The government plans to launch a pilot project in fiscal 2025 to fully digitalize high school admissions, sources said Friday.
The move is aimed at easing burdens on students, parents and teachers, as well as minimizing human errors, such as forgetting to submit applications.
Currently, students often fill out application forms by hand and pay examination fees at financial institutions. Junior high schools either deliver student reports directly to high schools or send them by mail. High schools then manually input the documents received into their systems, and check for errors in handwritten documents.
The government is now looking to allow related documents to be sent in digital form and examination fees to be paid through cashless payment services, informed sources said.
The pilot digitalization project will cover the submission of application documents, the release of examination results and the completion of entrance procedures.
The government plans to conduct the project with education boards and public schools that are willing to cooperate.
The government aims to address technical challenges such as data integration between junior high and high schools during fiscal 2024. It hopes to spread digital admission procedures throughout the country after confirming their effectiveness in the pilot project.
Digital procedures are seen as possible through the use of online file-sharing services without introducing new systems in schools.
The Digital Agency estimates that digital procedures will reduce administrative work, such as checking documents and entering data, by about 30 to 90 hours at junior high schools and by 20 to 80 hours at high schools.