Digital Hollywood Launches Comprehensive High School Education Support Service in Response to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's 'N-E.X.T. High School Concept'

Digital Hollywood Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Masanori Fujii; Provost: Tomoyuki Sugiyama), which operates schools and universities for training human resources in IT and digital content, has announced the launch of a new comprehensive support service for high school education. This service is designed to align with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's (MEXT) 'N-E.X.T. High School Concept (Program for Promoting High School Education Reform to Foster Human Resources for Industrial Innovation, etc.)', building upon the initiatives of MEXT's 'High School DX Acceleration Promotion Project (DX High School)'. This service evolves traditional educational support by connecting 'inquiry-based learning' with 'information technology education'. ① Fostering human resources who can be implemented in the field (Advanced Essential Workers) ② Cultivating interdisciplinary human resources who can pose their own questions, conduct research and implementation to solve them, and are prepared for higher education. ③ Developing educational infrastructure that supports diverse learning. ④ Building a sustainable support system that enables teachers and communities to operate independently.

It is an educational support service for the N-E.X.T. High School era that aims to achieve these goals holistically. By integrating the expertise of Digital Hollywood in digital human resource development and Benesse Corporation's know-how in high school education support, the service offers comprehensive support from curriculum provision, lesson design assistance, teacher training, and visualization/dissemination of results, to planning, operation, and deployment. This aims to support the realization of continuous educational reform in schools and education boards.

High School Education Reform Moving from DX High School to the N-E.X.T. High School Concept

High school education is required to foster competencies and enhance inquiry-based learning, in line with the direction of high school education reform indicated by MEXT. In recent years, the 'High School DX Acceleration Promotion Project (DX High School)' has served as a catalyst for improving ICT environments and strengthening information education. However, challenges have also become apparent, such as: ・Information education and inquiry activities are disconnected. ・Learning is not connected to solving societal issues. ・Sustainable operation is difficult, relying on individual teachers.

Against this backdrop, the 'N-E.X.T. High School Concept' emphasizes the importance of fostering human resources who can create value in local communities and industries, and promoting the spread of education to regional areas.

Structural Challenges in Fostering Problem-Solving Human Resources

Based on advanced initiatives and practical experiences from educational sites nationwide, in which our company is also involved, several structural challenges have been pointed out. These include insufficient connection between information technology utilization and processes such as data utilization, hypothesis testing, and implementation when fostering students' ability to proactively engage with regional and societal issues and think/practice to solve them. As a result, learned knowledge and skills are sometimes not applied to actual problem-solving. Furthermore, challenges include lesson design and practice often depending on individual teachers' capabilities, a lack of systems for continuous implementation at the school-wide level, and outcomes being limited to a few areas and not easily disseminated within the region.

Features of This Service

To address these challenges, this service offers a 'comprehensive support model' that goes beyond mere curriculum provision. It corresponds to the three types* of the 'N-E.X.T. High School Concept'.