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 Benesse Corporation today announced it would launch Benesse e-Exam Service, a new e-learning service designed to meet the diversifying needs of students taking junior high school entrance exams. Benesse e-Exam Service will be launched in September 2004.

Targeting students aiming to take junior high school entrance exams and their families, this web-based service offers an entirely new approach to home-based learning. Benesse e-Exam Service provides a comprehensive online learning support program for students and features complete one-on-one guidance and counseling tailored to individual goals and needs.

Benesse e-Exam Service is the first comprehensive e-learning system in Japan for junior high school exam students, providing other options for entrance exam study outside conventional face-to-face guidance. The launch of a business based on a full-scale e-learning system also represents an unprecedented move for Benesse. Consequently, in order to develop the system, we joined hands with the Morigami Institute of Education (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo), an established name in the junior high school entrance examination field, and leading lecturers. Actual study guidance will be provided by a team of experienced lecturers and staff, including well-known junior high school entrance exam lecturers, and university and graduate school students who themselves have taken private junior high school entrance exams.

The planned target age range for Benesse e-Exam Service will primarily be third to sixth-year elementary school students aiming to take junior high school entrance exams. Benesse also plans to offer the service to elementary school students resident overseas before the end of the year.

[Overview of Benesse e-Exam Service]
Launch date: September 2004
Target users: Third to sixth-year elementary school students
*Students planning to take junior high school entrance exams
*Students resident overseas
Target region:
Japan
*Initial launch in the Tokyo metropolitan area with phased roll out in the Kansai and other regions
Overseas
Service fees: 4,500yen - 15,000yen per hour for one-on-one guidance
*Fees differ depending on the type of service or course chosen


[Background to the Launch of Benesse e-Exam Service]
The ratio of households with Internet access in Japan now exceeds 80%. According to a 2003 survey on communications trends by Japan’s Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications, 47.8% of Internet connections are now broadband, while a separate Benesse survey found that 88.5% of households with children taking junior high school entrance exams had broadband connections. These figures illustrate the rapid pace at which the Internet-based communications environment is taking shape. As result of these developments, a full-scale e-learning market is expected to emerge in Japan similar to those in Europe, the US and Korea.

There is also a significant shift underway in the junior high school entrance examination environment with the establishment of combined public junior and senior high schools and other developments. In the Tokyo metropolitan area, the number of students taking junior high school exams has been rising steadily. In fiscal 2004, 48,000 students are expected to take these exams, compared with 41,500 students in fiscal 2001. At the same time, there are limits on the number of lecturers with specialist know-how on providing high-level junior high school entrance exam guidance, while the face-to-face and classroom-based business model espoused by leading private cram schools is, by itself, unable to satisfy the increasingly individual needs of students.

Benesse therefore believes the current conditions in the marketplace present the ideal opportunity to launch a business model based on an e-learning system.