Education In Japan ----English Education

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Education In Japan ----English
Education
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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Diagram of Education Phases

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Day-care center

• A well-developed system of government-supervised
  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.

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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.

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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.

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Where to go for elementary?

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

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Do they just think about elementary in the
period?

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

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Junior high school

• A typical classroom in Japanese junior high
  school

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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.

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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.

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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An Office for Japanese High School Teachers
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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High School students in uniforms
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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Thanks! (Arigatou)