Education

This essay will compare education in four counties, UK, China, Japan and South Korea. I investigating three aspects, education system, national school curriculum and school life during the compulsory education.

From education system, a big similarity is that three counties China, Japan and Korea have nine years compulsory education from 6 to 15 years olds. Their primary education is from 6 to 12, and secondary education is divided into two departments, three years of middle school and three years of high school, the ages from 12 to 18. Generally, University is four years from 18 to 22. This is different from British education. Compulsory education in Britain is much longer; they have 11 years compulsory education from 5 to 16 years old. University in Britain just is 3 years, which is shorter than other three countries.

In terms of national school curriculum, while three are a number of similarities, they have about 12 subjects during compulsory education, such as mathematics, science, art, history, music, physical education and own languages. Own languages and maths are the core subject in these four countries. Like Britain, science also is a core subject in Japan, and English is main subject in China and Korea. In contract, physical education is not important in China and Korea, but it’s important in Japan. Almost every school has a playground, 90% school have a gym, and 75% school have a swimming pool, that why the sport equipment in Japan is the most advanced.

There are obvious differences in school life. There are two semesters in China and South Korea. In China, the academic year begins in September to middle of July. There are two vacations, summer vacation in July and August, while winter vacation in January and February. They also have some short breaks during the National Day or some special festival. In Korea, the first term is from March to July, and the second term is from September to February. But both Britain and Japan have three semesters. In UK, the first term is from the beginning of October to Mid December, then they have two weeks break at Christmas. Later, the take the second term from Mid January to the end of March, they also have two weeks break at Easter, they will continue with the third semester from April to the end of June, there are about six weeks break during the summer vacation. Similarly, Japan have two weeks break in winter, two weeks break in spring and six weeks vacation in the summer. Whereas, the academic year in Japan begins is from April to July, the second term is from September to December, and the last term is from January to March. Comparing the daily schedule, the school days beginning at 7:30 to 5:00pm in China, which is much longer than other three countries. Students have a two- hour lunch break, and for high school student, they have 2 or 3 hours self-study course in the evening, But in UK, the school days is much shorter, it is from 8:55 to 15:15. In South Korea, the school days is from 8:00 to 4:00pm, but many students stay later into the evening, they help clean up their classroom before leaving. After 5:00pm, students have a short dinner at school before study sessions or other activities in the evening. In Japan, the school days start around 8:30am to 4pm. Generally, students have more free time and breaks during their time at school.

In conclusion, while there are a number of similarities between these four countries, there are also many obvious differences. They have similar education system and also the national school curriculum, and they just have quite different in the school life. British student are quite more relaxed than other three country’s they just have 195 days teaching in the year.