Features of school education in the Far East

For most, the realities of life in Asian countries remain unknown. As a destination for tourism, this part of the world is still not very popular, if not to talk about the most advertised resorts – but how, while vacationing somewhere in Goa, you can learn about the everyday affairs of the locals? However, their lives and, in particular, the education system, is of significant interest, because the local culture is divorced from the European one, so many local traditions associated with school education may seem like a real exotic. However, this does not mean at all that such teaching methods are ineffective or imperfect.

It is important to remember that Asia is a vast territory in which there are several dozen countries, and each has its own traditions, mentality and culture of education. It is simply impossible to talk about even five countries in one article. Therefore, it is worth starting only with a description of the secondary education system of the two states, which, when Asia is mentioned, appear first in memory. Of course, we are talking about China and Japan. These countries are extremely different, therefore, the approach to education (including school) and the priorities in scientific disciplines are quite different. The realities of education in schools in China and Japan.

Features and exotic traits When discussing secondary education and the realities of the school system in these two countries, it should be remembered that they are very large. Both, China, both in terms of population, whose number is approaching the 1.5 billion mark, and in terms of territory. Japan is very small geographically, but its population reaches almost one hundred and fifty million – which for this island country is a fairly large figure. Therefore, in both states, you can find completely different schools. China is especially contrasted. Huge class divisions also cause a chasm between elite private schools somewhere in a multimillion city and a rural school in the provincial hinterland. But, say, heating is only available in schools in the North: from the very beginning, school buildings were designed taking into account climatic features, so there is simply no central heating system in the central regions and in the South.

As a result, if the temperature drops to freezing in winter (which can happen even despite the subtropical climate), children and teachers sit in outerwear. However, this does not mean that children’s health is not monitored in Chinese schools. First, repetitive exercise is a common practice. Pupils don’t just do eye exercises like we do in our junior high schools. In China, attention is paid to everything: children do indeed perform sets of exercises several times a day to develop and improve the condition of the back, arms and eyes. Particular emphasis is placed on keeping the children upright. In some schools, special metal restraints are even installed for this, which, resting on the child’s chest, do not allow him to “lie down” on the desk and write bent over. This emphasis on physical health is made because the workload in Chinese schools is extreme: children have to learn thousands of hieroglyphs, and in addition, from childhood, students must study mathematics in a fairly intensive mode.