Students in Japan struggle with Japanese language, math exams

The correct answer rate for the Japanese language section dropped to 67.0 pct from 67.8 pct among elementary school sixth-graders.

Among junior high school third-graders, the rate sagged to 54.6 pct from 58.4 pct, the lowest level since the current question format was introduced in fiscal 2019.

They struggled with writing tasks in particular.

For the math section, the rate slid to 58.2 pct from 63.6 pct among elementary school sixth-graders and to 48.8 pct from 53.0 pct among junior high school third-graders.

In science, whose test was conducted for the first time in three years, the correct answer rate fell to 57.3 pct from 63.4 pct in fiscal 2022 among elementary school sixth-graders.

For the science test for junior high school third-graders, a computer-based testing system was introduced, making it difficult to calculate an easily comparable correct answer rate.

"As the difficulty level is different every year, it's not appropriate to observe a change in academic skills by simply comparing the latest results to the past correct answer rates," a ministry official said.

A comparison over time will become easier once the computer-based testing system is introduced for all subjects in fiscal 2027, according to the ministry.

The latest achievement test was conducted in April, covering some 1.9 million students from about 28,000 schools nationwide.