Longer Screen Time Tied to Lower Test Scores in National Survey

Jul 29, 2024 | News On Japan

TOKYO - The results of Japan's National Achievement Survey for elementary and junior high school students have been announced, revealing that the longer students spend watching social media and videos, the lower their test scores tend to be.

The National Achievement Survey, conducted in April, targeted approximately 2 million sixth graders and ninth graders, assessing their proficiency in Japanese and mathematics.

According to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, about half of the elementary school students and roughly 80% of the junior high school students watched social media or videos on their smartphones for more than an hour each day.

In terms of average correct answer rates by viewing time, students who watched for less than 30 minutes had the highest scores.

About 12% of elementary school students and 18% of junior high school students watched for more than 4 hours a day, and their scores were more than 12 points lower in all subjects compared to students who watched for less than 30 minutes.

Although a simple comparison cannot be made due to differences in the intent and difficulty of questions, the correct answer rate for Japanese in junior high schools dropped by more than 11 points compared to last year, falling below 60%.

The Ministry of Education analyzed that the higher difficulty level of the questions and the lower correct answer rate for descriptive questions contributed to the decline.

Source: ANN

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