![[Table of Contents]](/icons/up.gif){kind=icon}
Although education beyond the ninth grade is not compulsory, Monbusho develops curricular guidelines for senior high schools. The most common types of public senior high schools are regular or academic (futsu) high schools and vocational high schools, such as commercial (shogyo) and industrial (kogyo) high schools.
Curricular requirements for senior high school students include the completion of four credits of math and four to eight credits of science during their three years in high school. The higher requirement for science applies only to science majors at academic high schools.
| Subjects | Required Number of Credits |
| Japanese language | 4 |
| Geography and history | 2 or 4 |
| Civic Education | 4 |
| Mathematics | 4 |
| Science | 4 ~ 8 |
| Health | 2 |
| Physical education | 9 |
| Arts | 3 or 4 |
| Homemaking | 4 |
SOURCE : Jichi Sogo Center, 1991.
As Table 6 indicates, the Monbusho curriculum sets minimum requirements and guidelines for all types of senior high schools. Courses of study beyond these minimum requirements depend on the type of school. Academic high schools include more academic subjects in their course of study and generally enroll students of a higher level of ability than those enrolled in vocational high schools.
Japanese high schools exist within a hierarchical structure. The status of academic high schools is determined by the number of graduates they send to universities and the level of prestige of the universities to which their graduates are accepted. For example, a large percentage of graduates of the top academic high schools pass admission tests for the top national and private universities, while graduates of high schools of lesser rank generally pass admission tests for lower ranked universities.
Perhaps more than is the case in many other countries, the university a person attends greatly influences future employment opportunities in Japan. It is not surprising that many students strive to gain entrance to the most highly-ranked high schools, for graduation from a highly-ranked academic high school increases a student’s chance of success in passing admission tests to the most difficult universities.
The high school admission test therefore acts as a tracking mechanism, separating students of different levels of academic ability into different high schools. While the academic high schools all offer the same curriculum based on Monbusho’s curricular guidelines for senior high schools, the rigor and depth with which the curriculum is covered is adjusted to the academic abilities of the school’s students.
Vocational high schools offer an alternate form of school for low-achieving students. Although they rank below academic high schools and offer multiple vocational tracks, they are also subject to Monbusho’s curricular guidelines. Vocational and core academic subjects are required components of education at vocational schools, and the various vocational tracks offer curricula that require different levels of academic ability. Attendance at vocational high schools has several distinct disadvantages. Perhaps the most critical is that studying vocational subjects puts vocational high school students at a disadvantage in the university entrance examinations, which cover only academic subjects.
The restriction of opportunities for entering a university contributes to the current lack of popularity of the vocational high schools among Japanese students. National statistics indicate that the proportion of students attending vocational high schools has decreased continuously to somewhat over 20 percent today (Shimizu, Akao, Arai, Ito, Sato, & Yaosaka, 1995). These schools are also associated with manual labor and blue-collar work; they are seen by many Japanese as an unattractive academic pathway.
Monbusho’s curriculum guidelines are implemented at the senior high schools in much the same way as in the junior high schools. Teachers of each subject meet for departmental meetings on a regular basis to discuss implementation of the Monbusho curriculum and to share information about their progress in the classroom. Observations at Arata High School and Meiji High School captured the dynamics of the departmental meetings. One meeting, which lasted for a full period, brought together all 10 math teachers at Arata. Handouts containing the meeting agenda were given to all participants. Although serious issues were discussed, there was frequent laughter, a relaxed atmosphere, and a sense of congeniality among the math teachers.
The main agenda of the meeting was to coordinate the curriculum between the grade levels and among the same classes in the same grade. Each teacher was asked by the leader to indicate what had been covered to date in his or her class, as well as plans that had been made for the rest of the year. There were some discrepancies between reports from teachers teaching the same classes. For example, one teacher had already completed the coverage of the 12th-grade math textbook, while another teacher of an equivalent 12th-grade class had only begun discussing the last chapter of the same textbook. In spite of these minor variations, there was general uniformity in what different teachers of equivalent classes were teaching.
