Japanese respect Indian Schools and education system

Can American schools learn anything from schools in India?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/b.../02japan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all

MITAKA, Japan — Japan is suffering a crisis of confidence these days about its ability to compete with its emerging Asian rivals, China and India. But even in this fad-obsessed nation, one result was never expected: a growing craze for Indian education.
Readers' Comments

Despite an improved economy, many Japanese are feeling a sense of insecurity about the nation’s schools, which once turned out students who consistently ranked at the top of international tests. That is no longer true, which is why many people here are looking for lessons from India, the country the Japanese see as the world’s ascendant education superpower.

Bookstores are filled with titles like “Extreme Indian Arithmetic Drills” and “The Unknown Secrets of the Indians.” Newspapers carry reports of Indian children memorizing multiplication tables far beyond nine times nine, the standard for young elementary students in Japan.

And Japan’s few Indian international schools are reporting a surge in applications from Japanese families.

At the Little Angels English Academy & International Kindergarten, the textbooks are from India, most of the teachers are South Asian, and classroom posters depict animals out of Indian tales. The kindergarten students even color maps of India in the green and saffron of its flag.

Little Angels is located in this Tokyo suburb, where only one of its 45 students is Indian. Most are Japanese.

Viewing another Asian country as a model in education, or almost anything else, would have been unheard-of just a few years ago, say education experts and historians.

Much of Japan has long looked down on the rest of Asia, priding itself on being the region’s most advanced nation. Indeed, Japan has dominated the continent for more than a century, first as an imperial power and more recently as the first Asian economy to achieve Western levels of economic development.

But in the last few years, Japan has grown increasingly insecure, gripped by fear that it is being overshadowed by India and China, which are rapidly gaining in economic weight and sophistication. The government here has tried to preserve Japan’s technological lead and strengthen its military. But the Japanese have been forced to shed their traditional indifference to the region.

Grudgingly, Japan is starting to respect its neighbors.

“Until now, Japanese saw China and India as backwards and poor,” said Yoshinori Murai, a professor of Asian cultures at Sophia University in Tokyo. “As Japan loses confidence in itself, its attitudes toward Asia are changing. It has started seeing India and China as nations with something to offer.”

Last month, a national cry of alarm greeted the announcement by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that in a survey of math skills, Japan had fallen from first place in 2000 to 10th place, behind Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea. From second in science in 2000, Japan dropped to sixth place.

While China has stirred more concern here as a political and economic challenger, India has emerged as the country to beat in a more benign rivalry over education. In part, this reflects China’s image in Japan as a cheap manufacturer and technological imitator. But India’s success in software development, Internet businesses and knowledge-intensive industries in which Japan has failed to make inroads has set off more than a tinge of envy.

Most annoying for many Japanese is that the aspects of Indian education they now praise are similar to those that once made Japan famous for its work ethic and discipline: learning more at an earlier age, an emphasis on memorization and cramming, and a focus on the basics, particularly in math and science.

India’s more demanding education standards are apparent at the Little Angels Kindergarten, and are its main selling point. Its 2-year-old pupils are taught to count to 20, 3-year-olds are introduced to computers, and 5-year-olds learn to multiply, solve math word problems and write one-page essays in English, tasks most Japanese schools do not teach until at least second grade.

Indeed, Japan’s anxieties about its declining competitiveness echo the angst of another nation two decades ago, when Japan was the economic upstart.

“Japan’s interest in learning from Indian education is a lot like America’s interest in learning from Japanese education,” said Kaoru Okamoto, a professor specializing in education policy at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo.

As with many new things here, the interest in Indian-style education quickly became a fad.

Indian education is a frequent topic in forums like talk shows. Popular books claim to reveal the Indian secrets for multiplying and dividing multiple-digit numbers. Even Japan’s conservative education ministry has begun discussing Indian methods, said Jun Takai of the ministry’s international affairs division.

Eager parents try to send their children to Japan’s roughly half dozen Indian schools, hoping for an edge on the competitive college entrance exams.

In Tokyo, the two largest Indian schools, which teach kindergarten through junior high, mainly to Indian expatriates, received a sudden increase in inquiries from Japanese parents starting last year.

The Global Indian International School says that 20 of its some 200 students are now Japanese, with demand so high from Indian and Japanese parents that it is building a second campus in the neighboring city of Yokohama.

The other, the India International School in Japan, just expanded to 170 students last year, including 10 Japanese. It already has plans to expand again.

Japanese parents have expressed “very, very high interest” in Indian schools, said Nirmal Jain, principal of the India International School.

The boom has had the side effect of making many Japanese a little more tolerant toward other Asians.

The founder of the Little Angels school, Jeevarani Angelina — a former oil company executive from Chennai, India, who accompanied her husband, Saraph Chandar Rao Sanku, to Japan in 1990 — said she initially had difficulty persuading landlords to rent space to an Indian woman to start a school. But now, the fact that she and three of her four full-time teachers are non-Japanese Asians is a selling point.

“When I started, it was a first to have an English-language school taught by Asians, not Caucasians,” she said, referring to the long presence here of American and European international schools.

Unlike other Indian schools, Ms. Angelina said, Little Angels was intended primarily for Japanese children, to meet the need she had found when she sent her sons to Japanese kindergarten.

“I was lucky because I started when the Indian-education boom started,” said Ms. Angelina, 50, who goes by the name Rani Sanku here because it is easier for Japanese to pronounce. (Sanku is her husband’s family name.)

