''by [[Paul Bacsich]] ([[Sero]]), [[Gertjan]] ([[ATiT]]) and [[Daniela Proli]] ([[SCIENTER]]) with advice from colleagues at [[NIME]] and the [[Open University of Japan]]''

For entities in Japan see [[:Category:Japan]]

== Partners and experts in Japan ==

There is no partner in Japan for Re.ViCa, VISCED or POERUP.

Experts in virtual initiatives in Japan include (in alphabetical order):

Dr. Kumiko Aoki ([[Open University of Japan]]): e-learning and ICT 
Dr. Insung Jung ([[International Christian University]]): quality assurance (QA) 
Dr. Katsuaki Suzuki ([[Kumamoto University]]): instructional design (ID) 

and Dr. [[Terumi Miyazoe]], their developing successor (Tokyo Denki University http://atom.dendai.ac.jp/): e-learning and distance eduction (DE), who worked primarily on the contributions of 2011, 2012 year information.

== Japan in a nutshell ==

(sourced from Wikipedia)

''Japan'' (日本 '''Nihon''' or '''Nippon?''', officially 日本国 '''Nippon-koku?·i''' or '''Nihon-koku''') is an island country in [[East Asia]]. Located in the [[Pacific Ocean]], it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of [[China]], [[North Korea]], [[South Korea]] and [[Russia]], stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters which make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin country", which is why Japan is sometimes identified as the "Land of the Rising Sun".

[[Image:Japan.gif|right|thumb|400px|Source : http://www.cia.gov]]

Japan comprises over 3,000 islands making it an archipelago. The largest islands are Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku, together accounting for 97% of Japan's land area. Most of the islands are mountainous, many volcanic; for example, Japan’s highest peak, Mount Fuji, is a volcano. Japan has the world's tenth largest population, with about 128 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.

A major economic power, Japan has the world's second largest economy by nominal GDP and the third largest in purchasing power parity. It is a member of the United Nations, G8, G4, [[OECD]] and APEC, with the world's fifth largest defense budget. It is also the world's fourth largest exporter and sixth largest importer. It is a developed country with high living standards (8th highest HDI) and a world leader in technology, machinery, and robotics.

The English word Japan is an exonym. The Japanese names for Japan are Nippon (にっぽん) and Nihon (にほん). They are both written in Japanese using the kanji 日本. The Japanese name Nippon is used for most official purposes, including on Japanese money, postage stamps, and for many international sporting events. Nihon is a more casual term and the most frequently used in contemporary speech.

Both Nippon and Nihon literally mean "the sun's origin" and are often translated as the Land of the Rising Sun. This nomenclature comes from Imperial correspondence with Chinese Sui Dynasty and refers to Japan's eastward position relative to China. Before Japan had relations with China, it was known as Yamato and Hi no moto, which means "source of the sun".

Japan is a constitutional monarchy where the power of the Emperor is very limited. As a ceremonial figurehead, he is defined by the constitution as "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people". Power is held chiefly by the Prime Minister of Japan and other elected members of the Diet, while sovereignty is vested in the Japanese people. The Emperor effectively acts as the head of state on diplomatic occasions. Akihito is the current Emperor of Japan. Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan, stands as next in line to the throne.

Japan's legislative organ is the National Diet, a bicameral parliament. The Diet consists of a House of Representatives, containing 480 seats, elected by popular vote every four years or when dissolved and a House of Councillors of 242 seats, whose popularly-elected members serve six-year terms. There is universal suffrage for adults over 20 years of age, with a secret ballot for all elective offices.

The Prime Minister of Japan is the head of government. The position is appointed by the Emperor of Japan after being designated by the Diet from among its members and must enjoy the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office. The Prime Minister is the head of the Cabinet (the literal translation of his Japanese title is "Prime Minister of the Cabinet") and appoints and dismisses the Ministers of State, a majority of whom must be Diet members.

While there exist eight commonly defined regions of Japan, administratively Japan consists of forty-seven prefectures, each overseen by an elected governor, legislature and administrative bureaucracy. The former city of Tokyo is further divided into twenty-three special wards, each with the same powers as cities.

The nation is currently undergoing administrative reorganization by merging many of the cities, towns and villages with each other. This process will reduce the number of sub-prefecture administrative regions and is expected to cut administrative costs.

Japan has dozens of major cities, which play an important role in Japan's culture, heritage and economy.

Japan's population is estimated at just over 127 million. For the most part, Japanese society is linguistically and culturally homogeneous with small populations of foreign workers, Zainichi Koreans, Zainichi Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese Brazilians and others. The most dominant native ethnic group is the Yamato people; the primary minority groups include the indigenous Ainu and Ryukyuan, as well as social minority groups like the burakumin.