In contrast to departmental meetings of math teachers, meetings of science teachers at Meiji and Arata High Schools were notably tense because of difficulties the science teachers were having with the Monbusho reforms. A source of tension between the science department and other departments in the schools was the reduction in hours of instruction, since reductions in hours for science had to be divided among chemistry, biology, physics, and earth science courses.
Some of the science teachers at Arata High School expressed concern about being able to cover the entire science curriculum with the reduced instruction time caused by the new policy of eliminating a second Saturday class. A biology teacher said that it would be possible to reduce the number of hours of instruction by one hour for students majoring in humanities but not for science majors. The chemistry teacher agreed, adding that it would be impossible to lose 1 hour of instruction for science majors and still prepare them adequately for the college entrance examinations. The physics teacher echoed the concern of the chemistry teacher: “It will be very difficult to prepare students adequately for the entrance examinations.”
Science teachers at Meiji High School were even more tense than teachers at Arata High School. The departmental meeting of science teachers at Meiji included the following exchange.
A question is proposed by the leader: "What are the advantages of moving to 33 credits in science instead of 34 next year since science will eventually have to face a reduction to 33 credits (because of the loss of Saturday classes)?"
A biology teacher in an angry voice asks the leader if he ever thought that 33 credits might be insufficient to cover everything. She added that she had seen this problem right from the beginning when there was a debate about what would happen to science during a previous reduction. "This time," she said, "there is no acknowledgment about what will happen to science and no other teachers in the other departments like Japanese seem to care or have thought about this. At the very least, I would like it to be acknowledged that it will be impossible to cover all materials in the textbooks."
The amount of material that teachers are required to cover by Monbusho’s curriculum guidelines forces teachers at the high school level to move through lessons quickly. For students in academic high schools, who make up over three-quarters of all high school students in Japan, the pace of instruction is rapid since teachers must cover all the material students will have to master in order to pass the university entrance exams. Generally, teachers and students described the pace of the math curriculum in academic high schools as "very rapid," and many students reported struggling to keep up with the material.
Teachers perceived the science curriculum at the high school level as demanding, and they expressed concern because Monbusho reduced the number of hours of instruction by eliminating two Saturday classes a month. "The standard number of hours for chemistry decided by Monbusho is unreasonable," explained a high school chemistry teacher. "Even if there were 5 hours, we would have to cram. With 4 hours — now that is really cramming." A biology teacher at Meiji High School added, "Students are being relentlessly pursued by homework now."
Academic high schools. While tracking is prohibited for junior high schools in Japan, Monbusho regulations allow for tracking at the high school level. All of the academic high schools in the primary and secondary research sites had implemented some form of tracking. The most common practice at these schools was the separation of students into humanities (bunkei) and science (rikei) tracks. Although we observed no instance of tracking in the 10th grade, students were tracked during the 11th and 12th grades. This pattern is typical of academic high schools throughout Japan.
Japanese high school educators indicated that placement in a track was largely determined by students, but they also reported that they discouraged students from selecting tracks above their level of achievement. Since the amount of math and science covered in the humanities and science tracks varies considerably, the less able students or those less interested in math and science could elect to major in humanities. One high school principal reported that their humanities students received less than one third of the math instruction of science students. Nevertheless, requirements for math and science were substantial for humanities students, and minimum Monbusho requirements still apply.
Arata High School further divided students into public/national university and private university tracks. Therefore, students at Arata could place themselves into one of four tracks, separated by which of the two types of university the student hoped to enter and the track, humanities or science, that the student wished to follow. The curriculum for the two science tracks at Arata was identical except that the instructional level for the public university track was reported to be somewhat higher.
In addition to the tracking of students into humanities and science tracks at the academic high schools, schools also offer different levels of instruction in math within these tracks. In the "easy" math the Monbusho curriculum is slowed down and simple textbooks are used. This pace of instruction was characterized by one mother as "slow and gentle." The teacher of this class said that he eliminated certain topics from the curriculum or gave easy problems to students. Most humanities students take what the Japanese consider “easy” math. According to a teacher at Arata High School, four of six of the humanities classes receive an "easy" math curriculum. Students in the "easy" math take 2 hours per week of math in the 12th grade, as opposed to 7 hours for the top science track. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that even these humanities students reported studying calculus.
