The basic school system in Japan is composed of elementary school lasting six years , middle school three years , high school three years , and university four years.
Education is compulsory only for the nine years of elementary and middle school, but Students usually have to take exams in order to enter high schools and universities. Recently some middle and high schools have joined together to form single, six-year schools.
Japanese children enter the first grade of elementary school in the April after their sixth birthday. There are around 30 to 40 students in a typical elementary school class. The subjects they study include Japanese, mathematics, science, social studies, music, crafts, physical education, and home economics to learn simple cooking and sewing skills. More and more elementary schools have started teaching English, too.
Information technology is increasingly being used to enhance education, and most schools have access to the Internet. Students also learn traditional Japanese arts like shodo calligraphy and haiku. Shodo involves dipping a brush in ink and using it to write kanji characters that are used in several East Asian countries and have their own meanings and kana phonetic characters derived from kanji in an artistic style.
Haiku is a form of poetry developed in Japan about years ago. A haiku is a short verse of 17 syllables, divided into units of five, seven, and five syllables. Haiku uses simple expressions to convey deep emotions to readers. Elementary school children on an excursion to the Lake Biwa Canal. City of Kyoto, Board of Education.
There are no janitors in Japanese schools. Students divide into teams to tackle all manners of keeping their school clean. Some mop the floors or team up with rags and run across the floor in lines , some wipe the chalkboards, some sweep, and others weed the gardens.
I found it an especially rewarding activity in my schools, running across floors pushing rags and sweating through my work clothes. It helped me build a bond with my kids and let me see a less serious side of how they interacted with each other. Then there are huge festivals! On top of all this, kids prepare for sports festivals, culture festivals, exhibitions, plays, and song celebrations.
In addition to academics, schools also seek to teach morals to the young in an effort to raise well rounded, good human beings. While working in the school system, I saw many things that I wished could be implemented into the American school system. Not everything is perfect though. Japan boasts a solid educational system but it can revolve too narrowly around school and tests. Competition between students to enter high schools and universities is so high that kids sometimes spend a majority of their time studying in order to get on the right track for the right school.
Sometimes students break down, burn out and drop out. Some face bullying for not getting into good schools. Some even withdraw from society, too taxed mentally to face the hurdles of life and education.
Nowadays, though, more is being done to create a school system that puts less pressure on students. In any case, the system must be doing something right. Japanese society has strong educational values that have created a very beautiful, intelligent society. For more information about Japanese culture keep following our Go! Nihon blog and read our article about the Japanese backpack randoseru.
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We thank you for your interest in our business and wish you luck in finding a way to come to Japan. If you are interested in learning Japanese online, please check our other service here: japaneseonline. The government provides several forms of financial assistance for low-income students. Public schools do not charge tuition for compulsory education, so these programs cover other school expenses including meals, transportation, supplies and trips. For upper secondary students, the High School Enrollment Support Fund System provides tuition subsidies to families making below the annual income threshold.
Upper secondary students can also choose to use the subsidy toward private school tuition; in this case, the subsidy is higher for lower-income students.
Japan provides a highly subsidized lunch for all students. The government has also set up a network of about 1, Education Support Centers, alternative centers that provide support for young people who have left school for psychological or physical reasons.
The centers, which are run by prefectural and municipal governments, offer academic instruction as well as counseling, recreation, and other activities.
Japan has also focused on remote areas of the country. The Law for the Promotion of Education in Remote and Isolated Areas, passed in , prioritizes conducting research on education in these areas; providing state subsidies for school infrastructure; and improving access to initial teacher education, in-service training, instructional materials, housing and healthcare.
Teachers receive an allowance that varies depending on the remoteness of the school, as determined by criteria such as Internet access. There are two types of early childhood education and care in Japan: childcare centers hoikuen , which are generally full-day programs and serve children from birth to age 6, and kindergartens youchien , which are generally half-day and serve children aged 3 to 6.
Enrollment is nearly as high or higher than the OECD average: as of , 83 percent of three-year-olds, 96 percent of four-year-olds, and 97 percent of five-year-olds in Japan were enrolled in kindergartens, compared with the OECD averages of 69 percent, 85 percent, and 99 percent, respectively.