Japan has one of the highest life expectancy rates in the world, at 81.25 years of age as of 2006. The Japanese population is rapidly aging, the effect of a post-war baby boom followed by a decrease in births in the latter part of the twentieth century. In 2004, about 19.5% of the population was over the age of 65.

The changes in the demographic structure have created a number of social issues, particularly a potential decline in the workforce population and increases in the cost of social security benefits such as the public pension plan. Many Japanese youth are increasingly preferring not to marry or have families as adults. Japan's population is expected to drop to 100 million by 2050 and to 64 million by 2100. Demographers and government planners are currently in a heated debate over how to cope with this problem. Immigration and birth incentives are sometimes suggested as a solution to provide younger workers to support the nation's aging population. The highest estimates for the amount of Buddhists and Shintoists in Japan is 84-96%, representing a large number of believers in a syncretism of both religions. However, these estimates are based on people with an association with a temple, rather than the number of people truly following the religion. Professor Robert Kisala (Nanzan University) suggests that only 30 percent of the population identify themselves as belonging to a religion.

Taoism and Confucianism from China have also influenced Japanese beliefs and customs. Religion in Japan tends to be syncretic in nature, and this results in a variety of practices, such as parents and children celebrating Shinto rituals, students praying before exams, couples holding a wedding at a Christian church and funerals being held at Buddhist temples. A minority (2,595,397, or 2.04%) profess to Christianity.[90] In addition, since the mid-19th century, numerous religious sects (Shinshūkyō) have emerged in Japan, such as Tenrikyo and Aum Shinrikyo (or Aleph).

About 99% of the population speaks Japanese as their first language. It is an agglutinative language distinguished by a system of honorifics reflecting the hierarchical nature of Japanese society, with verb forms and particular vocabulary which indicate the relative status of speaker and listener. According to a Japanese dictionary Shinsen-kokugojiten, Chinese-based words comprise 49.1% of the total vocabulary, indigenous words are 33.8% and other loanwords are 8.8%. The writing system uses kanji (Chinese characters) and two sets of kana (syllabaries based on simplified Chinese characters), as well as the Latin alphabet and Arabic numerals. The Ryukyuan languages, also part of the Japonic language family to which Japanese belongs, are spoken in Okinawa, but few children learn these languages. The Ainu language is moribund, with only a few elderly native speakers remaining in Hokkaidō. Most public and private schools require students to take courses in both Japanese and English.

== Education in Japan ==

=== Policy ===

Primary, secondary schools and universities were introduced into Japan in 1872 as a result of the Meiji Restoration. Since 1947, compulsory education in Japan consists of elementary school and middle school, which lasts for nine years (from age 6 to age 15). Almost all children continue their education at a three-year senior high school, and, according to the Ministry, about 75.9% of high school graduates attend a university, junior college, trade school, or other post-secondary institution in 2005.

Japan's education is very competitive, especially for entrance to institutions of higher education. Anyone can enter one nowadays.

The two top-ranking universities in Japan are the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University. The Programme for International Student Assessment coordinated by the OECD, currently ranks Japanese knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds as the 6th best in the world.

I would remove this section as the information is not about policy as it is.

 

=== Japan education system ===

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Japan)

After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the methods and structures of Western learning were adopted as a means to make Japan a strong, modern nation. Students and even high-ranking government officials were sent abroad to study, such as the Iwakura mission. Foreign scholars, the so-called o-yatoi gaikokujin, were invited to teach at newly founded universities and military academies. Compulsory education was introduced, mainly after the Prussian model. By 1890, only 20 years after the resumption of full international relations, Japan discontinued employment of the foreign consultants.

The rise of militarism led to the use of the education system to prepare the nation for war. The military even sent its own instructors to schools. After the defeat in World War II, the allied occupation government set an education reform as one of its primary goals, to eradicate militarist teachings and "democratize" Japan. The education system was rebuilt after the American model.

The end of the 1960s were a time of student protests around the world, and also in Japan. The main subject of protest was the Japan-U.S. security treaty. A number of reforms were carried out in the post-war period until today. They aimed at easing the burden of entrance examinations, promoting internationalization and information technologies, diversifying education and supporting lifelong learning.

(sourced from http://www.ncee.org/programs-affiliates/center-on-international-education-benchmarking/top-performing-countries/japan-overview/japan-instructional-systems/)

In Japan education is compulsory for nine years, including '''primary school''' (six years) and '''lower secondary school''' (three years). Pupils can attend three years of non-compulsory kindergarten.

Students who have completed lower secondary school, at about age sixteen, may choose to apply to''' upper secondary school''', lasting three years.

