The Differences Between The American And Japanese School...

Education is an extremely important quality of every nation. It is the base and no nation can survive without education and it is one of the major causes of prosperity and bright future (Spiegle, 2012). Hence, it is important that the education policy of every country should be devised according to the situation and the era time. Different countries have different education systems and methods in place (Wobmann 2001). The following paper will focus on the differences in the education system in United States and Japan. One of the largest differences between the American and the Japanese school system is the school year. Japanese school year starts from April and has three semesters. Due to the three semester system, the students have three†¦show more content†¦After the imposition of this law, Japan has one of highest literacy rates in the world and is as high as 99 percent. In contrary to the American education system, the elementary school comprises of large classrooms with about 40 students and there is only one teacher that teaches all the subjects. Subjects such as basic math, Japanese and physical education are offered by the subject. In recent years, more subjects have been added with English being offered as a compulsory subject. (Amano 1990) The middle school starts right after elementary school with harder class material, tough classes and intense homework. As the elementary school students are given homework during the vacations, this phenomenon continues throughout middle school also. In middle school, there are specific teachers assigned to teach specific subjects with an additional teacher who acts as the ‘class teacher’. The teacher also serves as a councilor and advisor and helps the students in their choice of high school. In high school, the councilor advises on the best choice of college for the students based on their grades. The first year of high school in Japan is similar to the freshman year of the American college as it has a generalized education schedule. However, in the second year, the schedule of the students is more individualized and their