At the other end of the ability spectrum, Arata High School took the top 50 percent of math achievers in the two highest classes of science majors and constituted a third "accelerated" math course. The purpose of this course was to give the top students a math curriculum rigorous enough to make them competitive in the entrance examinations. The course moved quickly and teachers reported that about half of the students were unable to keep up with the pace of instruction. This special accelerated course began in the 11th and continued through the 12th grade.
Meiji high school also provided accelerated instruction in math to students in the science track. These students completed the entire math curriculum in 2 years. The last year of high school is spent reviewing problems and practicing for the university entrance examinations. This was a common practice at those high schools where large proportions of students are aiming for admission to prestigious universities.
A higher proportion of females than males selected the humanities tracks in the high schools we visited. Consistent with tabulations conducted by the school, one teacher estimated that at his high school, only one-third of the science students, but two-thirds of the humanities students were female, even though enrollment in the school is roughly equal in terms of proportions of males and females.
Most of the respondents believed that the unequal gender representation was a product of self-selection, based on students' perceptions of gender differences in ability and interest. The argument was that girls are not as interested in or as good at science and math as males:
There is little difference between boys and girls on the tests in math in the seventh and eighth grade. However, as soon as you hit the ninth grade, all of the sudden boys start leaping ahead. They have a purpose and start studying. I see boys and when the time comes they can really study, but girls, looking at my daughter for instance, they are distracted by many things. You can't do math by feeling. That is where I even felt that the structure of my brain is different. When I talk with my son, he'll say, “Mom, the content of your talking is just talking. There is no structure to it.” I think that this is a big part of the reason for the differences between boys and girls. I think that because girls don't have that kind of brain, they cannot do math. I wasn't able to do it, and my daughter is not able to do it. (Mother of female high school student)
According to one teacher, the gender differences in academic tracks are not considered a problem by most Japanese, since the humanities track is seen as providing ample opportunities for admission to college. One female high school biology teacher, however, suggested that gender discrimination in Japan discouraged girls from seeking careers in science. "Male teachers," she explained, "contribute by subtly telling girls that they are not good at science or math."
Although the humanities track has equal utility in terms of college entrance, most respondents said that they felt that the science track is more demanding. Indeed, while students from science tracks could switch to humanities tracks, the reverse is considered to be very difficult and rarely occurs.
The author of a survey on tracking in Japan reported that the practice of tracking in Japanese high schools was seen as a way to deal with intramural differences in ability (Mimizuka, 1986). Two additional reasons were given by Japanese educators with whom we spoke. Tracking was seen as a way for Japanese high schools to accommodate the different interests of students. In addition, tracking was seen as a way to help students specialize for the university entrance examination. The latter reason was based on the perception that entrance examinations had become so difficult that even the best students could no longer perform well on all subjects. Further, high achievement in math was no longer seen as necessary for entrance into humanities departments in college.
Vocational high schools. Various majors offered at vocational high schools attract students of different levels of ability because of their different curricular requirements. Teachers at Naka Vocational, for example, indicated that the information technology major tends to attract the highest-achieving students and the chemistry major the lowest. However, vocational high schools generally select students whose scores would not be high enough to enter academic high schools.
In spite of the low academic standing of vocational high schools, the level of math taught in some of the vocational high school tracks is high. As one teacher in a vocational school explained, industrial technology courses include “tons of differential and integral calculus”. The focus of the instruction of calculus at a vocational high school, however, is on application rather than on theory. In the words of the principal of Naka Vocational High School, “You don’t have to know how a car runs in order to drive it.”
At the other end of the spectrum are students who are enrolled in one of the less academically demanding tracks such as the night program. Teachers noted that many of these students are often in need of remedial work in arithmetic.
The following classroom observation shows the challenge of being a teacher when the curriculum is difficult for students, as is the case for some vocational high school students. The observation is from a 12th-grade math class at the vocational high school in Naka City. The teacher was explaining integration to students who were not paying much attention.
The teacher explains to the students how integrating x-squared from 0 to 3 gives you the area under the curve. After working through the problem on the chalkboard, the teacher imposes a triangle on the area and points out how the triangle should be slightly larger in area than the area under the curve as determined through integration. He refers to the formula for calculating the area under the triangle. He then goes on to another area under the curve problem, writing the equation y = 4x-x on the chalkboard.
