How Does Japanese Academic Curriculum Looks Like?
Japanese educational system has gain an international reputation through Japanese students who continuously outperform other students around the world on standardize exams. However, while it rigorous system has merit, it also creates a significant setback for Japanese youth and their career later in life.
According to The Guardian in an article "Why do Japanese children lead the world in numeracy and literacy?", Japanese academic system emphasizes on theory more than practical skills. From the age of 6 until 15, students engage in an intense curriculum emphasizing math and language. The guidelines introduced by the education ministry in Japan requires Japanese student to learn 1,006 kanji or Chinese characters used in the modern Japanese writing system by the end of primary school and another 1,130 characters by the time they reach the age of 15. The minimum literacy requirement to function in Japanese society is 2000-plus characters. High school students engage in an eclectic range of subject including science, math, English, and Japanese literature.
The learning approach through memorization and regular testing successfully instill basic academic skills into students. In fact, the country's literacy rate is 99% on average. Contrary to the US educational system, Japanese public schools often have more advanced academic-curriculum and are harder to get in than private schools. Third-year junior high students drop all their extra-curricular activities to focus on studying for high-school entrance exams. Thus, aside from regular advanced-lessons that cramp schools and private tutors provide to help students pass their class-exams, they also have special lessons to help students pass public and private school exams.
As a result, students are burned out when they reach college level. Perhaps it is this reason, along with the fact that most of the fundamental topics have been taught during high school and other reasons that lead to the result of college curriculum being less intense than earlier stage of education. Additionally, the emphasis on theory rather than practical skills lead college grad to not be able to applied their knowledge into the industry. However, according to The Economist in "The Struggle to Create Creativity", it was not a concern to Japanese businesses. These young professionals will be licked into shape through in-job-training by their companies. However, recently, the trend to seems to diverge from this tradition.
Although Japan's approach to academic basics has merits, it raises the question of how much a Japanese actually learns from their 12 years of rigorous studying? For instance, despite having studied English for six years at junior and senior high school and obtaining a decent knowledge of English grammar, even well-educated adults display poor communication skills in English. At a more holistic level, do academic achievements effect a person’s life and career as much as society instills into young minds?
McCurry, Justin. "Why Do Japanese Children Lead the World in Numeracy and Literacy?" The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 08 Oct. 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2017.
"The Struggle to Create Creativity." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 28 June 1997. Web. 25 Mar. 2017.