Japanese students struggle with description-type tests
Among such questions, students seemed to struggle especially with those asking them to write their thoughts in a way that others can understand.
The fiscal 2025 achievement test for elementary school sixth-graders and junior high school third-graders was held in April, with a total of some 1.9 million students participating from about 28,000 schools nationwide.
This year, the ministry released test results by gender for the first time.
Female students in both elementary school sixth grade and junior high school third grade gave more correct answers to Japanese-language questions than male students. More girls than boys in both grades said that they like, are good at or understand the subject well.
In the mathematics and science segments of the national test, no significant gender gaps were seen in correct answer rates. However, fewer girls than boys said that they like, are good at or understand the subjects well.
These tendencies in mathematics and science were also observed in the 2023 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. A ministry official said that the tendencies are believed to derive from multiple factors, including gender-related unconscious bias and biological differences between males and females.
The average correct answer rate for each subject had been released earlier. Among elementary school sixth-graders, the correct answer rate came to 67.0% for Japanese language, 58.2% for mathematics, and 57.3% for science. Among junior high school third-graders, the rate was 54.6% for Japanese language and 48.8% for mathematics, while the average score in science was 505.
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