A comparison of Chinese and Japanese educational system
China and Japan have been neighboring countries for hundreds of years. Through long time of communications, China and Japan share many things in common while keeping each other’s unique features, like Chinese and Japanese characters, as well as their education systems. The essay will compare the education systems in the two countries regarding their general information, school year and timetable, elementary and high school, as well as exams.
First, let’s compare some general information. Both Chinese and Japanese education is compulsory for children who are 6 to 15 years old. However, in China, there are 95% of the students go to state schools, which is 20% higher than the students going to state schools in Japan.
Second, while China and Japan show some similarities in general, they present great differences speaking to school year and timetable. China’s school year begins in September and ends in July, including two semesters of 36 week, whereas Japan’s school year is from April to March and has 3 terms of 35 weeks in total. Chinese education timetable starts at 8 a.m. and ends at 5.p.m. On the contrary, Japanese time begins later at 8:30 a.m. and ends earlier at 3:50 p.m. Moreover, unlike the fact that most of the Japanese students eat school food for lunch, the majority of Chinese students go home for food during the lunch break.
Third, when it comes to elementary and high schools, China and Japan only show a slight difference on the subjects that are taught in elementary school. Both Chinese and Japanese elementary schools are co-educational and enroll 6-year-old kids for a 6-year study. Also, high schools in the two countries are separated into junior high schools, which have students aging from 12 to 15, and senior high schools whose students are 15 to 18 years old. Nevertheless, different from Chinese, English and maths, Japanese students are given Japanese, maths and science classes...