The Japanese educational system may be the
most effective in the world, even though the government provides fewer funds
for education than several other countries including the US. For example, Japanese factory
workers are more educated than American workers and the illiteracy rate is very
low in Japan.
Furthermore, Japanese youngsters get higher test scores than children of other
countries. These achievements are not because the government spends much money
on education. In fact, only five percent of Japanese GNP is devoted to public
education whereas six to eight percent are devoted in other countries. The
Japanese educational achievement depends on their effective education system.
One of the reasons why the Japanese
educational system works well is that Japanese schools are more consistent than
American schools in what they teach and how they teach. The Ministry of
Education in Japan
distributes a very detailed curriculum, and specifies exactly what subjects
should be taught and what materials should be used. This uniformity in
education is acceptable to Japanese based on their culturally ingrained
reluctance to be different from others because of their very homogeneous
country. Therefore, everyone from slow learners to good learners can get the
same education in elementary and junior high school and all students desire to
learn at least basic skills to keep up with others, although the children are
afraid to lose their individuality in the consistent education system.
Another plausible reason for the high
educational achievement in Japan
might be that academic competition for getting admission to university is very
severe. This competition begins in kindergarten to get into good primary
schools. Admission to good primary schools generally provides success to good
junior high schools and good high schools followed by good universities. To
help children succeed on their competition, Japanese parents hustle them into
supplementing regular schools called jukus, which are aimed at children who are
already doing well. Jukus are necessary for the competition because only how
the applicant does on the entrance exam matters but not other characteristics, such
as wealth or personality for getting admission to a public university. Even
though Japan
has numerous numbers of universities including many more private universities, most
major corporations, institutions and the government invite only graduates of
selected universities. Indeed, the status that a Japanese youngster ultimately
achieves in life is determined by what university he manages to get into. However, even though Japanese youngsters desperately
do everything, only two out of three applicants win university admission, and the
remainders are relegated to obscurity. Therefore, many students endure great mental
stress imposed by this educational competition, and some of them have nervous
breakdown. Thus, the Japanese academic battle might be effective and very
severe but it comes at a cost.
However, despite the effectiveness in
Japanese education, there is at least one point in which Japanese education is
less efficient than American education. Most universities in Japan do not
give opportunities for youngsters to pursue individual interests. Indeed, many youngsters
are put into large classes whose studies are rigidly prescribed and Japanese
professors are not dedicated for education. These environments make youngsters
lose their motivation to study in university. Even more important, Japanese youngsters
think that university is the only time that they are likely experience genuine
personal freedom, while American youngsters find themselves working harder. Japanese
professors also do not regard if students attend classes and study hard.
Because Japanese industry does not require specialized skills of youngsters but
they are measured by the university entrance exam, the admission to university
is a kind of liberation in Japan.
In addition, graduate schools in Japan are generally small and not
good so that Japanese universities play a smaller role in the national research
than American universities. As a result, Japanese who need graduate study are
much more likely attempt to go abroad than Americans.
The other problem of Japanese education is
bad teaching of the English language. Even though Japanese students learn
English from junior high school through high school, they learn the grammatical
technicalities of English but not speaking skills. Therefore, most Japanese do
not speak good English. However, the bad instruction in English has been changing
and the number of the young Japanese people who can speak good English is
increasing with the advance of globalization.
Thus, the Japanese education system might be
effective but it also has several problems, and this system is based on their cultural
elements such as the desire to obtain a secure position in a company.
