Japanese Education
Such interesting and mysterious country as Japan became open for the rest of the world in 1868. Since that time one of the main goals of Japanese Government was to reform educational system according to Western standards. That’s why firstly Japanese system was reconstructed according to French and German educational systems.
After World War II Japanese system of education was reformed according to American standards. So, present educational system in Japan consists of 6 years of elementary school which is divided into 3 years of junior school and 3 years of senior high school. Then there are two variants: 4 years of university or 2 years of junior college.
Elementary school which consists of junior and senior schools is compulsory. More then 90% of students graduate from high school and more then 40% graduates from university or junior college. At universities number of male student is bigger then female students, the opposite situation is at junior colleges. In general the quantity of graduate students is not big.
Academic year in Japan begins in April, it consists of three terms which are separated from each other by small holidays in spring and winter and there is month of summer holidays.
The most well-known and prestigious higher educational establishments in Japan are the University of Tokyo and the University of Kyoto.
One of the main characteristics of Japanese educational establishments is entrance exams. In order to pass entrance exams for the best educational establishments, students visit preparative schools – juku together with regular classes or 1-2 years preparative school between high school and university – yobiko.
Aw, this was a really great post. In theory I’d like to write like this also – taking time and real effort to make a good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and never seem to get something done.