Ms. Angelina has adapted the curriculum to Japan with more group activities, less memorization and no Indian history. Encouraged by the kindergarten’s success, she said, she plans to open an Indian-style elementary school this year.

Parents are enthusiastic about the school’s rigorous standards.

“My son’s level is higher than those of other Japanese children the same age,” said Eiko Kikutake, whose son Hayato, 5, attends Little Angels. “Indian education is really amazing! This wouldn’t have been possible at a Japanese kindergarten.”[/

 

Indian rules stupid American, is that your message?

I hate Asian's education system. All they do is keep feeding you stuff to memorize it.

 

and in America, they just teach you creationism and ask you to draw pictures all day...which apparently causes the 40% drop out rate among teens..

you can hate asian education, but america is on a down trend...
very few nations other than india, china are on a positive social, and economic reform

 

Don't know about you guys but I was schooled in India... From personal experience, I can tell you how much I want to drive a hatchet to the head of every one of my teachers. I went to a private school, paid good fees and was yet kicked around, beaten up and whatnot by the teachers themselves. It was like, if you ain't getting hit, you were getting yelled at like you were some kind of whore they picked up as a spoil of war. This happens in most Indian schools even today; if you know anything about India you can't deny this. (But hey, look at the bright side... at least there were fewer bullies in class because at the end of the day, the teacher was the biggest! This is so awesome!!!!)

The education was equally "great". Nearly 3/4th of what I was taught is completely useless to me today. I make a lot of money as a writer and I live pretty well but I think I'd be in a better place now if I had dropped out in 5th grade or something and started my career early (writing about how much ass schools suck here).

No offence intended to any proud Indians but this is not something I made up. I've experienced all this BS. Of course, I'm not saying the US has a better system of education or anything because I don't know enough about it. But from what my sources say, it is indeed filled with a lot of unnecessary brainwashing and lies (my sources: dead prez )

Cheers

 

I m an Indian !!.. i m 16 years of age !!.. i don't know weather i have thought enough of the Indian education system !... but i don't like it !!!!... i think many useless things are thought which we hardly remember !!! i passed out my scool 10th !! and i barely remember nething !! although a was a A+ scorer !

 

Indian pupils don't like education system, because they don't like education at all. Sorry no offense, but it's true.
It's not the first time when a foreign country praised Indian education system.

Indian education system has always been seen as strict and tiresome by many but nonetheless it is very effective to do what it is supposed to do, i.e. to really educate the people.

Indian professionals are considered very productive and efficient by almost all the multi national company's senior management.

The reasons
1) Indian education system has a great emphasis on learning and mastering English. Thus Indian students are virtually able to work in any part of the world that speaks English.

2) It is totally focused on the learning curve, if you have a slow learning curve you will not succeed in the tests.
Sure it puts a lot of pressure on students but all together it creates brighter students than many other education system.

3) Unfocused primary education. Many people bash it as the primary education is totally unfocused as far as career is concerned but it has it's own advantages. Students learn a lot of things. And it help them better to chose a career that suits their interest.

I give an example: When I was younger I wanted to be a doctor. I knew, to become a doctor I need to study Biology well and good. I focused on biology, but as the education system requires I needed to study Physics and Chemistry too. Later I realized that I have better interests in Physics and Maths than Biology So when it came to me to choose the career option, in 12th, I did not hesitate to choose PCM rather Biology. Yes I had to give up my dream of becoming a doctor.

Now if the primary education was focused, I would have opted for Biology earlier before realizing that I'm better in Physics and Maths.

Again many people claim what they learned in the school are totally useless. But I found them very useful. I have better knowledge of History, I have a better knowledge of Geography than many of the people from much more focused education system.

 

not a surprise at all..ha even the all my Indian friends who were born here, still manage to take the class ranks..1-4 are all indians aha.

 

lolz its not weather it is whether

 

in canada, its weird to see an indian not in the top of the class..they put very strong values in education and dont drop out where as some communities in US and canada have 30% drop out rate

 

Hi
I am looking for link exchange partners for Education/e-learning/languages/online study related sites. Link back will be given on Good PR page.

 

I agree. The OP has gotta be among the dumbest guys here - apparently he's in love with India. Take your finger out of India's arse for once, and you'll see the kinda shite that pops out.


And how the fuck did you get banned ahkip?

 

Yea, thats exactly the kind of bull we wanna hear in a rant about the "indian educassion systim."

 

lol... i saw ahkip red and found that thread too... probably he completed his 10 infraction...

but let me tell you one thing, usa company still would like to Indian based employees not only that because of "cheap" labor.. its because they work hard and can understand very well what their company expecting from them

 

You should see the education system in Romania in high school you have like 17difreent classes (wich are crap and won't be any use)

You go to University for exemple Informatics but you still do 50% of classes related to math that'scrap i'm glad i'm on my own way but there are people wich dpend on diploma/degree etc ...

 

Yea Indians can code well, becuase for the 4 years they are in college most of them have the following schedule
- studies for 6 hours a day
- no partying
- no sports/extra curricular activities
- no fun
- no life


Coding is no rocket science; hell even Homer Simpson could do it if he was made to work like an ass for 4 years.

 

Dude, you have no fucking idea about the higher education in India.
I have done my 4 years bachelor of technology degree from Delhi College of engineering (DCE). And I remember no single day when we didn't hang out with friends, through out our college life. We take our education very seriously, but if you think guys from IITs, IIMs, and other renowned institution do not know how to hang out and have fun, dude you have no, absolutely no fucking idea.