Because the teacher's back is turned, a number of the students are talking amongst themselves at this point. The teacher turns to one of these students, "Hey, Y-kun, what kind of graph does this make?"
The student answers, "Don't know."
"It's an 'I don't know graph?'"
The students continue talking.
The teacher says, "Hey, you, what are you talking about? Are you listening? You! Is this a tough problem?"
The student meekly says, "yeah."
"One minus four is a tough problem?" retorts the teacher. "You just agreed with me that it was. Let's get a calculator out and figure this out."
Students who do perform well in one of the more demanding vocational tracks may seek entrance to a university. In fact, one student in the information technology major indicated that he was aiming for admission to a local university. He estimated that he studied 6 days a week from four in the afternoon to slightly past midnight, including a dinner break. He attended juku during the summer and winter vacations to help him prepare for the examinations. A self-admitted bookworm, or gariben, this student did not fit the Japanese stereotype of the vocational high school student. When describing students in both vocational and academic high schools, it is important to acknowledge that a variety of types of students with differing levels of interest in math and science exist in both types of schools. Furthermore, since high school grades are considered by employers when making decisions to hire vocational high school graduates, students at these schools also have an incentive to perform well in school.
Instructional materials. The textbooks used in high schools, like most of the elementary and junior high schools, are thin paperbacks. The content, however, is quite different. Because of pressure from parents and students to do well on the entrance examinations, difficult textbooks tend to be selected, as the following comments of a Naka City education official indicate:
Consideration of university entrance examinations is a factor in selecting textbooks. The selection process considers the level of university students are planning to attend and whether the students are college bound. However, in Japanese society there is a tendency to select difficult textbooks. Teachers and students seek a higher level. It is believed that everyone should go to college if possible. If the selection of textbooks is reduced to two alternatives, I believe the difficult one will be chosen. They are just being greedy. Teachers want to teach students so that they attain a higher level.
In fact, teachers generally use the textbooks as reference books and supplement instruction in the classroom with other materials such as supplementary practice problem booklets and worksheets. As in the junior high schools, teachers in senior high schools use the supplementary practice problem booklets to provide additional exposure to the material students must learn. In addition, because the difficulty of the problems within the booklets varies, teachers can customize assignments for students of different levels of ability. These booklets provide opportunities for students by reviewing practice problems outside of class to prepare for the college entrance examination.
For in-class instruction, teachers relied less on textbooks and practice booklets than on worksheets developed by teachers and shared among teachers. As a result, model printouts are used in many classrooms within the same school, as well as among schools within the same district.
As in the junior high schools we observed, teachers at the senior high schools used these printouts to lead students through math and science lessons. The printouts contain the objectives of the day's lesson as well as problems related to the lesson. They allow the student to follow the teacher’s lecture and work through problems in class. Although students use them to follow the lesson in class, they are also used for study and review. In keeping with the Japanese pattern of not grading daily work, these printouts are seldom assigned grades.
Instruction and the slower learner. Just as academic high schools provide accelerated instruction to capable students, Japanese high schools also end up matching instruction to students in the lower ability ranges. The following comment explains the pressures Japanese high schools are under to accommodate the needs of the slow learner:
Even the bottom students in the top math class end up with better grades than the students in the bottom classes. If anything, the problem is with the students who cannot keep up in the bottom classes. These students would end up giving up. That is why we teach to the top half of the students in the top math class and to the bottom half of the students in the bottom classes. (Math teacher, Arata High School)
Most of the teachers we interviewed indicated that the goal of instruction is exposure, not mastery. Although most Japanese high school students are exposed to calculus, Japanese teachers indicated that they did not expect all their students to understand calculus. When asked, “What percentage of students, in your experience, are able to do calculus problems and understand calculus?”, one teacher said:
About 20 percent of students are able to both do and understand. Almost all students are able to do calculus, although they may not understand it. I am referring to science students here. As for the humanities students, all those that have taken math are able to do calculus, whether or not they understand it. But very few students understand the concept of change in calculus. That is why I think that there is an element of the horse learning to pull out the card when hearing two thumps. I do not think that this is a good way to teach math. I dislike this immensely. But I forget that and teach.
