Japan’s cramming schools

Testing times

A controversial institution has some surprising merits

Dec 31st 2011 | TOKYO| from the print edition

Seen as a brutal facet of Japan’s high-speed post-war growth, crammers are as powerful as ever. Almost one in five children in their first year of primary school attends after-class instruction, rising to nearly all university-bound high schoolers. The fees are around ¥260,000 ($3,300) annually. School and university test-scores rise in direct proportion to spending on juku, often a matter of concern in a country that views itself as egalitarian. The schools are also seen as reinforcing a tradition of rote learning over ingenuity.

Yet the sweatshop image is outdated. As Japan’s population declines, some schools are becoming a source of grassroots policy innovation, says Julian Dierkes, a rare expert on juku, who happens to be at the University of British Columbia. Many juku operators were left-wing activists in the 1960s, later shut out of business and academia.

The share of enrolled students is higher than a quarter-century ago. In a 2008 government survey, two-thirds of parents attributed the growing role of juku to shortcomings in public education. Their service is more personalised, and many encourage individual inquisitiveness when the public system treats everyone alike. “The juku are succeeding in ways that the schools are not,” an OECD report says. In Tokyo, students say, they are a relief from cramped quarters, siblings, television and the internet.

Oddly, Japan’s education ministry refuses to recognise juku, dismissing them as a mere service businesses. The powerful teachers’ union resists them on grounds of undermining equality. Meanwhile the juku concept is being exported. Japanese operators are expanding to China and elsewhere in Asia. There, too, they may prove a response to broken state systems.

from the print edition | Asia

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Testing times

Jan 3rd 2012, 05:11

The prosperity of cram school system in Japan, has been experiencing adaptable Western-local complex of a business-education gross structure, often seen as the guarantee of higher social fame and the massive gold adding to silver resembling several prime ministers and numerous chairman or chief exeutive called “shia-jong” of company called “gai-shia”. What the Economist’s author talks about is Japan’s one kind of cram system—the affiliation or relative group for higher test grade in formal school system---while there is another kind of cram system for helping employee in conglomerate recharge or brush up the knowledge for higher grade concerned of ETS’s TOEIC, TOEFL-ITP, GRE and accompanying better salary, especially after 1976 when Japan surpassed the threshold of developed country. With East Asia’s rapidly emerging economy, these two kinds of cram school grow very fast leading to some “haves or have-not” like Japan’s Hayashi Isao, South Korea’s Lee Ji-Yeon, China’s Yu Ming-Hong, Taiwan’s well-known couple Lai Shin along with Fang Yoau-Yi.

Traditionally in Japan until now, studying new thoughts or drilling some lessons in the younger generation, called “ven-kiong”, has been respected as the same as samuri’s kendo. After 1868’s Meiji Restoration when Ito Hirobumi and Fukuzawa Yukichi introduced westernized educational system, Japan became the world power on a basis of stable basic education. Then, using this chance of high power due to the success of Sino-Japanese War I in 1895, Tokyo rapidly solidate his educational system by strengthening these university’s position in Japan. Therefore, with the extracurricular activities or cram school, Japan can regain the formidable place of not only Asian No.1 but also world’s economic power backed by prominent genius and hard workers from social to natural science’s domain. Cram school is indeed a important factor in the progress of Japan after 1945.

Many Japanese scholars and politicians of baby-boomers are famous for their well-educated and healthy characteristic because of Japanese tradition and the cramming way to rapidly expanding their knowledge adding to their logical tradition in order to help Japan recover so fast. As many American educationalist research, those who often depend on cramming way to learning may face big difficulties while walking into the society or the world. However, Japan can be always classified as the unique country very different from almost of the world, still hold her high ability to compete with others. For example, Keio University, originally for short-term learning, was well-known for the founder, Fukuzawa Yukichi, cultivating so many famous people, including then LDP’s prime minister Hashimoto Ryutaro, Koizumi Junichiro, the most cunning fox DPJ’s Ichiro Ozawa, the female astronaut and outstanding surgeon Dr. Mukai Chiaki (and Taiwan’s Kaohsiung ex-mayor Chen Chi-Chuan). This cramming way to learning can be found in both formal and informal educational system, still keeping the highly-powerful Japan for a long time.

