Educational Curriculum in Brunei

Formal education only began in Brunei in the early 20th century, when a school opened in
1912 in the capital of Bandar Seri Begawan. This was followed by a number of other
schools in other towns. The curriculum at the time was limited. Only boys were taught
basics such as reading, writing and arithmetic, with a few extras such as history and
geography taught occasionally.
This encouraged some of the immigrant communities to start their own schools, and the first
English school opened in 1931. School was not obligatory at that time though in 1929 the
government introduced a limited compulsory attendance. In the mid 1960s secondary
education began in Brunei. Since then the education system has been progressively
improved and in 1984 bilingual education became compulsory, with both Malay and English
both now widely used for teaching.
The Ministry of Education sets the curriculum which is common to all schools in Brunei.
Primary school education is free to the children of citizens, though immigrants can apply to
send their children to these schools as fee paying pupils. However, the children of expats
are mainly educated in private schools or in schools in other countries. The level of
education in Brunei is now considered to be excellent and the literacy rates are higher than
they have ever been so choosing a school in the country would not be a bad decision.
The school year is divided into four terms which run from January to December. Children
spend 12 years in formal education which consists of 7 years of primary education (one of
these at kindergarten level) and 5 years of secondary education. The same public
examinations are available to all children.
Religious education is widely taught though is from an Islamic point of view and all schools
have facilities for teaching sciences and technical subjects. Other subjects which are
compulsory include foreign languages usually English and Arabic, although others are
taught as well and maths. Many schools are committed to offering extra-curricular
activities to children such as sports clubs.
There is the provision of higher education for those who do well at secondary school and
provision is made for those children who have special educational needs. University
education is somewhat limited though, and most children who wish to work for a degree will
study abroad, with most travelling to the UK or the USA.
The Brunei government is committed to continuous improvement of the education system
and will adapt it and add to the curriculum when it is deemed necessary, also providing any
facilities that the schools need

Changing the English language curriculum in Brunei

Darussalam

Abstract
This paper describes the development of a language project in Brunei Darussalam, a project
aimed at improving English language learning and fostering positive reading interests. Inservice teachers were trained to change from traditional textbook-based techniques to an
activity-based approach integrating the practice of aural-oral and writing skills. The major
components of project implementation will be discussed to demonstrate the optimization of
available resources, particularly available expertise in teacher skill and language
competence. This project provides an interesting example of an attempt to satisfy the
practical demands of policy-makers while adhering to research standards of evaluation
studies.

Copyright 1994 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

History of education in Japan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

History of Japan

Periods[show]
Topics[show]

Glossary
Timeline

The history of education in Japan dates back at least to the sixth century, when Chinese learning
was introduced at the Yamato court. Foreign civilizations have often provided new ideas for the
development of Japan's own culture.
Contents
[hide]

1 6th to 15th century

2 16th century

3 Edo period

4 Meiji period

5 Pre-war 20th century

6 Occupation period

7 Post-occupation period

8 1980s

9 Education today

10 History of Women's Education

11 See also

12 References

13 Further reading

6th to 15th century[edit]

Chinese teachings and ideas flowed into Japan from the sixth to the ninth century. Along with the
introduction of Buddhism came the Chinese system of writing and its literary tradition,
and Confucianism.
By the ninth century, Heian-ky (today's Kyoto), the imperial capital, had five institutions of higher
learning, and during the remainder of the Heian period, other schools were established by the
nobility and the imperial court. During the medieval period (11851600), Zen Buddhist monasteries were especially important centers of learning, and
theAshikaga School, Ashikaga Gakko, flourished in the fifteenth century as a center of higher
learning.

16th century[edit]
In the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Japan experienced intense contact with the major
European powers. Jesuit missionaries, who accompanied Portuguese traders,
preached Christianity and opened a number of religious schools. Japanese students thus began to
study Latin and Western classical music, as well as their own language.
see: Nanban trade period

