Video summary

KUMON Annual Direction Seminar 15 1 25 Part 1

Main summary

Key takeaways

News and Commentary

Overview

This video is the first part of Kumon Malaysia’s 2025 annual direction seminar, tied to the organization’s 30th anniversary. It outlines next-year strategy through the Kumon vision of faster, higher, longer, anchored to the theme:

“Striving for KIS with the fundamentals”

A strong emphasis is placed on what happens in the initial enrollment period, including work skill, academic skills, and learning attitude.

1) Event Framing & Previous-Year Performance Context

  • The MCs introduce the seminar as forward-looking—aligning instructors with the 2025 vision, goals, and values, not just reviewing past achievements.
  • The seminar includes:
    • an on-stage welcome for new and transfer instructors,
    • a moment of remembrance for instructors who passed away in the previous year.
  • Senior leadership delivers messages and reports, supported by a case-based instructional sharing from a local instructor.

2) KO President Message (Mr. Iyu Yagi): Growth Results + Direction for 2025

Key 2024 / Region-Wide Highlights

  • Student growth
    • Total students reached 469,591 by the reported end of period.
    • Kumon Korea’s target trajectory is highlighted, noting it is almost reaching 470,000.
  • Center growth
    • Center count reached 2,400—the first recovery in four years.
  • Growth drivers via digital work communication (KC)
    • More frequent and concrete communication among instructors, parents, and students
    • Better visibility of running content and faster instructor responses
    • Improved retention and smoother instruction/communication flow
  • English strategy + KC adoption
    • Kumon’s English-related subject lines are discussed as strategic initiatives, tied to EFL development.
    • KC shows strong adoption:
      • about 70% of instructors opened KC
      • KC student numbers increased rapidly

2025 Policy Direction

  • Targets
    • The student count is expected to exceed pre-COVID levels, supporting broader regional growth.
  • Instructional theme
    • Striving for KIS with the fundamentals
  • What “fundamentals” means
    • Early study projections
    • Determining the right starting point for each child
    • Building work skills during the first three months of enrollment
  • KC’s role
    • Not only to increase KC usage, but to improve:
      • instruction and communication
      • handling diverse customer needs
      • enrollment handling through system support and structured processes
  • Operational / system change
    • Streamlining enrollment by transitioning to “My Center” and “My Kumon” platforms
    • Enrollment structured into steps covering:
      • inquiry management
      • data visualization
      • digital enrollment
    • Goal: reduce follow-up workload and increase conversion rates
  • 30th anniversary framing
    • Emphasizes “passing on” instructor journeys and ideas as part of future expansion and global delivery challenges.

3) GM Message (Mr. Takeshi Takeda): 2024 Results + 2025 Instructional Indicators

2024 Achievements (Major Goals)

  • Student count
    • Exceeded year-end target
    • December result: 43,672 (about +6% vs. prior year)
  • Subject performance
    • Math
      • Steady growth, reaching a record high near 32,000 (November peak)
    • English
      • ENP hit a record high (above earlier highs)
      • EFL continued to rise, while ENP faced market pressure/decline
      • Focus shifts to better understanding English learning diversity
    • KC subjects
      • Rose strongly to about 7,082, more than doubling vs earlier year positions
      • Supported by KC alignment with EFL and broader KC implementation
  • Center network
    • Opened 11 new centers and included takeover centers
    • Did not fully reach the 215 centers target, but maintained around 210

Instructional Indicators & Expected Learning Flow

  • Retention is tracked with slight differences by subject.
  • Enrollment-to-progress is described using an “out of 100” logic:
    • initial dropout occurs by about 9 months
    • after one year, many continue Kumon
    • a significant portion reaches KIS by the defined point
  • GM emphasizes the initial period as the key challenge:
    • improve instruction/communication early to raise KIS attainment and learning level.

Recognition of Instructors

  • Awards instructors for high credit points:
    • six instructors noted as reaching 20 credit points
  • Certificates are presented to support continued growth.

