Reona Esaki, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics and head of a government education reform panel to be launched later this month, says he will strive to create a "custom-made" education system to meet the needs of individual students.
"There are ready-made clothes and there are custom-made clothes, but people look better in outfits tailored to fit their needs," Esaki said Friday in an interview with Kyodo News. "It's the same for education. I don't think people's talents can be fully tapped unless there is custom-made education."
The 74-year-old former president of the state-run Tsukuba University said the nation's education system so far has been more of a "ready-made" system, putting emphasis on training people to develop the skills society demands.