There are three types of upper secondary schools in Japan:

* '''senior high schools'''. Senior high schools provide general, specialized and integrated courses. General courses are intended for students who hope to attend university, or for students who wish to seek employment after high school but have no particular vocational preference. Specialized courses are for students who have selected a particular vocational area of interest. Integrated courses allow a student to choose electives from both the general and specialized tracks.
Senior high school can be full-time, part-time or correspondence.

* '''Colleges of technology''' (''Kosen'' colleges) typically offer a five-year program in different occupational areas. Students can also choose to complete upper secondary vocational education after three years and go directly to the workplace. Upon graduation, a student who completes five years of technology college is considered an “associate” in his or her field.

* '''special training colleges''' for lower secondary graduates: special training colleges have been created in Japan in 1976, offering vocational and specialized technical education aiming at fostering abilities required for vocational or daily life or provide general education. Some special training colleges address people with lower secondary education, whereas two other categories are for people with upper secondary education Special training colleges offer vocational and technical education in a variety of degree programs, typically through the bachelor’s or master’s level) or for people without any academic background.

Admission into senior high schools is extremely competitive, and in addition to entrance examinations, the student’s academic work, behavior and attitude, and record of participation in the community is also taken into account. Senior high schools are ranked in each locality, and Japanese students consider the senior high school where they matriculate to be a determining factor in later success. Following senior high school, a Japanese student’s future is dependent on their score on the national achievement exam, as well as their performance on the individual exams administered by each university.

Colleges of technology require their own set of entrance exams, while special training colleges do not. After three years in a special training college, students may apply to enter a college of technology. These students are eligible for higher education after completing an upper secondary course of two to three years.

 

== Schools in Japan ==

=== Kindergarten and Nursery school ===

Early childhood education begins at home, and there are numerous books and television shows aimed at helping mothers of pre-school children to educate their children and to "parent" more effectively. Much of the home training is devoted to teaching manners, proper social behavior, and structured play, although verbal and number skills are also popular themes. Parents are strongly committed to early education and frequently enroll their children in preschools.

Kindergartens (yochien 幼稚園), predominantly staffed by young female junior college graduates, are supervised by the Ministry of Education, but are not part of the official education system. The 58% of kindergartens that are private accounted for 77% of all children enrolled. In addition to kindergartens there exists a well-developed system of government-supervised day-care centers (hoikuen 保育園), supervised by the Ministry of Labor. Where as kindergartens follow educational aims, preschools are predominately concerned with providing care for infants and toddlers. Same as kindergartens there are public or privately run preschools. Together, these two kinds of institutions enroll well over 90% of all preschoolage children prior to their entrance into the formal system at first grade. The Ministry of Education's 1990 Course of Study for Preschools, which applies to both kinds of institutions, covers such areas as human relationships, environment, words (language), and expression. Starting from March 2008 the new revision of curriculum guidelines for kindergartens as well as for preschools came into effect.

 

=== Elementary school ===

More than 99% of children are enrolled in elementary school. All children enter first grade at age six, and starting school is considered a very important event in a child's life.

Virtually all elementary education takes place in public schools; less than 1% of the schools are private. Private schools tended to be costly, although the rate of cost increases in tuition for these schools had slowed in the 1980s. Some private elementary schools are prestigious, and they serve as a first step to higher-level private schools with which they are affiliated, and thence to a university.

 

=== Junior high school ===

Lower secondary school covers grades seven, eight, and nine, children between the ages of roughly 12 and 15, with increased focus on academic studies. Although it is still possible to leave the formal education system after completing lower secondary school and find employment, fewer than 4% did so by the late 1980s.

Like elementary schools, most lower-secondary schools in the 1980s were public, but 5% were private. Private schools were costly, averaging 558,592 yen (US$3,989) per student in 1988, about four times more than the 130,828 yen (US$934) that the ministry estimated as the cost for students enrolled in public lower secondary schools. Teachers often majored in the subjects they taught, and more than 80% graduated from a four-year college. Classes are large, with thirty-eight students per class on average, and each class is assigned a homeroom teacher who doubles as counselor. Unlike elementary students, lower-secondary school students have different teachers for different subjects. The teacher, however, rather than the students, moves to a new room for each fifty-minute period.

Instruction in lower-secondary schools tends to rely on the lecture method. Teachers also use other media, such as television and radio, and there is some laboratory work. By 1989 about 45% of all public lower secondary schools had computers, including schools that used them only for administrative purposes. Classroom organization is still based on small work groups, although no longer for reasons of discipline.

