Online Learning During the Coronavirus Pandemic in Primary and Secondary Schools in Japan

The novel coronavirus pandemic has forced schools around the world to take action to protect their students and staff, as well as rethink new approaches to learning and teaching. Educational institutions are faced with the dilemma of either postponing classes indefinitely or relying on emergency measures to move their courses online and adapt to the new reality of distance learning. The article characterizes the readiness of Japanese primary and secondary schools for such a change in their conservative views and the current situation with the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in school education. A comparison is made between classroom learning and online/distance learning, and the current trend of «emergency distance learning» is discussed.