Japanese Education

[Niko]

Something has gone terribly wrong with Japanese education - or so say the Japanese. They fret that Japan has slipped down the international rankings for high-school literacy, mathematics and science.

In the OECD's last assessment of 15-year-olds in 41 countries, Japan remained a:

• healthy 2nd in science
• but had fallen from 1st to 6th in maths and from
• 8th to 14th in reading ability

Parents are also worried about the resurgence of bullying and suicides among school children.

Bunmei Ibuki, the Education Minister, also believes elementary schools have no place teaching foreign languages such as English. The first requirement, he insists, is that pupils acquire what he calls a "Japanese passport" - ie, a thorough grasp of the country's history and culture, and perfection in their own language.

The paradox is that Japan does need serious education reform. The school system and curriculum were designed 60 years ago, when a generation of children from farming communities were being trained for long, uncomplaining hours on production lines. In the intervening years, the economy has changed out of all recognition. Yet the education system - with its continued emphasis on facts and figures and drilling of mental arithmetic - has remained stubbornly rooted in the past.