School Questions

[Tetsugakusha]

First, it's come up in two series I've watched recently where the main characters read some poem, I guess, after they had taken an entrace exam. I was wondering what is it that they read and is that done for the graduating class or for the freshmen class at university? As in one series it was done after they took University Entrance exams and in another it was done after they had taken High School Entrance exams.

Second, I was just wondering what the School Hierarchy is. I'm assuming there's grade school, but I keep hearing about High School Entrance exams. Are you not allowed to go to high school if you fail those? Or are there public high schools that everyone can go to, while the entrance exams are for "better" (IE Private) schools?

Cheers!

[purplemo]

For the 1st, I don't know. I'm not sure what you're asking.

For the 2nd, Japanese primary and secondary schools run mostly like the rest of East Asia. Think of getting into HS (secondary) like getting into college in the West. You pick the ones that are the best (or you have a fighting chance), you take their test, and you hope you did good enough to get in. And like colleges, you pay for tuition (supplies are always yours to buy in E Asia from kindergarten). And if you want to go far away, you move and leave your parents behind. Some schools have the escalator system where it's a straight "K-12" (sometimes even college) so you don't have to go through the mess. That's why in E Asia it's an accomplishment to get into HS. There is no guarantee.

[Tetsugakusha]

Originally Posted by purplemo

For the 1st, I don't know. I'm not sure what you're asking.

I'm trying to find a picture of what I'm talking about but it reads:

"As flowers bloom with the first breath of spring, new life bursts forth. In this shining brilliance we face a new year. Today, I extend my deepest thanks to everyone present at this entrance ceremony."

Not sure if that helps but I'll continue to look for a picture.

Thanks for the clarification on the second part!

[purplemo]

Sounds like some 'ritual' they do. Kind of like the getting up and bowing to a teacher entering and leaving. E Asia is full of little traditions that permeate everyday life. You should try tolerating the requisite small talk before formal meetings.

Or it sounds analogous to a prayer of well-wishing. But I'm still confused since your quote mentions the ceremony in spring, but you say the person is saying it after the entrance exam. I mean, you can't be at the entrance ceremony and the entrance exam at the same time.

[Tetsugakusha]

Originally Posted by purplemo

Sounds like some 'ritual' they do. Kind of like the getting up and bowing to a teacher entering and leaving. E Asia is full of little traditions that permeate everyday life. You should try tolerating the requisite small talk before formal meetings.

Or it sounds analogous to a prayer of well-wishing. But I'm still confused since your quote mentions the ceremony in spring, but you say the person is saying it after the entrance exam. I mean, you can't be at the entrance ceremony and the entrance exam at the same time.

My mistake. What happens is the characters do their entrance exam (High school in one series and College in another) and then they're at the ceremony reading that poem. Death Note Episode 9 is the College one and then Boku wa Imoutoni Koiwo Suru is the High School example. I think I was getting confused because I didn't understand the schooling structure in Japan.

[purplemo]

Well yeah, at the ceremony just think of it as a closing finale. Except it's standard. If you want, pretend it's a haiku, or the school song sung at the end of a major meeting kind of thing.

[DistMan]

It depends on wether you're looking to get into a public or private school. Everyone (Japanese only, foreign kids do not have to) has to attend school up to high-school.

Any kid can enroll into a public elementary school while they often have to take an entrance exam in order to join the more competetive private one. This is the same for Jr. High and High-school AFAIK.

Elem 6 years
Jr.High 3 years
High 3 years
University 4 years
Masters programme 2 years ontop of Uni ed.

In other words, if you want to get into a private school you'll have to take the entrance exams, which more often than not requires cramming after regular school. Entrance exams often consists of a lot of "dictionary data". i.e in which year did 'this' happen, which country in africa has the densest population etc. There are also math, geography, english etc. But if you ask me a whole lot if it is simply not useful knowledge; compared to the regular curriculum.

In order to get into University every student must take an entrance exam. In the case of public university competition is often more fierce than the private one which costs a lot more. As for entrance, while some attention is focused on the actual school grades, most of it appears to depend on the entrance exam results.

Public: Students looking to get into a public university till take two 'central' exams and the better you get, the better your choices are. Then there are practical exams etc for certain educations (art, music etc). Private exams are different and vary in difficulty depending on the university. Cramming is often required to pass these tests, and some cram schools also teach material very specific for some universities. This at times lead to to a problem where many studens don't care much for the official curriculum and instead focus much of the attention on cramming other data.

Long incoherent post...that's the basic outline i guess... As you can tell, i'm strongly against the whole entrance exam cram school system.

[Zimmbo]

The Elementary, Jr High and High School are considered compulsory education whether it is in public or private schools. This can last until the 19th birthday depending on if you had a major illness or cut too many classes etc.

[DistMan]

High-School is not compulsory in Japan, even though some 90% do enter it.

[ParaParaJMo]

Well, I say more than 90% actually

In order to get into University every student must take an entrance exam. In the case of public university competition is often more fierce than the private one which costs a lot more. As for entrance, while some attention is focused on the actual school grades, most of it appears to depend on the entrance exam results.

There are high schools that are sponsored by universities. Like I lived nearby Nihon University High School and kids can go straight there. Sometimes there are some jr. highs and high schools that are one school, and the jr. high kids don't have to take exams if they wish to stay there. Of course you need to take an exam to get into these kinds of connected schools to begin with.