OSAKA — Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto plans to offer a total of ¥500 million to high schools whose students score highest on the Test of English as a Foreign Language to boost competition and raise the level of language proficiency.
The plan, meant to reward the high schools in the prefecture with the best English education programs, was recently conveyed to the prefectural board of education and will go into effect next year if approved.
Between 50 and 100 students at each of the prefecture's 234 public and private high schools would be selected to take the test, which is often used by foreign universities in evaluating nonnative English speakers for admission. The average TOEFL score for each school would then be tallied, and schools with the top 50 scores would receive ¥10 million each to further their English programs.