Edo period[edit]
Japan was unified by the Tokugawa regime (16001867); and the Neo-Confucian academy,
the Yushima Seid in Edo was the chief educational institution of the state. Its administrative head
was called Daigaku-no-kami as head of the Tokugawa training school for shogunate bureaucrats.[1][2]
When the Tokugawa period began, few common people in Japan could read or write. By the period's
end, learning had become widespread. Tokugawa education left a valuable legacy: an increasingly
literate populace, a meritocratic ideology, and an emphasis on discipline and competent
performance. Under subsequent Meiji leadership, this foundation would facilitate Japan's rapid
transition from feudal society country to a modernizing nation.[3]
During the Tokugawa period, the role of many of the bushi, or samurai, changed from warrior to
government bureaucrat, and as a consequence, their formal education and their literacy increased
proportionally. Samurai curricula stressed morality and included both military and literary
studies. Confucian classics were memorized, and reading and recitation them were common
methods of study. Arithmetic and calligraphy were also studied. Most samurai attended schools
sponsored by their han (domains), and by the time of the Meiji Restoration of 1868, more than 200 of
the 276 han had established schools. Some samurai and even commoners also attended private
academies, which often specialized in particular Japanese subjects or in Western medicine, modern
military science, gunnery, or Rangaku (Dutch studies), as European studies were called.
Education of commoners was generally practically oriented, providing basic training in reading,
writing, and arithmetic, emphasizing calligraphy and use of the abacus. Much of this education was
conducted in so-called temple schools (terakoya), derived from earlier Buddhist schools. These
schools were no longer religious institutions, nor were they, by 1867, predominantly located in
temples. By the end of the Tokugawa period, there were more than 11,000 such schools, attended
by 750,000 students. Teaching techniques included reading from various textbooks, memorizing,
abacus, and repeatedly copying Chinese characters and Japanese script.
Public education was provided for the Samurai, ordinary people taught the rudiments to their own
children or joined together to hire a young teacher. By the 1860s, 40-50% of Japanese boys, and
15% of the girls, had some schooling outside the home. These rates were comparable to major
European nations at the time (apart from Germany, which had compulsory schooling). [4]

Meiji period[edit]
See Education in the Empire of Japan.
After 1868 new leadership set Japan on a rapid course of modernization. The Meiji leaders
established a public education system to help Japan catch up with the West and form a modern
nation. Missions like the Iwakura mission were sent abroad to study the education systems of
leading Western countries. They returned with the ideas of decentralization, local school boards, and
teacher autonomy. Such ideas and ambitious initial plans, however, proved very difficult to carry out.
After some trial and error, a new national education system emerged. As an indication of its success,

elementary school enrollments climbed from about 40 or 50 percent of the school-age population in
the 1870s to more than 90 percent by 1900, despite strong public protest, especially against school
fees.
A modern concept of childhood emerged in Japan after 1850 as part of its engagement with the
West. Meiji era leaders decided the nation-state had the primary role in mobilizing individuals and
children in service of the state. The Western-style school was introduced as the agent to reach
that goal. By the 1890s, schools were generating new sensibilities regarding childhood. [5] After 1890
Japan had numerous reformers, child experts, magazine editors, and well-educated mothers who
bought into the new sensibility. They taught the upper middle class a model of childhood that
included children having their own space where they read children's books, played with educational
toys and, especially, devoted enormous time to school homework. These ideas rapidly disseminated
through all social classes [6][7]
After 1870 school textbooks based on Confucian ethics were replaced by westernized texts.
However by the 1890s, after earlier intensive preoccupation with Western, particularly American
educational ideas, a more authoritarian approach was imposed. Traditional Confucian and Shinto
precepts were again stressed, especially those concerning the hierarchical nature of human
relations, service to the new state, the pursuit of learning, and morality. These ideals, embodied in
the 1890 Imperial Rescript on Education, along with highly centralized government control over
education, largely guided Japanese education until 1945, when they were massively repudiated. [8]

Pre-war 20th century[edit]

In the early 20th century, education at the primary level was egalitarian and virtually universal, but at
higher levels it was multitracked, highly selective, and elitist. Collegeeducation was largely limited to
the few imperial universities, where German influences were strong. Three of the imperial
universities admitted women, and there were a number of women's colleges, some quite prestigious,
but women had relatively few opportunities to enter higher education. During this period, a number of
universities were founded by Christian missionaries, who also took an active role in expanding
educational opportunities for women, particularly at the secondary level.
After 1919 several of the private universities received official status and were granted government
recognition for programs they had conducted, in many cases, since the 1880s. In the 1920s, the
tradition of liberal education briefly reappeared, particularly at the kindergarten level, where
the Montessori method attracted a following. In the 1930s, education was subject to
strong military and nationalistic influences, under Sadao Araki.

