みなさん、こんにちは！帰国子女、海外経験者コミュニティーのBeyond Borderです！
『競争力を持った国際日本人になる！』、『日本の良さを再発見し、世界中に広めよう！』をスローガンに始まった、現在唯一の英文記事<Introducing Japan>第４弾！

Competitive Educational System and Inequality in Japan

From what I have heard from my Japanese friends, the education system in Japan is quite competitive that parents have to think seriously and make decision of their children’s long-term study plans.

There are a lot of private elementary schools having linkage with junior high schools, as well as high schools, and even to universities.

If the parents hope their children can get into better universities, they have to let them get into those private elementary schools in order to have a higher possibility to get an offer from high-ranking universities.

Once their children get into normal elementary schools to high schools, it is far harder for students to strive for a place in those universities with good rankings.

This totally means that the parents have to pay a lot for the expensive tuition fees since their children started studying in 6 years old.

What is more, Japanese companies pay attention to which universities the fresh graduated belongs to and make judgement on the candidates’ abilities by the ranking of the schools.

Students who are not from the better universities may not have the chance to get into international companies or other local competitive companies that they have lower chance to improve their life and provide better education for their children.

Income inequality increases between the poor and rich. Inter-generational poverty is the result of such kind of education system.

Compare to Japan, my hometown Hong Kong have a better education and examination system in my opinion.

Hong Kong is still competitive if student would like to strive for a seat in universities, but there is a public examination every year that students can be judged fairly without spending too much money to get into private schools.

If students study hard by themselves and get good results in the public exam, they can get into universities in Hong Kong.

There are some parents nowadays forced their children to join several courses as extra-curricular activities in order to show their better abilities than the others, but basically the education system in Hong Kong is still focusing on the public examination results that poor students can take it as a chance to change their living environment and destiny by themselves.