Retention (genkyutomeoki) is rarely practiced in Japanese schools, particularly during the compulsory years, or even during senior high school. In fact, one senior high school teacher could not recall a time in his entire teaching career when a student was retained. Other senior high school teachers reported “one case every 4 or 5 years.”
Instead of retaining students, Japanese teachers are encouraged by administrators to provide extra instruction in basic skills (fushinsya shido) to students having trouble meeting minimum school standards. This may involve the teachers spending time with students outside of class or providing remedial homework assignments during the summer or winter vacations. In spite of these efforts, some students still perform poorly on examinations. In these cases, Japanese teachers reported practicing what they call “letting the student put on a pair of geta (Japanese elevated wooden clogs)”. This expression refers to giving students extra points for good effort.
The observations suggest that the attitude of the Japanese teachers we interviewed toward the lowest-achieving students is one of providing support for improvement rather than attempting to motivate students through fear of failure. This attitude comes out in teachers’ comments about these students. In a soft tone of voice, one teacher acted out how he would instruct a low-achieving student. “For you, let’s say you try the best you can to get this kind of score. Make it a goal. All right. Good. That’s it.”
Even at the lowest-achieving vocational high school in our sample, retention was rare. Naka Vocational high school has a rule that students must score above 30 percent in order to advance to the next grade. The principal estimated that only about 1 percent of Naka Vocational students fail to reach this level. Most of these students drop out. Ultimately, however, if the student shows a positive attitude, the school “takes care of the student” (mendo wo miru), meaning that the school allows the student to graduate even when the student fails to achieve minimum standards. One teacher explained the position by saying that high school has become pseudo-compulsory. “Everyone feels,” the teacher said, “that he must graduate from high school.”
Again, the major instructional resource outside of school for high school students are the privately-owned juku, but the proportion attending at this level is lower than at the junior high school or elementary school level. National statistics indicate that about 10 percent of high school students in Japan attend juku (NHK Seron Chosabu, 1992). However, an increasing number of high school graduates also study at full-time private examination preparation schools (yobiko) after failing to qualify for entrance to their universities of choice. Among successful applicants to Tokyo University, the highest-ranked university in Japan, 39 percent were students who had studied at yobiko schools, and 82 percent of successful applicants to the Social Sciences Department at the elite private school, Waseda University, were such students (Sundai Yobiko, 1994).
Parents and teachers at the high school level were typically critical of students using resources outside of school such as the juku or yobiko, and most expressed reluctant resignation about the role these institutions have come to play in Japanese society. On the other hands, students expressed more positive feelings about the usefulness of juku and yobiko.
As noted earlier, grades and class rankings in Japanese schools are determined by a combination of the major exams and the small tests administered in class. The major periodic exams are also the driving force behind students' coverage of the curriculum and preparation for college entrance exams. As in the junior high schools, periodic examinations usually include midterm and final examinations for each of the three semesters during the school year. Students at Meiji High School, for example, reported taking five periodic examinations and three proficiency tests every year. The proficiency tests are scheduled at the end of long vacations and include both new and old material. This means that students must study new material and review old material over the long vacations, although the students confessed to not studying much for these tests.
Teachers reported giving students “small tests” (shotesuto) for the purpose of monitoring students' level of mastery of concepts. For example, the practice of the math department at Arata High School is to give one or two small tests between the major exams. The purpose of the tests is to make students “memorize problem-solving techniques and to measure mastery of material that will not be covered on the major exams.” At Arata, these small tests are included as part of the students’ grades: the major exams account for 80 percent of the grade and the small tests make up the remainder. Other departments at Arata High have adopted different weightings for major exams and small tests.
Orientation tests covering the junior high curriculum are administered to all newly admitted tenth-grade students as they begin high school in the three prefectures. The school uses the test results to rank the incoming students and these rankings are used by the school to advise the students about areas in the curriculum where they are weak. The tests are devised by the regional boards of education for the entire district and the results are used within the district to compare schools.
