Here, I remember as someone who was involved in the establishment of an integrated high school, which was probably born as part of the first reform of high school education about 30 years ago.

　The integrated course was established in 1994 as a new department that integrates the general course and the vocational course (specialized course in another document).This reform of ordinary courses includes many characteristics of integrated courses, such as department names according to the characteristics of ordinary courses and (setting of types) school setting subjects / subjects.From a different point of view, it can be taken as a new project or measure for the general course to prepare for the new era of Society XNUMX while inheriting the characteristics of the integrated course.On the other hand, if such reforms in general courses progress, it is clear that integrated courses will have major challenges from the perspective of further demonstrating their characteristics.

　In Osaka, in 1996, Imamiya High School, a traditional school for more than 100 years, reorganized into an integrated course, and the author served as the principal for five years from the year following the reorganization to 1971.During this time, the students, parents, and faculty members worked positively on the unknown territory.I remember a press person jokingly saying, "The integrated course is a venture company. For the name of venture high school."

　The curriculum of the integrated course consists of the principle courses of "industrial society and human beings", "information", and "problem research", comprehensive elective courses, and free elective courses. The "industrial society and human beings", which is the core of the educational content, which was conducted in the first year, was very well received by the students.Ask the students to think about which series they belong to and what elective subjects / subjects to choose.Also, the faculty and staff made great efforts to prepare for a large number of comprehensive elective courses.Considering that this is the characteristic and lifeline of an integrated course, we focused on setting up subjects that cannot be created at ordinary high schools and vocational high schools.In collaboration with the university (Osaka Prefecture University), I myself set up a course called "aerospace engineering" by graduate students and pioneered a route for visiting university laboratories.

　It seems that the emphasis on school-set subjects and subjects in this reform of general courses is exactly what has been done in integrated courses.The number of students in integrated courses is currently over XNUMX% for the entire high school.It can be thought that the reform of the general course has been drastically reached from the place where the expansion of the integrated course is not seen.

　With the development of ICT, it has become possible to collaborate not only with domestic universities but also with various business establishments and overseas schools and facilities, and now it should be possible to set a wider variety of elective courses than ever before.On the other hand, there are some things to be careful of.In the past, there were various public evaluations of integrated courses, from favorable ones such as "pilot school" and "free school" to critical ones such as "fuzzy department" and "porridge department".

　The idea of ​​"combining the good points of ordinary courses and vocational courses" may still have the potential to become an "ambiguous course" if one step is wrong.In addition, although the pressure to take university entrance exams has weakened, it is still persistent, and as the birthrate declines and the competition for student acquisition between schools, both public and private, becomes fierce, it is essential to understand the needs of students and parents. There will be no.I sincerely hope that this reform of the general course will not follow the rut of the reform of the integrated course.

　Returning to the integrated course, I think it is important to carefully select and establish the content of "industrial society and human beings" and prepare a large number of attractive elective courses in order to continue the reform. It is hoped that this is an integrated course that can develop human resources who can create a bright future and play an active role by making full use of cutting-edge technologies such as ICT and AI.

Former Principal of Osaka Prefectural Imamiya High School, CEO of Kuramupon Publishing
Shohei Tamura