Remarkable Number of Eiken Greade 3 Holders

Asahi Newspapers says in an article published on 5th April, 2016 that public junior and senior high school students' English ability have a gap between country's expectation and the actual data collected nationally. The English ability is measured by whether or not 3rd-year junior high school students have Eiken grade 3. The poll shows that 36.6% of them have same ability as the grade 3 or more. This time, data was collected on a prefectural base and Chiba prefecture ranked No.1 at 52.1% and following is Akita with 48.6%.

Personally, I am interested in the rate difference among 47 prefectures. I hypothesised that students living in Osaka would have a high percentage of Eiken possession. People in Osaka are gifted with a unique dialect and that leads to less anxiety of speaking English. However it tunes out to be 9.7%, which is one of the lowest of all prefectures. It is assumed that municipalities effort contributed to higher rate of Eiken grade 3. The more funds it puts, The more opportunity students would have to take Eiken test. Once they take the test, they come to think that they want to have Eiken. In fact, Akita and Chiba prefectures work on rising awareness of English education through various programs such as English camps, introduction of culture and history in English. As for Eiken test, Akita prefectures offers free Eiken for all students who want to take the test.

From these consideration, the chance to take Eiken test would explain the high rate of Eiken 3 holders in Akita and Chiba prefectures.