Contrasting with the cram system or say trying to rectify the “mistake”, in east Asia for twenty years, Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan all exercised the so-called educational reform in order to install the American education. And the most apparent examples are separately steered by then prime minister Hashimoto Ryutaro, former president Kim Young-Sam, the prime minister Zhu Rong-Ji and Nobel laureate in Chemistry Lee Yuan-Ze. Truly, most of them spending a long time and money still cannot see any apparent better grade only to damage the next generation’s earnings or just say they chat some jokes. There is few change in Japan after 15 years; there was one very serious cheat in the first English listening comprehension test in entrance exam to college in Seoul; Zhu adjusted the educational system affiliated with the reform on China’s constitution; Lee cannot described any reasonable and affordable structure of education resulting in confused notion and the lack of creative innovation, weakening Taiwan’s research and development (R&D).

In Japan, cram school for entrance exam to college is the prevailing phenomenon for several decades. After the occurrence of bubble economy, this exam became very aggressive so that many senior high student may study very hard in both school and cram school. Therefore, cram school is one of their mutual memory, sometimes appearing to be full-colour reflecting on teenager’s circles, such as the No.1 Single Best song in 2000 “First Love” by Utada Hikaru, once seen as Koizumi Junichiro’s daughter, and the “gam-ba-day”song in 2010 “Best Friend” by Kana Nishino. Anytime these songs are put forward for recalling, and “You’re always gonna be-my-love(also be-the-one), its-ka(phonetic in Japanese)”as well as “wa-ta-shi ta-ji best friend”(I am really your best friend--phoneic in Japanese)” may be the unforgettable memories for the present twenty-to-forty-year-old Japanese.

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這篇不太受經濟學人的粉絲歡迎，筆者發洩數十年不滿李遠哲和第一批參與教改的情緒。這篇雜誌原文是不解填鴉教育為何仍有對社會作正面作用及稍負面地評論，而又對日本經濟仍然強健連帶感到對有點武士精神的補習班熟殿有作佩服。填鴨教育在明治維新的日本後到現在沒有什麼太多的改變，首推福田諭吉的慶應義塾（今天的慶應大學），也不會違背西化理性主義求真也求是的原則，無論是遇到有要作升學制度改變或是像東京大學的入學時間推遲半年等改變，社會的共識總是勝過會想作泛美教育的移植。如果說到「會社」就業導向的高等教育，日本的大量化、標準化生產人才真是令歐美各國望塵莫及。

筆者舉例亞洲一些跨國的補習班名師，這裡偏講高等教育及語言教育的補習班老師，有李智燕、新東方的俞敏洪、台灣就是方有毅及來欣。慶應大學的畢業生比較能了解教育的重要和社會化的問題，也就是日本要感謝已故首相橋本龍太郎的五五決定，其在前一任就算是實質上自民黨的總裁，特別擋住了一波教改的聲音，到此為止，此後沒有多大變動，就是作了免試入學五成和聯考入學五成的決定。以後對於制度或課程上，除了二次大戰的描述有政治上考量，非教育學的問題而一直有爭議之外，尤其是數理自然科就沒有再刪減，語文上有多了中國語文的選修如此而已，課業說有壓力大已見怪不怪。甚至這幾年諾貝爾獎自然類科肯定起反李遠哲，找起當年的聯考榜首當得主了，填鴨式教育並沒有阻止學生的學術上能力的培養，根本是兩回子事。反正在日本學校是嚴格，但是打罵也變得不多，霸凌的問題和課業無關，總體上學生偷閒去聽聽流行音樂而東京、京都大學照考得進的一大堆。台灣制度紊亂，考試入學制度模糊，加上裁量權濫用，及假學歷教師盛行而沒有控管品質，體面話的檢討過多，不如日本專制而嚴謹一些的教育體制，來得對學生權益有保障、有謀生出路，不是嗎？