Education In Japan ----English Education

Welcome .
The following presentation Education in Japan will give you a general idea about the education development in Japan and its current situation. Middle school and high school students who are interested in Japan are encouraged to take a look of the exotic evolution.

Education in Japan is well-known:

well-maintained educational system and excellent achievement.

Japanese children consistently rank at or near the top in successive international tests of most mathematics.

Who is in charge of education?

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) is responsible for comprehensive educational administration of Japan. MEXT is led by a minister, who is a member of the Cabinet and is chosen by the Prime Minister. Take a look at MEXT!

History on Education:
Formal education in Japan began with the adoption of Chinese culture in the 6th century. Buddhist and Confucian teachings as well as sciences, calligraphy, divination and literature were taught. Scholar officials were chosen through an Imperial examination system.

What is power? Martial Arts?

The rise of the bushi, the military class, during the Kamakura period ended the influence of scholar officials
but Buddhist monasteries remained influential centers of learning.

Or economy, or knowledge?
During the Edo period (1603-1867), the Samurai elite were educated not only in military strategy and the martial arts, but also agriculture and accounting. Likewise, the wealthy merchant class needed education for their daily business, and their wealth allowed them to be patrons of arts and science.

Is education always needed?

Temple schools educated peasants, as estimated that at the end of the Edo period 50% of the male and 20% of the female population possessed some degree of literacy. Even though Japan was isolated from foreign contact, books still imported from China and Europe.

Isolation or communication?
Adoption of western learning was seen as a way to make Japan a strong, modern nation after Meijin Restoration. Students and even high-ranking government officials were sent abroad to study. Foreign scholars were invited to teach at newly founded universities and military academies.

Development in long-running or short?

Compulsory education was introduced. Around 1890, only 20 years after the country was opened, Japan started to send most of the foreigners home.

Education, war and reformation!

The rise of militarism led to the use of the education system to prepare the nation for war. The military even sent its own teachers to schools. After the defeat in World War II, the allied occupation government set an education reform as one of its primary goals, to eradicate militarist teachings and "democratize" Japan.

What is the momentum of world development.

The end of the 1960s were a time of student protests around the world, and Japan has no exception. A number of reforms were carried out in the post-war period until today. They aimed at easing the burden of entrance examinations, promoting internationalization and information technologies, diversifying education and supporting lifelong learning.

Diagram of Education Phases

Kindergarten and Nursery school Elementary school Junior high school High school Universities and colleges

Education involves in family, society and the world!

Early childhood education begins at home Numerous books and TV shows help mothers to preschool children to educate their children, and to "parenting" more effectively.

Who are childrens first and forever teachers?

Much of the home training is devoted to teaching manners, proper social behavior, and structured game, verbal and number skills are also popular themes. Parents are strongly committed to early education and frequently enroll their children in preschools.

Who teaches and run the business of preschools?

Preschools (yochien ), predominantly staffed by young female junior college graduates, are supervised by the Ministry of Education, but are not part of the official education system. The majority of preschools are private.

Day-care center:
A well-developed system of governmentsupervised day-care centers (hoikuen ), supervised by the Ministry of Labor, is another important provider of preschool education. Together, these two kinds of institutions enroll well over 90 percent of all preschoolage children prior to their entrance into the first grade.

What might be taught in the phase:

The Ministry of Education's 1990 Course of Study for Preschools, which applies to both kinds of institutions, covers such areas as human relationships, environment, words (language), and expression.

Elementary school
More than 99% of children are enrolled in elementary school. All children enter first grade at age six, and starting school is considered a very important event in a child's life. 6-year education for elementary school.

Where to go for elementary?

Virtually all elementary education takes place in public schools; About 1% of the schools are private, which are costly.

Do they just think about elementary in the period?

Some private elementary schools are prestigious, they serve as a first step to higherlevel private schools with which they are affiliated, and thence to a university.

Junior high school

A typical classroom in Japanese junior high school

General information
Three-year education from grade seven, eight, to ninth grede. ages of roughly 12 and 15 focus on academic studies it would not be easy to find jobs, so most of the students will continue after this phase even though the compulsory education is ended.