MEXT governs kindergartens, for which guidelines are similar to those for childcare centers. Kindergartens are considered more academically oriented than daycare centers, but both employ teachers with two-year degrees, share many curricular elements, and emphasize child-centered activities and play. The compulsory school system in Japan consists of six years of primary school, three years of lower secondary school, and three years of upper secondary school.
Children are required to attend school for a minimum of nine years: six years of primary and three years of lower secondary education. Students who have completed lower secondary school, at about age 16, receive a school leaving certificate and apply to upper secondary school.
Almost all Japanese students continue on to upper secondary schools. In , the government made upper secondary school essentially tuition-free by providing a subsidy to all except the highest income families. There is a small but growing set of secondary schools that combine lower and upper secondary education, which allows students to move directly to the upper grades without having to apply to upper secondary school.
Most students select an academic upper secondary school, but for those who want a vocational option, there are several choices: specialized vocational high schools, colleges of technology, and specialized training colleges. Students in the three-year specialized vocational high school take core academic courses in addition to focusing on one of seven areas of specialization.
In addition, there are integrated schools, which combine academic and vocational coursework. Admission to academic upper secondary school is competitive; the schools are ranked based on their success in sending graduates to prestigious universities.
Each school has its own admissions process and requirements, but most require students to take a test. The graduation rate from upper secondary school is about 98 percent. These programs are small, representing only about 2 percent of high schools in Japan, but they are intended to be prestigious and to provide enriched offerings, such as lectures by college professors. About 3 percent of students do not attend upper secondary schools but instead attend colleges of technology Kosen Colleges which offer specialized training courses.
Colleges of technology set their own entrance exams. They provide five-year programs in a variety of technical and engineering programs electrical, mechanical, civil, material and biological leading to an associate degree. Most students go on to full employment after graduation, though a portion elect to continue on to university. Specialized training colleges provide vocational education in eight fields: technology, agriculture, medical care, personal care and nutrition, education and welfare, business, fashion, and general education.
These colleges are open-entry and do not require a specific entry exam. Graduates receive a diploma after completing the two-year high school program and can continue into three- to four-year post-secondary courses to earn advanced diplomas. Junior colleges are two-year programs that offer training in a specialized field. The vast majority of junior college students are women; the colleges have tended to focus on fields traditionally dominated by women such as preschool education and health care.
Students attended primary and secondary schools six days a week in Japan until , when Saturday school was ended. However, in , the Ministry allowed schools to reinstate Saturday schools if they chose, with the rationale that it was preferable to students attending private tutoring schools on that day.
Currently, about half of lower secondary students spend up to 12 hours a week in private tutoring schools, or juku , to prepare for exams and drill on classroom concepts. MEXT has tried many different strategies to reduce the number of hours students spend in juku , but they have not been particularly effective. Students also bring home several hours of homework a day and summer vacation remains short.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology MEXT , in conjunction with university professors and the Central Council for Education, establishes broad guidelines for the content of each school subject from kindergarten through upper secondary school. Ministry specialists prepare teacher guidebooks in each subject with input from experienced teachers. While teachers may make adaptations, they are expected to follow the national curriculum.
MEXT revises the national curriculum about once every decade. Each new curriculum is rolled out in stages, with the most recent revision being implemented from to The previous curriculum was fully implemented in The curriculum that preceded that one had reduced requirements to allow more flexibility for schools to teach integrated subjects and reduced instructional time in core subjects.
However, after a dip in both PISA and TIMMS scores following those changes, the curriculum reinstated some instructional time and increased the content and rigor of subject matter.
The new revision maintains the subject-area focus of the curriculum but aims to further develop cross-curricular competencies such as problem-solving, creativity, and good learning habits by emphasizing active learning in all courses.
It is organized around three themes: motivation to learn and apply learning to life; acquisition of knowledge and technical skills; and skills to think, make judgments, and express oneself. It also makes English a graded subject in grades 5 and 6, with informal English language instruction starting as early as third grade; introduces coding as a required subject beginning in fifth grade; and adds coursework in scientific exploration and geography.
