This essay aims to explain non-Western educational systems, particularly the Japanese educational system, in terms of its educational framework, curriculum, student performance evaluation, and other factors. It also seeks to compare the American and Japanese school systems while taking these factors into account.
Japan has three stages of publicly funded education: primary (grades 1–6), middle (grades 7–9), and high school. (Grades 10 through 12). Both elementary and middle school participation is required. Students may take a placement exam at the conclusion of ninth grade to determine which high schools they may be eligible to attend. In spite of the fact that students are allowed to transfer to another school after finishing the ninth grade, about 96% proceed with their education in high school. Around 26% of the students in the end choose a non-academic path by enlisting in professional or specialized high schools, and a modest number work during the entire day and go to night courses recommended by a few open high schools. Communication and night courses likewise are accessible to students who neglect to discover something else in the framework (Stevenson & Nerison-Low; OECD, 2010).
School Curriculum
The Monbusho educational programs rules describe the needed quantity of time to be dedicated to the 50-minute teaching hours in every grade level. Clearly, the educational programs comprises of an equilibrium among scholastic and non-scholastic subjects, with no less than 33% of the time at school spent on certain subjects, for example, arts and crafts, music, homemaking, physical instruction, and non-academic related activities like school clubs. Another subject, which is life exercises, showed up in the primary school educational programs executed in 1992 (Stevenson and Nerison-Low). It was acquainted in an exertion to give data and encounters firmly identified with exercises and occasions in the regular world. Numerous primary schools are formulating their own specific principles for evaluating their students (OECD, 2010).
Aside from the incorporation of required scholastic and non-scholastic subjects, around 10% of the time spent in school is designated to certain elective courses. Middle schools are subjected to the burden of handling the content of the scholastic educational modules to instill preparation among the students for the secondary school placement test. Finishing this objective has turned out to be more troublesome given the current removal of half-day classes occurring twice a month on a Saturday. Since the educational modules depended on a 51/2-day school week, the removal of the 2 half-day classes permints an additional weight on the educators. The arrangement to totally remove Saturday classes within the following years is probably going to make it essential for Monbusho for the purpose of allowing accommodations in the educational modules (Stevenson and Nerison-Low; Johnson & Johnson, 1996).
Assessment of Student Performance
Japanese instructors stated that as opposed to the little tests administered every 4 to 6 weeks in primary school classes, Japanese middle school and secondary school students are required to take two noteworthy examinations each semester. Such examinations normally administered during the middle and end of the semester, are comparable in frame and substance to the placement tests that students take to get to secondary school or senior high school and college. For the most part, educators revealed utilizing short in-class examinations briefly and set their accentuation and focus on the occasional tests. A few of the grade schools in Japan unequivocally deny the designation of homework. Educators took into consideration that this does not imply that students are not being fully pressured to study hard. As opposed to having the students finish homeworks, educators stated that they anticipated that such students will take into account the content of the previous day's lessons and get ready for the following day's lessons (Johnson & Johnson, 1996).
Keeping in mind the end goal which is to progress to secondary school, alumni of middle schools are required to take a general secondary school test which is composed of the five central subjects in the Monbusho educational programs. These are Japanese, Mathematics, Social Studies, Science, and English. Secondary school students who want to go to a university or college need to be administered with the Center Examination, a test comparable in structural form to the secondary school placement test and the selection test for the university (Ellington, 2005).
Japanese versus American Educational System
American and Japanese school organizations contrast in a wide range of ways. Despite the fact that the Japanese embraced the American 6-3-3 model amid the United States invasion after World War II, primary and secondary training has been of greater centralization than in the U.S. Kindergartens are by and large private in Japan. Primary school is composed of Grades 1 – 6. Middle school is for Grades 7 – 9, and Grades 10 –12 go to secondary school. Education is regarded as necessary until the ninth grade. Numerous American open secondary schools are detailed in terms of school curriculum (Cooke, 2005).
In the United States, students enter high schools whether due to school regional assignment or individual decision. In Japan, the greater number of students is admitted to secondary schools and college programs according to placement test execution. The best Japanese secondary schools and colleges are government-funded schools that require high selection test scores (Stevenson & Nerison-Low).
In Japan there are only two Math reading materials to select during the primary level. In the U.S., there is 7-year state-by-state appropriation cycle for every area of study. Each state makes its own particular rundown of affirmed writings (Cooke, 2005).
Conclusion
Japan's aggregate responsibility regarding kids is not simply talk, but rather a solid and continuing need, for which people also, the country in general are set up to make genuine penances. It is the principal reason that Japan approaches a first rate instructing power, that Japanese students are eminently upheld at home, and that the schools are all around resourced.
References
Cooke, J. (2005). A Comparison of Japanese and American Education Systems. In: The Oregon Mathematics Teacher. Gresham, Oregon
Ellington, L. (2005, September). Japanese Education. Retrieved from http://www.indiana.edu/~japan/digest5.html
Johnson, M.L., & Johnson, J.R. (1996, October). Daily Life in Japanese High Schools. Retrieved from http://www.indiana.edu/~japan/digest9.html
OECD. (2010). Japan: A Story of Sustained Excellence. In: Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education--- Lessons from Pisa for the United States
Stevenson, H.W., & Nerison-Low, R. To Sum it Up: Case Studies of Education in Germany, Japan and the United States. National Institute on Student Achievement, Curriculum, and Assessment: U.S. Department of Education
