Lake Biwa’s Learning Ship Uminoko Has Produced 600,000 “Graduates” over 40 Years!

 Shiga Prefecture has established Shiga Prefectural Biwako Floating School, offering a hands-on learning program in which students can stay overnight on the learning ship Uminoko floating on Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan. All fifth-year students of elementary schools in the prefecture are expected to board the ship. In the 40 years since the service was launched in 1983, the ship has welcomed more than 600,000 students as of August 26, 2022.

 Shiga Prefectural Biwako Floating School was founded in 1983. There are two backgrounds to the establishment of the institution. One is an increase in prefectural citizens’ awareness of environmental issues. During Japan’s period of rapid economic growth, the deterioration of the water quality of Lake Biwa became a serious problem, generating a prefectural movement for addressing the lake’s freshwater red tide. This led to the establishment of the Ordinance for Prevention of Eutrophication of Lake Biwa and encouraged the school to be organized. The other is the sound growth of children. When children’s behavioral problems were on the rise, the use of a ship as a setting for children to live in groups in a limited space and with limited functions was selected as a solution.

 With the aging of the first-generation learning ship “Uminoko,” which carried children in the prefecture for a long time, a new ship was built in 2018, and the second-generation learning ship “Uminoko” has begun service.

 When the first-generation ship was placed in service, the focus of the project was on the sound growth of children. In line with the times, the focus has been shifted to environmental issues, with the present emphasis on stimulating children’s curiosity about learning. To address these changes, the new Uminoko is equipped with wireless LAN on board, allowing students to use digital data in order to, for example, quickly check the living things that they have observed using tablet terminals and to compare the data that they have checked with that of other students.

 In 2020, the program was temporarily suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Still today, the overnight hands-on learning program has been replaced with a day-trip one. Nobody hopes more than the children that the original overnight program will be resumed as soon as possible.

 The learning ship Uminoko will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the launch of its service next year. In light of the relationship between the realization of a sustainable society, maintenance of a setting for children to learn while sharing room and board with friends amidst the rich nature of Shiga Prefecture, and preservation of the environment of Lake Biwa and surrounding areas, we would like to continue to produce “graduates” of the school who can act in the global arena.