Losing an Edge, Japanese Envy India's Schools

Losing an Edge, Japanese Envy India's Schools

www.nytimes.com

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.

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

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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.”

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'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.'
(from the article)
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my comment:
seems with western ways of education backfiring and creating useless children obssessed with sex , seems advanced nations are loooking at India as a model



www.nytimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 4-1-2008 by manson_322]

[edit on 4-1-2008 by manson_322]

reply to post by manson_322


firstly you do know that copying and pasting almost everything from a news site is against TC?

and you need to put your own views


i wouldnt be worried right now for Jap as they are still the leaders in most things Electrontics and robitics,
only reason India have such high percentage is because of the population.
which is sure to have a figure in there that has people that thrive when it comes to education that beats most nations

reply to post by bodrul


the editing has been done , i have stated the part from the article and given my comment below

the success of nations like India is because of the preservation of the family unit and making children's education an top priority, These are huge issues here

I'm in Hong Kong and their results in this "wonderful" testing standard was all hailed this year as Hong Kong went up a notch here and there...

But, most of the people here still believe that a foreign education would be better!! That seems to be a theme among people where ever you go though to be honest.

And India would beat Japan at cricket as well, not so sure about sword fighting!

MonKey

Bodrul,

Firstly, calling japanese 'japs' is an insult.. please refrain from that..
Or were you refering to Japan as Jap?
Im not sure about the moralities of that either..

Now onto what you posted:

Population will have something to do with the BULK quantity(number) of high IQ students per nation.
The qualitative analysis of it all is something completely different. Thats how you can figure out which nations produce a better level of education in the qualitative sense.

Numbers are relative. Its how much investment you make per individual and how that investment is translated into returns that is a true measure.
India obv churns out 'more' educated people than Japan because it is larger in population. However India needs those many more people to man its economic, military, civic sectors as compared to Japan.

And frankly speaking, if the only 'plus point' with India's educational system was that they were churning out a greater number of whiz kids and that too just because of a massive population; then the japanese would be smart enough to figure that out and look elsewhere for a qualitatively better education system.

The only reason that Japan would turn to another educational system for assistance would be if the qualitative output of that system was better than theirs(as judged by the Japanese themselves).

So its an irony of sorts: If the Japanese are smart, then the only reason they're looking to India(or anywhere else for that matter) is because that place is offering something that is qualitatively better.
Simple deductive logic...