Occupation period[edit]
See Educational reform in occupied Japan.
By 1945 the Japanese education system had been devastated, and with the defeat came the
discredit of much prewar thought. A new wave of foreign ideas was introduced during the postwar
period of military occupation.

Occupation policy makers and the United States Education Mission, set up in 1946, made a number
of changes aimed at democratizing Japanese education: instituting the six-three-three grade
structure (six years of elementary school, three of lower-secondary school, and three of uppersecondary school) and extending compulsory schooling to nine years. They replaced the prewar
system of higher-secondary schools with comprehensive upper-secondary schools (high schools).
Curricula and textbooks were revised, thenationalistic morals course was abolished and replaced
with social studies, locally elected school boards were introduced, and teachers unions established.
With the abolition of the elitist higher education system and an increase in the number of higher
education institutions, the opportunities for higher learning grew. Expansion was accomplished
initially by granting university or junior college status to a number of technical institutes, normal
schools, and advanced secondary schools.

Post-occupation period[edit]
After the restoration of full national sovereignty in 1952, Japan immediately began to modify some of
the changes in education, to reflect Japanese ideas about education and educational administration.
The postwar Ministry of Education regained a great deal of power. School boards were appointed,
instead of elected. A course in moral education was reinstituted in modified form, despite substantial
initial concern that it would lead to a renewal of heightened nationalism. The post-occupation period
also witnessed a significant widening of educational opportunities. From 1945 to 1975, the ratio of
junior high school graduates who went on to high school rose considerably, from 42.5% in 1950 to
91.9% in 1975.[9]
By the 1960s, postwar recovery and accelerating economic growth brought new demands to
expand higher education. But as the expectations grew that the quality of higher education would
improve, the costs of higher education also increased. In general, the 1960s was a time of great
turbulence in higher education. Late in the decade especially, universities in Japan were rocked by
violent student riots that disrupted many campuses. Campus unrest was the confluence of a number
of factors, including the anti-Vietnam War movement in Japan, ideological differences between
various Japanese student groups, disputes over campus issues, such as discipline; student strikes,
and even general dissatisfaction with the university system itself.
The government responded with the University Control Law in 1969 and, in the early 1970s, with
further education reforms. New laws governed the founding of new universities and teachers'
compensation, and public school curricula were revised. Private education institutions began to
receive public aid, and a nationwide standardized university entrance examination was added for the
national universities. Also during this period, strong disagreement developed between the
government and teachers groups.
Despite the numerous educational changes that have occurred in Japan since 1868, and especially
since 1945, the education system still reflects long-standing cultural and philosophical ideas: that
learning and education are esteemed and to be pursued seriously, and that moral and character
development are integral to education. The meritocratic legacy of the Meiji period has endured, as
has the centralized education structure. Interest remains in adapting foreign ideas and methods to
Japanese traditions and in improving the system generally.

1980s[edit]
In spite of the admirable success of the education system since World War II, problems remained
through the 1980s. Some of these difficulties as perceived by domestic and foreign observers
included rigidity, excessive uniformity, lack of choices, undesirable influences of the university
examinations (nyugaku shiken ), and overriding emphasis on formal educational
credentials. There was also a belief that education was responsible for some social problems and for
the general academic, behavioral, and adjustment problems of some students. There was great
concern too that Japanese education be responsive to the new requirements caused by international
challenges of the changing world in the twenty-first century.
Flexibility, creativity, internationalization (kokusaika ), individuality, and diversity thus became
the watchwords of Japan's momentous education reform movement of the 1980s, although they
echoed themes heard earlier, particularly in the 1970s. The proposals and potential changes of the
1980s were so significant that some compared them to the educational changes that occurred when
Japan opened to the West in the nineteenth century and to those of the occupation.
Concerns of the new reform movement were captured in a series of reports issued between 1985
and 1987 by the National Council on Educational Reform, set up by Prime Minister Yasuhiro
Nakasone. The final report outlined basic emphases in response to the internationalization of
education, new information technologies, and the media and emphases on individuality, lifelong
learning, and adjustment to social change. To explore these new directions, the council suggested
that eight specific subjects be considered: designing education for the twenty-first century;
organizing a system of lifelong learning and reducing the emphasis on the educational background
of individuals; improving and diversifying higher education; enriching and diversifying elementary
and secondary education; improving the quality of teachers; adapting to internationalization;
adapting to the information age; and conducting a review of the administration and finance of
education. These subjects reflected both educational and social aspects of the reform, in keeping
with the Japanese view about the relationship of education to society. Even as debate over reform
took place, the government quickly moved to begin implementing changes in most of these eight
areas. These reforms have been on-going, and although most have now forgotten about the work
done by the reform council in the 1980s, the contents of many changes can be traced back to this
time.

