SCHOOL LIFE

EDUCATION SOCIETY LIST OF COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES Education System Professional Life

There are many aspects that strenghten the feeling for the group at Japanese schools: an obvious one is the fact that the students in most schools wear uniforms. Furthermore, every year classes undertake one-day-trips to cultural sights or other places (eg. temples, shrines, or Tokyo Disneyland). In higher classes the trips last longer, and some classes may even go abroad for a week. The life and career of a Japanese student is marked by entrance exams. To enter a high school or university, one must write entrance exams. There are many private junior high schools, some elementary schools, and even a few kindergartens that require the applying students to write an entrance exam too. In order to pass an entrance exam to a school with a high status, many students choose to take additional classes at special preparation schools besides regular school (juku) or during one or two years between high school and university (yobiko). Students who fail to enter the desired school (or later company) and try to pass the exam one year later, are given the name ronin, the word for masterless samurai of the past. Due to the mentioned examinations, school life is quite hard in many periods of a student's career, and a student has to work very hard. Still, the process of studying includes a great part of memorizing, a learning process that may be quite "natural" to Japanese students, considering their task of memorizing the many thousands of Chinese characters. The amount of homework given is relatively large, and students have classes usually on every second Saturday. The education of the children is a very important topic in a Japanese family: much attention is given to it and it is not unusual that mothers instruct their children beside the regular classes. A negative issue at Japanese schools is the problem of bullying which, in a few cases, ends in suicide. Most bullying cases occur in the first years of junior high school. The number of Japanese students who go studying abroad is strongly increasing. A huge number of students takes courses at English language schools abroad. Another type of students who go abroad are graduate university students who decide to get a graduation at a foreign university. Schauwecker's Guide to Japan offers another page with information about the education system.

School Life Life in a Japanese school (Sam's AniMe page) Through the eyes of the student Maiko Covington. School Life (School of education, Nagoya University) Some images of school life: time table, class room, etc. Examination War (Asia Internet Plaza) About the aspects of entrance examinations. School Life (School of education, Nagoya University) Some images of school life: time table, class room, etc.