Go to public or private?
Majority of Junior High School are public school, but there are still very few private schools, which can be very expensive, maybe 4 or 5 times more than public.

Exam for High School entrance for 2008-09 in a city, Japan.

Planned to Recruit: 280(Boy: 180; Girl: 100) Actual Examinee: 3509(Boy: 2341; Girl: 1168) Qualified People: 1345(Boy: 951; Girl: 394)

Teachers and students:

Junior High School teachers usually teach the subjects based on their major; Most of them are four-year college graduates; 35 students per class on average; A homeroom teacher is assigned to each class, and he will serve as a counselor as well.

Do you like to move or stay?

The teacher, rather than the students, moves to a new room for each fifty-minute period. Different teachers for different subjects, which means students would have a different teacher each class by staying in the same classroom.

About classes:
Computers become common teaching facilities; Classroom organization is usually based on small work groups. Some new courses, like foreign languages, will start officially at 7th grade.

What to learn:
The curriculum covers Japanese language, social studies, mathematics, science, music, fine arts, health, and physical education. Moral education and special activities continue to receive attention. After-school sport clubs or classes are popular among many of students.

High school:
It is not compulsory in Japan; Most of students will go to high school anyway; High schools are not free, family may spend 3000 USD for a child each year; The number of private high schools is much bigger than private Junior High Schools, it usually costs twice as high as a public high school.

An Office for Japanese High School Teachers:

Courses Offered:
academic courses for students preparing for higher education technical and vocational courses for students expecting to find employment after graduation. Vocational-technical programs includes several hundred specialized courses, information processing, navigation, fish farming, business English, and ceramics.

What would you do in Japan?

Business and industrial courses are very popular, and accounting is one of top courses as well. Some basic academic courses are strictly required: Japanese language, English, mathematics, and science.

What is the way you like best to learn?

Teachers are university graduates; Teach in major fields they specialized; Teaching depends largely on the lecture system, with the main goal of covering the very demanding curriculum in the time allotted. Approach and subject coverage tends to be uniform, especially in the public schools.

Special education is always an important part:

Training of handicapped students,
Emphasizing vocational education to enable students to be as independent as possible in the society.

High School students in uniforms

Universities and colleges:

There are about 600 popular universities and colleges; Four-year learning to earn bachelors degree; Pubilc universities are comprised of national universities and local universities; Half of the universities are private.

What would you do for your university life?

business, law, accounting, engineering, humanities, and education are popular fields in universities; The average costs (tuition, fees, and living expenses) for a year of higher education in Japan is very high. Part-time jobs, loans, schalorship, nonprofit corporation and other institutions could be some choices for students. University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Waseda University are among the very popular ones.

English Education in Japan:

It reflects the development of Japan just like a mirror. A Strategic Consideration on English Education in Japan in the 21st Century expects to boost its development furthermore.

An English Classroom in Japan (L) & A young man studying English in Macdonalds (R):

Situation of English Education:

English is very popular among the people; Both school and society take it seriously; Ability of communication is still not ideal; Reading and writing are much better than spoken English.

How would you like to learn a foreign language?

Individual tutoring, school study and training class after school are popular ways of learning English since preschool. English as one of the major courses starts since Junior High School, up to High school, 6 years in total as a required core course. English is still a popular and important course in universities, some of the universities require 3 more years to continue studying English.

What makes it so hard:

Instruction focusing on the skill of reading and writing. Japan used to be a single ethnic group, few opportunity to converse in a foreign language, except obtaining the knowledge from the literature of other countries. Japanese and English belong to different families of languages, hardly any similarities in structure or words. To follow the guideline of Ministry of Education makes study restricted and uniformed.

What can you tell from the reasons:

Japanese is a nation pursuing perfection all the time: we make great electronic products and wont speak it unless it is good enough. ----Dignity is more than everything. Follow the way how we learn generation after generation. ----Tradition should always be respected. Different sound: Japanese should speak Japanese.

What we should do as an American:

Take English-study seriously in stead of taking it for granted. To spread our language and culture for worldwide communication and friendship. Learn other languages seriously to open our mind and to build up harmonious international community from communication.

Thanks!

(Arigatou)