Another school year has come to an end. It may feel as though your promotion to the next grade—or your admission to this school—happened only last month.
Have you ever stopped to think about Japan's educational system? In Japan, elementary and junior high school constitute compulsory education, after which most students proceed to high school and, in many cases, university. For students at our school, the first major academic decision is usually made in the first year of high school. Those who choose a specialised high school or a college of technology often make that decision as early as the third year of junior high school. It is no exaggeration to say that, between the ages of fifteen and sixteen, most Japanese students are required to make decisions that will have a significant impact on their future.
How does this compare with other countries?
Germany provides a well-known example. There, children attend primary school from the age of six until ten. At just ten years old, they must choose among different educational tracks leading toward academic study, vocational training, or direct employment. In Singapore, only those who succeed in a highly competitive examination at the end of primary school are admitted to the elite academic track. In effect, the transition resembles a compulsory entrance examination for secondary education. In Russia and many other former Soviet republics, education from the first through the eleventh grade is provided free of charge—during the Soviet era, even higher education was tuition-free. Students generally remain at the same school throughout their education, and in many cases stay with the same classmates without ever being reassigned to a different class.
Compared with these systems, Japan's educational model offers a remarkably generous period of moratorium before students are required to commit themselves to a particular path. Yet the privilege of having choices also brings responsibility. In other countries, when students encounter barriers in their academic careers, they may attribute them to a demanding educational system or to selection taking place at an unusually early age. In Japan, however, such an explanation is less convincing. Whether we choose the humanities or the sciences, which school we apply to, or even whether we choose to do nothing at all, we are given the opportunity to decide for ourselves.
Once we step onto the stage called freedom, we spend the rest of our lives answering to the judge called our own decisions.
So what am I really trying to say?
Simply this:
You should study seriously for your exams.
Or perhaps, more honestly—
I wish I had.