4) Instructional Case Sharing (Miss Yip / Kumon Jalong Kuching)

Building “Fundamentals” Through Work Skill + Just-Right Level + Data Review

This is the practical centerpiece: a case study showing how an instructor improved center indices by focusing on fundamentals, especially work skill, rather than rushing toward advanced levels.

Background Problem

  • In 2024, the instructor’s center improved totals and exceeded student milestones (700+ students; subject milestones reached).
  • However, earlier issues were:
    • students were “quiet” but not necessarily learning effectively
    • limited assistant observation due to class layout
    • worksheet habits such as:
      • jumping sequence
      • finger-counting
    • weak development in:
      • work skill
      • correction skill
      • comprehension skill
    • especially at Level A and below, which impacted Level B and above

Core Method Changes

  1. Center layout & observation
    • Improved layout to increase assistant observation opportunities.
    • Observation optimized from behind to reduce distraction and “head-up” behavior.
  2. Monthly data review discipline
    • Uses progress metrics (more emphasized than CMF) and center data reviews to identify:
      • the highest dropout levels
      • actual progress numbers
      • repetition patterns by level
  3. Long-span study plan + right level
    • Builds understanding step-by-step to avoid memorization via repetition.
    • Critical point: the long plan must be at the just-right level or students struggle.
  4. Work skill first
    • Work skill behaviors include:
      • continuous writing without unnecessary stopping
      • moving through sets with speed and concentration
      • avoiding guessing, wandering attention, or tricks
  5. Use SCCT/completion time + observation
    • Completion time guides decisions (proceed vs repetition),
    • but only meaningful when combined with observation (SCCT alone is insufficient).
  6. Structured handling of classwork vs homework
    • Homework and classwork are checkpointed:
      • if completion time exceeds SCT → repetition may be assigned
      • if within SCT → proceed to new sets
    • Reduced “self-marking” during class to keep students focused on learning rather than marking.

Concrete Student Example (Brian)

  • A new student enrolled in July 2024 progressed quickly:
    • Level 3A → 2A → A → B
  • Key practices included:
    • quick beginnings and reduced talking
    • “pointing” instead of long explanations
    • ensuring correct behavior after page flips (answer immediately)
    • long-span plans adjusted using observation

Guidance Distilled (Miss Chai’s Perspective)

  • Work skill must start from day one (first-day behavior matters).
  • Academic skills must be prepared:
    • mental calculation/mental subtraction readiness in the relevant ranges
  • Study attitude must support consistency and independent learning.

5) Seminar Activity & Interactive Q&A

Interactive Exercise

Participants reviewed their own center data, focusing on:

  • top three absence/dropout levels (from CMF)
  • progress numbers and repetition patterns across levels (from progress metrics)

Q&A Themes

In Q&A, instructors asked about:

  • preventing jumping sequence and managing it under assistant supervision
  • delivering instruction without heavy prepacking/presetting when managing many students
  • how settings are prepared and how assistant teams execute them

Emphasis in Responses

  • observation routines
  • worksheet structure and use of a training area for early levels
  • using pre-prepared worksheet sequences only to a limited extent (especially for earlier levels), while still using observation/data to decide progress or repetition

Presenters / Contributors

  • Iman (MC)
  • EA (MC)
  • Mr. Iyu Yagi (KO President)
  • Mr. Takeshi Takeda (GM, Kumon)
  • Miss Yip Vun Chang (Kumon Jalong Kuching)
  • Grace Kung (FD / facilitator supporting Miss Yip)

VIPs mentioned:

  • Mr. Yuichi Tadokoro (General Manager, RSO)
  • Miss Lena Wang (AGM for Corporate Operations)

  • Mr. Takeshi Takeda (General Manager, Kumon Malaysia)

  • Miss Chai / Miss Shai (mentor referenced)

  • Instructional team / facilitators / office support teams (mentioned broadly; key names listed above)

Original video