Photo/Illutration A scene from the speaking test. Students wear ear muffs and record answers in a tablet device. (Provided by the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education)

The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education announced it has selected the British Council as a candidate to administer the next English speaking test for public junior high school students in the Japanese capital.

A formal decision is expected by early August.

The British Council, Britain's international body for cultural relations and educational opportunities, administers the International English Language Testing System, or IELTS.

It is the only organization that responded to the Tokyo board’s overture. Okayama-based Benesse Corp., a leading correspondence education company that will administer the test for third-year students this fall, did not apply.

The English speaking test has marked the first time for the board to conduct the test jointly with a private company.

This spring, the test was also used to determine whether students passed or failed the entrance examination for metropolitan high schools, and Benesse was in charge of administering the procedure.

The British Council will administer the test for first- and second-graders from this school year onward, and for third-graders from the following school year onward. The test will be administered until fiscal 2028. Approximately 240,000 children across the three grades are expected to take the test.

The board of education insisted on the following in its application guidelines: questions must be prepared in accordance with the Courses of Study of junior high schools; for the time being, questions must be structured in the same way as those used until fiscal 2022; answers must be recorded on tablet terminals; and the test environment must ensure that examinees are not be interrupted by the answers of others. 

The IELTS, which is administered by British Council, is a test of four English language skills, and the results are used for admission to British universities. The speaking test is a format in which candidates talk to each other.

A screening committee consisting of university professors “highly evaluated” the British Council for the following reasons: Its track record of conducting tests in Japan and overseas; its stable test administration, including question preparation, scoring, and evaluation; ability to prepare tablet terminals for use in the test and to ensure stable and continuous business operations.

“We will make use of the expertise and experience in English language education that Britain has cultivated, and will strive to develop English language education,” the council said in a statement released through the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education.

The current joint implementation with Benesse had been set for the third-grade tests (including the pre-test) for the 2019-23 school year. The company will administer the test in November.

The company declined to comment on why it did not apply this time.

“We refrain from responding to public inquiries about individual projects,” a representative said.

A wave of criticism from experts and parents erupted last fiscal year after the tests began to be used for entrance examinations for metropolitan high schools.

In terms of administration, it was pointed out that “the students could hear the answers of others around them through their ear muffs (for soundproofing).”

In addition, because personal information and test results are collected by a private company, some parents said they felt uneasy about registering for the test. 

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