The majority of Japanese high school graduates do not anticipate enrolling in a college or university (Shimizu et al., 1995), and therefore do not take a university entrance exam. There are, however, national level examinations for non-college bound students. Certification tests are available in a number of vocational subjects, and are recognized by employers throughout Japan. These tests are particularly useful for students from vocational high schools or low-ranked academic high schools. The certification examinations test mastery of the Monbusho curriculum for vocational subjects and, in many cases, are quite difficult (Dore & Sako, 1989).
One electricity major at a vocational high school said that he took the electrical technician certification test because it would be “one more thing to sell myself with." He failed the test, but, determined to get some sort of certification, he took another test which was outside his major in the area of hazardous waste handling, which he passed.
Japanese high school graduates seeking to attend university are normally required to take the Center Examination, an examination similar in format to the high school entrance examination. The Center Examination, which is made up of multiple choice questions, has been likened to the SAT in the U.S. However, Japanese universities generally admit students entirely on the basis of the Center Examination and pay no attention to high school grades and letters of recommendation.
The Center Examination is administered twice every year, at the end of February and in early March. Students take the Center Examination at the university they wish to attend. Similar to the high school entrance examinations, the Center Examination covers the five core academic subjects. However, students have more electives at this level. Instead of English, students may elect an exam in either French or German. For social studies, students may select one of the following: moral education/politics/economics, Japanese history, world history, geography, or contemporary society.
Publication of preparation guidebooks for the Center Examination constitutes a large private industry in Japan. Whole sections of large bookstores are reserved for these guidebooks, which typically cost no more than $10. Although the Center Examination is a single national examination, preparation guidebooks are written for all the universities requiring entrance examinations, because requirements vary by school and department.
Testing in science. In the Center Examination, the subject of science is divided into three sections. In the first section, either physics or earth sciences may be selected. In the second section, students must choose between chemistry or the other sciences. All students are tested on biology in the third section.
Each university and department decides which subjects will be emphasized in making admission decisions. Consequently, some students reported basing their college entrance choices on considerations of what subjects are emphasized in the examinations.
Testing in math. Testing of math in the Center Examination is divided into two parts, Math I and Math II, each 60 minutes long and worth 100 points. Each part is further sub-divided into three sections. Students must complete all three sections in Math I and select two of three sections in Math II. Each of these sections comprises a number of small problems.
Math and English are considered by students to be the two most important subjects on the university entrance examinations. Consequently, students are motivated to put forth great effort to master these subjects. For this reason English and math courses are the most popular courses in juku.
Monbusho curriculum as a foundation for college entrance. The Center Examination is restricted to the content of the Monbusho curriculum. The University Entrance Examination Center (Daigaku Nyushi Sentaa), which designs the Center Examination, reviews the examination for conformity to the Monbusho curriculum and eliminates any problems based on topics that are not covered in the Monbusho curriculum.
Japanese students have tended to improve their collective scores on the entrance examinations each year. Therefore, scores begin to cluster nearer and nearer the top with each passing year and it becomes more difficult to discriminate among applicants. In order to distinguish among applicants, the Center Examination has had to create increasingly difficult questions. These questions are still based on the Monbusho curriculum, but involve, in the words of a test preparation manual, “the synthesis of several topics.” This trend is particularly evident in the math section of the test. However, since the examinations only cover the curriculum, the advice found in guides for preparing for the university entrance examination is similar to that in high school entrance examination guides; namely, review high school textbooks and do many practice problems.
Private colleges are exempt from using the Center Examination. In the past, many private colleges have used their own examinations, which in the case of highly prestigious private colleges were even more difficult than the Center Examination. Increasingly, however, private universities are also turning to the Center Examination to aid in the determination of admission decisions by establishing cut off points that are used to determine whether the potential applicant is qualified to take the college’s entrance examination.
The negative impact of the entrance examinations. While entrance examinations were seen by Japanese teachers as having a positive impact on student motivation to study, many also felt that these examinations also have a negative impact on the quality of education in Japan. The pressures of the entrance examinations are seen as contributing to a variety of school-related problems, including an over-dependence on juku by students, bullying (ijime), school refusal syndrome (tokokyohi) and a host of other problems. For example, some Japanese argue that teachers are so busy preparing students for entrance examinations that they do not have the time to intervene in cases of bullying. Also, some have argued that, since Japanese schools are so oriented towards examinations, students become alienated and refuse to attend school. Many of these relationships presumed to be causal by Japanese are not apparent to the outside observer.
