61533    For a start, in setting up a timetable, each school needs to select the content of every class even more carefully in order not to make up those hours lost from Saturday school closures by tacking them onto classes on other days.

61534    Teachers will need to change their mindset that they must teach children everything in the textbook, think about what is particularly important to children and focus on those areas during class.

61535    Also, school events should remain on the school calendar whenever possible instead of being sacrificed to maintain the class hours.

61536    The Guidelines for the Course of Study are asking children to learn through a diverse range of experiences.

61537    Personal relationships among children and between teachers and children can be deepened through the school events.

61538    And, above all, they make school life fun.

61539    This kind of significance of school events must not be forgotten.

61540    The next request goes to the Boards of Education.

61541    They must be flexible enough to accept the class hours in the curriculum submitted by each school.

61542    The number of class hours is defined in the appendix of the Enforcement Regulations of the School Education Law.

61543    For example, the number of hours of instruction is specified per grade for each subject, moral education, and special activities, with 306 being the hours for Japanese and 850 the total number of hours of instructions for the first grade.

61544    While these hours of instruction are regarded as a "standard," it is actually being treated as the "minimum."