You probably didn’t know this. After World War Two, for the next 10 years, Japan experienced massive and fast economic growth. But what distinguishes the country most, is its education system. At the core of every country, education is considered very important. After all, how do they ensure that the next generation will progress?

We acknowledge that knowledge is power. And so, we are going to provide knowledge about the trends in the Japanese education system.

Let’s begin.

Modified to Meet Today’s Challenges.

Japan has the best-educated, most adaptable, and consistently high-quality workforce globally. The country is best at improving its processes, and they have managed to remain at the top of producing high-quality goods. And so their education standards are also high.

However, at some point, the Japanese discovered that while their students still performed very well in mathematics and science globally, they progressively seemed to dislike science subjects more. Japan found that adapting its standards to the twenty-first century solved this. 

Japan uniquely adapts advances in other countries and then modifies them to reflect age-old Japanese values. This way, they have managed to take up appealing reforms and restructure them for the Japanese students.

Education Reforms.

Previous education standards in Japan emphasized rote learning. School entrance exams focus on high scores in all academic subjects. In fact, government and non-government organizations would only focus on graduates from universities considered high-end. 

These universities were difficult to get into, so students would study incessantly to meet the academic requirements. They had to because graduating from these schools dictated your work type and even salary.

However, in more recent times, some reforms have been adopted. They are:

• For schools to adopt clear assessment standards that value each student’s individuality. This replaces the previous focus on academic excellence.
• For schools to set clear and doable goals for school education and change the teaching content that helps students develop their abilities and skills that will help with all future learning. This is to encourage twenty-first-century education.
• Put in place new and diverse assessment processes that focus on more than just academic prowess.
• To consider implementing responsibility and accountability by coordinating education and society.

Curriculum Reforms.

After the old standard of education produced low test scores, the country reformed the National Curriculum Standards. This way, they revised the academic goals for students and what they needed to learn to keep up with the times. 

This included introducing topics in technology, artificial intelligence, and others. The government also reformed university entrance requirements. Now they consider broader competencies that go beyond academic excellence.

Furthermore, Japan reformed how teachers are trained to align with the National Curriculum Standards. They launched the induction training program, introduced teacher’s license renewal, and made improvements to teacher training programs to enable teachers to upskill. 

Moreover today, with more emphasis on current technology, a student can access creatively written essays as a guide for future learning at https://domyhomework123.com/economics.

Coordination between Schools and Society.

 

In addition to academic reforms, the government of Japan has changed how society relates to schools. To do this, the School Management Council System, more like community schools, was launched. It is responsible for incorporating the community’s needs into the school’s management.

Moreover, the government reformed the teaching certificate system to allow people who are in non-teaching careers to qualify to be part-time or full-time teachers. This serves to bring a new perspective to education.

Abolished The Secretive Nature Of Japanese Schools.

Additionally, it turns out that not only were the education standards in need of reform, but the secretive nature of schools favored concealing issues such as bullying, harassment, and the use of physical punishment by teachers. 

The issue stopped the detection and solution of the issues mentioned here. To do this, the government sets up trustworthy and responsible school administration systems.

Reviewed the authorization system.

Moreover, the government realized that there was an issue with the protocol for authorization in the curriculum and teaching processes.

There was excessive standardization and little room for deviation. There was an unnecessary focus on details, and school systems were very exclusive. The government needed to introduce dysregulation, where schools were free to define their teaching methods and approaches to unique situations. 

The government proposed that schools, as entities of their own, would be very independent, autonomous, and self-reliant.

Therefore, the National Curriculum Standard and the government would create a basic plan, all the while offering more options to the schools. This would encourage schools to come up with their own versions of the teaching process and how to approach different issues.

The government also reformed the school boards in charge of schools in an area. These boards were inactive in acting on their own initiative and responsibility. It was soon found that this inactivity stemmed from the belief that education was offered through the national government as it had previously been. 

Instead, the local governments were now in charge of education systems and approving educators.

And, a measure was put in place to:

• Properly train any new board members.
• Put in place a system for handling complaints and other issues.
• Put in place a system for dealing with incompetent and badly-behaving teachers by the boards themselves.
• A way to coordinate with the local government.

This encouraged more autonomy. In addition to that, decisions were unique to the issues and took less time to resolve.

Introduction of Relaxed Education.

Japan previously favored long hours of study in the country’s favored subjects. Those were Japanese, mathematics, and sciences.

Recently, English has been made a compulsory subject to bring students closer to global standards. Also, there was a massive reduction in school hours. One way they did this was to abolish weekend schools. 

Now students go to school for only five days. The education system also reduced the amount of information students were required to learn and focused more on topics that were relevant to the time.

While this was critiqued, the reforms have worked to push the Japanese education system towards meeting its goals for twenty-first-century education.

Final Thoughts.

There is no doubt that Japan has invested heavily in its education system. If you were thinking of moving to Japan and wondering how the education system is, now you know. Our article has done the research and provided much of what you need to know. We hope it is helpful to you.