Status of Education:

Education plays a major role in societies especially K-12 as is the way people learn
necessary everyday skills which is built upon from life skills hopefully is taught in the home.
Children learn something new when going to school. United Nations Secretary-General has
brought a global initiative which focus on Education. This initiative has three priorities which are
priority one: Put Every Child in School, priority two: Improve the Quality of Learning, and
priority three: Foster Global Citizenship. By this initiative brought forward, all children will be
able to go to school while having a better quality of learning with understanding of what is
happening all around the world. Japan push for education as a more of a competition.
To get a better look on how Japan Educational System is a competition lets see on how
the system works. Japans education before educational change was 6-5-3-3 system (The
Japanese Education System). After the 1947 educational reform, the Japanese educational system
was redesigned around a uniform 6-3-3-4 system (six years of elementary school, three years of
middle school, three years of high school and four years of college) ( USJP.org: Japanese
Education - Japanese Educational System). This current educational system is similar to United
States educational system. In Japan, most private schools offer a six year joint program of junior
high school and school. The school system offers specialty schools that have a five year program
which covers both high school and two years of community college. A typical school year runs
with summer, winter, and spring terms (The Japanese Schooling System). In Japanese schools,
children go to school from April 1 to March 31 with vacation period between each term.
Children go to school five days a week.
The first prior is that every child needs to be school. The number of students that go to
school is pretty high. According to Lucien Ellington (2005), Control over curriculum rests
largely with the national Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and
education is compulsory through the ninth grade. Municipalities and private sources fund

kindergartens, but national, prefectural, and local governments pay almost equal shares of
educational costs for students in grades one through nine. Almost 90 percent of students attend
public schools through the ninth grade, but over 29 percent of students go to private high
schools. The percentage of national funding for high schools is quite low, with prefectures and
municipalities assuming most of the costs for public high schools. This number of students
going to school is good as education is very important in Japan and they also have a low drop
rate. The rate is 2% for students dropping out of high school (The Japanese Schooling System).
In Figure 1, shows how Japanese adults are out scoring the US adult on the international testing.
While Japanese students study a lot, this could be why Japanese students are literate (Figure 2).

Figure 1: In this chart, it shows how

Figure 2: In this chart, it shows how Japan is

Japanese adults are out performing US

almost has a 100% literacy rate.

adults.

In Japan, there is need to improve the quality of learning as there is a flaws from this
educational system. According to Marius B. Jansen, Merit-based admission has led to strict
ranking among the schools and severely intensified competition, which has contributed to a
number of problemsnotably bullying and other violence and absenteeismthat have beset the
Japanese educational system for years. Violence and bully is a big matter everywhere in schools
across the world. Bully is an emotional topic that could affect the school setting for the students
that are being bullied. Students do not have any free time as they study and stay a long time in
cram schools for being ready for high exams and even for university exams. According to
Problems with the Japanese Education System, Today, the primary trouble faced by junior high
school level is the students anxiety related to the entrance examinations to high schools. More
than half of them go to cram schools, and some of them attend several cram schools. Moreover,
younger children have also become affected by the examination wars. It is quite abnormal that
elementary school children return home from cram schools after 10 oclock at night. A survey
has shown that 27% of elementary school students and 64% of junior high school children feel
fatigue in their daily lives. Examination wars prevent children from growing up with sound
minds, which makes their future of Japan gloomy. Children that have excessive studying do not
experience things that a normal child should experience like go to park, go to the lake, and
enjoying kid. Even though, children do have vacation time do these activities, but they may still
have the mind set of doing academic school work instead being a kid.
The final priority is foster global citizenship. Foster global citizenship is not just having
education through reading, writing, and counting. The purpose of this final priority is to have
students to take what learning in the classroom and being able to apply it real world problems.
By having the students see the problems of the world at hand, can help to see how to fix the
current problems by also not having future problems coming to light. Japan has the necessary

academic backgrounds to solve these problems. Japan schools will need to have the students be
able to do this.
Overall Japans school system is very important to the future of the children and will the
future of these children. Children need to have more of a childhood from time to time. Japanese
children do have a high school attendance in the elementary and middle schools. As children
need their sleep to maintain a healthy life, children having to come home from cram school
around 10 pm every school night will indeed have the children feel tired during the school day.
Japan has a high sense that education is the best for the future.

\
Work Cited
Ellington, L. (2005, September 1). Japanese Education. Retrieved November 9, 2015, from
http://spice.fsi.stanford.edu/
Jansen, M. (2015). Government and society. Retrieved November 9, 2015, from
http://www.britannica.com/place/Japan/Government-and-society#toc23295
Literacy Rate. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2015, from
https://blogaboutjapanforsociology.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/picture6.png
Priority #2: Improve the Quality of Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2015, from
http://www.globaleducationfirst.org/219.htm

Problems with the Japanese Education System. (2013, May 4). Retrieved November 9, 2015,
from http://www.ronperrier.net/2013/05/04/problems-with-the-japanese-educationsystem/
Reading, Math Skills. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2015, from
http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/JHaCkesUwr39LJRH4sB.9w--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3Nfb
GVnbztmaT1maWxsO2g9Mzc3O2lsPXBsYW5lO3B4b2ZmPTUwO3B5b2ZmPTA7cT0
3NTt3PTY3MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/5b4f4fdaeb8b94213
f0f6a706700a9e9.jpg
The Japanese Education System. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2015, from
http://japanese.about.com/od/japaneselessons/a/061000.htm
The Japanese Schooling System. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2015, from
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1146270
USJP.org: Japanese Education - Japanese Educational System. (2005). Retrieved November 9,
2015, from http://www.usjp.org/jpeducation_en/jpEdSystem_en.html