Empowering the Next Generation: Parliamentary Vice-Minister Akiko Honda Visits Kumamoto’s Prestigious Prefectural Second High School

On Wednesday, September 11th, Akiko Honda, Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, visited Prefectural Second High School (designated as a Super Science High School (SSH)) to observe classes and hold a meeting with students and staff.
You can see the science and mathematics education and science and technology human resources development efforts that Daini High School puts into practice on a daily basis, such as lessons that explore scientifically and cooperative learning that utilizes one terminal (tablet PC) for each student. Parliamentary Vice-Minister Honda commented that he was impressed by the changes in class from his own high school days, the classroom practice through dialogue between students, and the daily use of ICT.
During the meeting with students and staff, the students were asked questions about expressing their own ideas and working together on research, and the students listened intently to the students’ explanations.
In addition, during the meeting with staff, opinions were exchanged regarding training and self-study related to teaching inquiry activities, the impact and correlation of inquiry activities on career paths after graduation, and issues related to the promotion of inquiry activities.

It was a very meaningful visit, as Parliamentary Vice-Minister Honda provided us with his impressions and advice regarding the practices at Second High School that will contribute to the further promotion of SSH research and development.
Based on the feedback and advice we received, we will work to further promote science and mathematics education and exploratory learning in our prefecture.