Education today[edit]
Education plays a crucial social role in Japan today. By 1945 the Japanese education system had
been devastated, and with the defeat came the discredit of much prewar thought. A new wave of
foreign ideas was introduced during the postwar period of military occupation. Occupation policy
makers and the United States Education Mission, set up in 1946, made a number of changes aimed
at democratizing Japanese education: instituting the six-three-three grade structure (six years of
elementary school, three of lower-secondary school, and three of upper-secondary school) and
extending compulsory schooling to nine years. They replaced the prewar system of highersecondary schools with comprehensive upper-secondary schools (high schools). Curricula and
textbooks were revised, the nationalistic morals course was abolished and replaced with social

studies, locally elected school boards were introduced, and teachers unions established. With the
abolition of the elitist higher education system and an increase in the number of higher education
institutions, the opportunities for higher learning grew. Expansion was accomplished initially by
granting university or junior college status to a number of technical institutes, normal schools, and
advanced secondary schools.

History of Women's Education[edit]

Education for females, often bound by constraints, had become an issue as far back as in the Heian
period over a thousand years ago. But the Sengoku period finally made it clear that women had to
be educated to defend the country when their husbands died [citation needed]. The Tale of Genji was written
by a well-educated female from the Heian period and writings by women blossomed throughout
Japanese history[citation needed]. However, Chika Kuroda was the first female bachelor of science,
graduating in 1916 fromTohoku Imperial University.

See also[edit]

Rangaku

Han school (schools run by daimyo)

National Seven Universities

Imperial Rescript on Education

Foreign government advisors in Meiji Japan

Japanese history textbook controversies

Shotouka-Chiri

References[edit]
1.

Jump up^ Kelly, Boyd. (1999). Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing, Vol. 1, p.
522.

2.

Jump up^ De Bary, William et al. (2005). Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vol. 2, p. 69.

3.

Jump up^ R. P. Dore, The Legacy of Tokugawa Education," in Marius B. Jansen,

ed., Changing Japanese attitudes toward modernization (1965) pp 99131

4.

Jump up^ Bryon K. Marshall, "Universal Social Dilemmas and Japanese Educational History:
The Writings of R. P. Dore, History of Education Quarterly, (1972) 12#1 pp 97106 in JSTOR

5.

Jump up^ Brian Platt, "Japanese Childhood, Modern Childhood: The Nation-State, the
School, and 19th-Century Globalization," Journal of Social History, Summer 2005, Vol. 38 Issuchese
4, pp 96585

6.

Jump up^ Kathleen S. Uno, Passages to Modernity: Motherhood, Childhood, and Social
Reform in Early Twentieth Century Japan (1999)

7.

Jump up^ Mark Jones, Children as Treasures: Childhood and the Middle Class in Early
Twentieth Century Japan (2010)

8.

Jump up^ David S. Nivison and Arthur F. Wright, eds. Confucianism in action (1959) p. 302

9.

Jump up^ Morley, James W (ed.), Driven by Growth: Political Change in the Asia-Pacific
Region.

Further reading[edit]

De Bary, William Theodore, et al. eds. Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vol. 2. (2005). ISBN 023112984-X; 13-ISBN 978-0-23112984-8; OCLC 255020415

Kelly, Boyd. (1999). Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing, Vol. 1. London: Taylor
& Francis. 10-ISBN 1-884-96433-8; 13-ISBN 978-1-884-96433-6

Passin, Herbert. Society & Education in Japan (1965)

Saito, Hiro. "Cosmopolitan Nation-Building: The Institutional Contradiction and Politics of
Postwar Japanese Education," Social Science Japan Journal, Summer 2011, Vol. 14 Issue 2, pp
12544

Yamasaki, Yoko. "The impact of Western progressive educational ideas in Japan: 1868
1940," History of Education, Sept 2010, Vol. 39 Issue 5, pp 57588
Categories:

History of education in Japan

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