One problem frequently mentioned by science teachers was the pressure to cover the entire curriculum so that students are adequately prepared for entrance examinations. According to a high school chemistry teacher:
The reality is that the number of things that we have to teach is the same or growing and the time allotted to teach is shrinking. Just trying to follow the textbook takes all of our energy. If we don't teach everything in the textbook, then the students who are taking science in the entrance examination will end up being in a pitiful situation.
According to the teachers we interviewed, experiments must be conducted in the classroom if student interest is to be stimulated in science. However, since experiments take time and are not emphasized on the entrance examinations, there is pressure on teachers to have students memorize the expected results of experiments without actually conducting them.
A high school chemistry teacher described this pattern: "The textbooks are composed of both material for class instruction and experiments, but the experiments end up getting cut. I do not think that is how science should be taught." The teacher pointed out the rooms reserved for science experiments. "We rarely use these rooms," the teacher said, showing the empty rooms one by one. "Seeing is believing," he continued, trying to eliminate any doubt about the veracity of his complaint. He explained that the physics, chemistry, and biology rooms are used only six or seven times a year for experiments. He then pointed out, "This is the earth science experiment room, but we rarely use this room for experiments or any other activity." "It is just a room, with no function." The room looked as though it had not been used in years.
The failure to cover the experiments outlined in the curriculum for junior high and high school was also perceived as creating problems for science education in college. At a symposium in Naka City, which brought together high school and college educators to discuss high school and college linkages, several science professors complained that they were forced to spend an inordinate amount of time doing experiments in college that should have been covered in high school. The result, they feared, was a second-rate science education at the university level in Japan.
A high school science teacher analyzed the state of science education in Japan in the following manner:
Japanese education is such that students only need to know the correct answers; they do not need to know why. Take a chemistry experiment in which the mixture turns red. If the mixture does not turn red, students do not need to think about why it did not turn red. All that they need to know for the examinations is that it did not turn red. That is why I think that Japanese education cannot produce creative thinkers or those that can program computers. I don't think Japanese science education is that good.
One high school science teacher expressed concern along the same line when he spoke of teachers' education in Japan. "How can elementary school teachers who take very little science in college," he asked, "conduct experiments effectively when they are not doing experiments in high school?"
The pressures of the entrance examinations were also perceived by many educators as detrimental to math education in Japan. In the case of math, there is pressure to provide more time for practice problems for students by increasing the pace of instruction. At some high schools, this involves finishing a 3-year math curriculum in 2 or 2 1/2 years, with the remainder of the students’ time in high school being devoted to practice problems and review in preparation for the college entrance exam.
Some math teachers expressed the opinion that the emphasis on problem solving for the entrance examination takes away from the understanding of mathematical concepts:
I feel like I am just teaching students at this high school repetitive problem-solving techniques. It makes me sad. Even the adult students at the correspondence school that I used to teach at, who didn't have the opportunity to finish high school, seemed more interested in and better able to understand the underlying math concepts. (High school math teacher)
In other words, according to these high school teachers, the college entrance examination adds to the problems of the already demanding math curriculum by creating a need to cover the entire curriculum, even though they fear students may not understand what has been covered. These teachers claimed that a result of this pressure is that many Japanese students find it difficult to keep up with the curriculum and end up losing interest in math. It is not clear whether such a decline in interest among Japanese students is actually occurring; however, the perception existed among many whom we interviewed that it was.
The entrance examinations may also create problems for students who enter college. The symposium of high school and college educators in Naka city addressed this issue. One complaint from college professors was that high school teachers promise students that they will not have to work hard in college. They accuse high school teachers of using this promise to convince reluctant students to cram for examinations.
Another problem addressed by college professors at the symposium was the common practice of high schools not teaching certain subjects, even though they are part of the Monbusho curriculum. For example, since probability and statistics are not covered on the university entrance examination, students spend time reserved for probability and statistics reviewing other topics. A group of students at Arata High said that they bought the textbooks for probability and statistics but never opened them. The teacher never covered these topics because they would not be on the Center Examination, but the books had to be purchased in order to demonstrate compliance with the Monbusho curricular guidelines.
