By Timothy Ivo
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 98% of students go on to high school. 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.
What Children Learn
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 400 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.
School Life
In Japanese elementary schools, classes are divided into small teams for many activities. For example, as part of their education, every day the students clean the classrooms, halls, and yards of their school in these teams. In many elementary schools, the students eat lunch together in their classrooms, enjoying meals prepared by the school or by a local “school lunch center.” Small teams of students take turns to serve lunch to their classmates. School lunches contain a rich variety of healthy and nutritious foods, and students look forward to lunchtime.
There are many school events during the year, such as sports day when students compete in events like tug-of-war and relay races, excursions to historical sites, and arts and culture festivals featuring dancing and other performances by children. Students in the highest grades of elementary, middle, and high schools also take trips lasting up to several days to culturally important cities like Kyoto and Nara, ski resorts, or other places.
Most middle and high schools require students to wear uniforms. Boys generally wear pants and jackets with stand-up collars, and girls wear two-piece suit with sailor collar or blazers and skirt
Homework
Elementary school pupils get homework nearly every day. Often they have to do math drills and learn kanji (Sino-Japanese characters), which are an important part of the Japanese language.
Schoolchildren are expected to learn 1,006 kanji while in elementary school, around half of the 2,136 that have been specified as being kanji for daily use. The children have to learn not only the correct stroke order but must also master the different readings that the kanji have. When a new kanji comes up in a textbook, children memorize it by practicing writing it dozens of times in their notebooks.
Kids also get homework over summer and winter vacations. They frequently undertake a project of their own choosing, like studying the growth of plants or researching the history of their community, and write compositions on the books they read.
Grading System in Japan
The academic evaluation technique in Japan is highly methodical. Constant attention is juxtaposed between the highs and lows candidate’s. The marking system is simplistic, for the parents to follow. As and when the student reaches the higher realms of education, he is introduced to an elaborate marking set up.
The performance based grading system in Japanese education varies from school to school and university to university. The most common pattern of grading is done into percentages or into grades like A, B, C, D, E. Each grade denotes certain range of percentage. Let us discuss –
Grading Scales
The elementary level education of 6 years and secondary education of 3 years is compulsory for all children in Japan. Exam pattern for elementary, secondary and high school are more or less the same. But till middle level of education i.e., till secondary school, all the students are passed in the exam. None of the students are failed or kept behind in the same class. All students are promoted to the next class irrespective of how they had performed in the examination or whatever grades they have scored.
All the academic activities and studies are taught to the students of elementary and secondary schools and all students are made to sit for an exam. But even if anybody fails that student is promoted to the next class, whatever is the performance in the test or exam.
But it is again compulsory that every student has to take all the exams sincerely as these exams build a base for upcoming entrance exams, which they have to get through the same in order to get acceptance in a high school. These days, parents are more concerned getting their kids admitted in reputed schools. They even send their kids to private institutes for making them well prepared for entrance exams. Such institutions or organizations are known as Juku.
Timothy teaches @ Kith and Kin Schools, Ikorodu Lagos
Sources:
https://education.jnto.go.jp/en/choice/education
https://gogonihon.com/en/blog/learn-about-the-japanese-education-system/