Textbook publishers produce books that adhere very closely to the national curriculum, and MEXT must examine and approve each book before it is made available for schools. Local boards of education then select which Ministry-approved texts will be used in schools. Compulsory subjects are Japanese language, Japanese literature, mathematics, social studies, science, music, arts and handicrafts, and physical education.
English is currently required in fifth and sixth grade, but it is taught through informal activities rather than as a graded subject. Moral education is intended to teach students to respect one another and the environment, to respect the rules of society, and to learn general self-control. Special activities refer to activities and ceremonies that emphasize teamwork and cooperation such as graduations, field trips or school concerts.
Japan added computer programming as a compulsory subject in primary school in The compulsory subjects are continued in lower secondary school, with the addition of fine arts, foreign languages English, French, German, etc.
Programming was added to the lower secondary curriculum in The upper secondary curriculum continues compulsory subjects but also includes science inquiry and social science inquiry courses. Computer programming will be added to the upper secondary curriculum in All students eat a school-provided lunch together in their classrooms, which they also prepare and serve.
Teachers discuss nutrition and healthy eating with students as part of preparation for the meal. The first major gateway in Japanese schools is the entrance to upper secondary school, when students take entrance exams for admission.
These exams are required nationally but developed by localities and schools. Upper secondary schools are ranked in each locality, and the school a student attends is considered a determining factor in later success. The Center Test assesses candidates in five fields: Japanese language, foreign language, math, science, and social studies.
The revised Center Test is designed to assess critical thinking, judgment, and expression, with constructed response items as well as multiple choice and an expanded English language writing and speaking skills section.
Some junior colleges and universities have begun accepting students based on recommendations from upper secondary schools, instead of requiring the Center Test entrance examination. Teachers at all levels of schooling assess their students through teacher-developed tests and other forms of student work.
These assessments are in mathematics, Japanese, and science, and since , in English. NAAA was first administered in to a sample of students for the purpose of informing curriculum and policy planning. Since , the assessments have been administered annually to all sixth and ninth grade students, with the goal of providing more performance data to districts and schools.
The test includes items assessing subject-matter knowledge as well as items assessing the ability to apply knowledge to real-world situations; in , these sections were combined to reflect the revised curriculum. The same items are administered to all students simultaneously and are made public after the test has been administered. The government announces mean NAAA subject scores for each region annually and ranks prefectures accordingly.
Municipal boards of education and schools have the option of releasing their results; generally, they use the scores to identify areas where teaching and learning could be improved.
The Ministry plans to introduce a similar assessment for the end of upper secondary school. Japanese schools are structured to help teachers address the needs of struggling students. Lower secondary teachers spend only 18 hours a week on classroom instruction; they are expected to spend some of their remaining time meeting regularly with one another to discuss how to help their struggling students and meeting with students to provide extra support.
In , Japan introduced a community-run tutoring program Chiiki Mirai Juku to provide support for secondary school students struggling academically. Although the program was designed as part of a government effort to combat child poverty, local municipalities choose how to structure the program, and some choose to serve all students who need academic support. Municipalities also choose the tutors, which can include teacher education program students.
Special-needs education, for students with disabilities or learning needs, is provided in four ways: in special schools, in special classes within regular schools, in special resource rooms tsukyu within regular schools, and within the mainstream classroom.
The type of special education a child receives is based on his or her disability. As of , 3. All but the most severely disabled spend most of their time in regular classrooms. The new national curriculum, scheduled to be implemented in , places an emphasis on coherence between instruction for special-needs students in special schools and instruction in regular schools. In general, the Japanese education system has been slow to adopt digital technology and online learning.
The coronavirus pandemic accelerated plans to expand online learning in schools, after only 5 percent of municipal education authorities were prepared to use online learning when schools closed. This program aims to provide a device for every student; provide equipment to ensure that every child can work from home; and build an ICT infrastructure for schools including prototypes of online learning systems and systems to standardize educational data collection.
Career and technical education CTE in Japan takes place primarily at the post-secondary level. About 20 percent of to year-olds choose a secondary vocational program, a much smaller proportion than in other OECD countries.
These programs are considered less prestigious than academic upper secondary programs, and they generally enroll students who score less well on admission tests. Similarly, students who score well on the Center Test for post-secondary admission tend to enroll in academic universities, rather than vocational colleges.
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