As noted earlier, the differences between the level of academics of high schools is openly acknowledged in Japan and is part of the structure of high school education in Japan. In large part, the inequalities are tolerated because high schools are not compulsory.
Even minor differences in the ranks between high schools may have a major impact on students' life chances. However, while recognizing the inequalities, most of the respondents felt that the different academic levels are unavoidable and are fair at that stage of life, even though similar distinctions would be considered unfair during elementary school. Even the practice of tracking students into academic and vocational high schools, although considered undesirable by many Japanese parents, was not considered unfair by most. However, most parents that we interviewed believed that college should remain an option for vocational high school graduates.
Although nearly all graduates of Arata and Meiji high schools go to college, there are important differences between these two academic high schools. The following descriptions point out some of the differences which can be found among Japanese academic high schools of different academic ranks.
Founded just over 10 years ago, Arata High School is the newest prefectural high school in Naka City. Apparently, it is the only high school in Naka City with central air-conditioning. Several students indicated that this modern luxury influenced their decision to attend Arata High. The school is large and new and would be attractive to students who were looking for something other than the drab exteriors of the typical Japanese high school. Other reasons given by the students for selecting Arata included its location and its newness.
Arata High is a school just below the median academic ranking of public high schools in Naka City. Although over 95 percent of Arata students are seeking entrance to some form of higher education, few Arata graduates gain admittance to elite universities. School officials reported that in 1994 no Arata students were admitted to the national Naka City University, and in 1993 only two students were admitted. Most Arata students enter regional 4-year colleges and junior colleges, and few Arata graduates enter universities in Tokyo that would require their families to provide room and board in this expensive city. According to school records, once every several years an Arata graduate might successfully gain admission to an elite private university such as Waseda or Sophia.
Most students who enter Arata had average records in junior high school. In contrast, according to officials, Meiji High is slightly above the average in academic ranking. The differences in academic achievement among students from the two schools correspond to what appeared to be a large gap in the social class background of their families.
According to our investigation, about 10 percent of Arata High School students receive assistance with their tuition from the government, while almost no Meiji students receive such aid (since high schools are not compulsory in Japan, families must pay tuition to attend high school). Unlike Meiji mothers who reported no difficulty in providing money for juku, conversations with three of the Arata mothers revealed that they were not able to afford juku without financial sacrifice. These parents resented the fact that students who had parents who could afford the costs of juku were at an advantage in the entrance examinations for college.
The mothers of Arata students, and the students as well, did not seem as intensely interested in education as those at Meiji. One mother talked of how she wanted her child to enjoy high school and not just study. She said, "I believe that studying isn't everything." This was a sentiment expressed by other Arata mothers. However, in spite of the balanced attitude toward studying and academic competition that all three Arata mothers conveyed, these parents also expressed regret over not having pushed their children harder and over not forcing them to go to juku. The principal of Arata characterized the parents of his students as those "who want to send their children to college but only if they have the ability." He implied that Arata parents are not ones who would push their children to excel at all costs.
Low-achieving students are not retained, nor are high-achieving students allowed to skip grades in Japanese schools. Grade-skipping, or tobikyu, is specifically prohibited by Monbusho policy. There may be a variety of reasons for this. One mother explained that grade-skipping would be difficult in Japan because "superior students are not strong in all areas and grades are determined by performance in all subjects."
Nevertheless, there are those who, perceiving a weakness in gifted education in Japan, have argued for grade-skipping. Several Japanese teachers expressed interest in the practice of grade-skipping in the United States during our interviews. Regarding gifted education, one educational official in the city of Naka expressed a widely held sentiment:
The standard is the same for all of Japan. The only problem is that we cannot offer gifted programs as the United States does. This is a great concern. It is difficult for Japan to produce a Nobel Prize winner or scholars who are of the caliber to win Field Medals.
Although many Japanese express this opinion, they also suggested that grade-skipping does not reflect values that emphasize the group. Further, grade-skipping is also perceived as a form of elitism.
[Chapter 2 - The Development and Implementation of Education Standards in Japan (Part 5 of 5)]