All course contents are specified in the Course of Study for Lower-Secondary Schools. Some subjects, such as Japanese language and mathematics, are coordinated with the elementary curriculum. Others, such as foreign-language study, usually English, begin at this level. The curriculum covers Japanese language, social studies, mathematics, science, music, fine arts, health, and physical education. All students also are exposed to either industrial arts or homemaking. Moral education and special activities continue to receive attention. Many students also participate in after-school sport clubs that occupy them until around 6pm most weekdays.

A growing number of JHS students also attend Juku, private extracurricular study schools, in the evenings and weekends. A focus by students upon these other studies and the increasingly structured demands upon students' time have been criticized by teachers and in the media for contributing to a decline in classroom standards and student performance in recent years.

The ministry recognizes a need to improve the teaching of all foreign languages, especially English. To improve instruction in spoken English, the government invites many young native speakers of English to Japan to serve as assistants to school boards and prefectures under its Japan Exchange and Teaching Program. By 1988 participants numbered over 1,000. This program seems to be being phased out in many areas where the supply of foreign native speakers facilitates their employment through less expensive private agencies.

 

=== (Senior) High school ===

Even though upper secondary school is not compulsory in Japan, 99% of all lower secondary school graduates entered upper secondary schools as of 2005. Private upper-secondary schools account for about 55% of all upper-secondary schools, and neither public nor private schools are free . The Ministry of education estimated that annual family expenses for the education of a child in a public upper-secondary school were about 300,000 yen (US$2,142) in both 1980s and that private upper-secondary schools were about twice as expensive.

The most common type of upper-secondary schools has a fulltime, general program that offered academic courses for students preparing for higher education and also technical and vocational courses for students expecting to find employment after graduation. More than 70% of upper-secondary school students were enrolled in the general academic program in the late 1980s. A small number of schools offer part-time or evening courses or correspondence education.

The first-year programs for students in both academic and commercial courses are similar. They include basic academic courses, such as Japanese language, English, mathematics, and science. In upper-secondary school, differences in ability are first publicly acknowledged, and course content and course selection are far more individualized in the second year. However, there is a core of academic material throughout all programs.

Vocational-technical programs includes several hundred specialized courses, such as information processing, navigation, fish farming, business English, and ceramics. Business and industrial courses are the most popular, accounting for 72% of all students in full-time vocational programs in 1989.

Most upper-secondary teachers are university graduates. Uppersecondary schools are organized into departments, and teachers specialize in their major fields although they teach a variety of courses within their disciplines. Teaching depends largely on the lecture system, with the main goal of covering the very demanding curriculum in the time allotted. Approach and subject coverage tends to be uniform, at least in the public schools.

Training of disabled students, particularly at the uppersecondary level, emphasizes vocational education to enable students to be as independent as possible within society.

Vocational training varies considerably depending on the student's disability, but the options are limited for some. It is clear that the government is aware of the necessity of broadening the range of possibilities for these students. Advancement to higher education is also a goal of the government, and it struggles to have institutions of higher learning accept more disabled students.

== Further and Higher education ==

After the Second World War, Japan has moved rapidly from an “elite” to a “mass” higher education system and the rapid expansion in both the number and the size of Japanese universities has also witnessed the introduction of a trend towards more “vocational” degree programmes - i.e. ones which offer more of a fit-for-purpose licence to engage in professional practice. Thus the expansion of tertiary education has
been accompanied by increasing diversity in the mission and purposes of tertiary institutions, both within and between those categories outlined above. The cultivation of such mission diversity is now a stated policy aim.

Interestingly, Japan has traditionally blurred the distinction between further and higher education, whilst retaining a degree of distinctiveness between vocational and academic programs and qualifications. This has favored the flourishing of the college sector, offering post-18 sub-bachelor qualification. Many junior colleges are vocationally-oriented but also with a strong liberal-arts component.

Tertiary Education in Japan comprises the following

* Universities have as their aim to conduct teaching and research in depth in specialised academic subjects, to operate as “centres of learning” and to “develop intellectual, moral and practical abilities”.
* Junior colleges “cultivate such abilities as are required in vocation or practical life”, typically offering two-year sub-degree qualifications within a baccalaureate four-year bachelor’s degree framework. There are typically progression opportunities to
university programmes. The School Education Act was partially amended in 2005, and associate degrees came to be awarded to graduates of Japanese junior colleges.
* Colleges of technology, or kosen are institutions offering high-level vocational qualifications through teaching and related research. They are organized through the Institute of National Colleges of Technology and offer vocational education for those between the ages of 15 and 20, with the possibility of “topping-up” to a full degree
* Professional training colleges offer practical vocational and specialized technical education aiming to foster abilities required for vocational or daily life, or provide general education.
* Graduate schools conduct academic research, in particular basic research, and train researchers and professionals with advanced skills.
* Professional graduate schools are oriented towards high-level graduate entry to key professions - for example, law, business studies, etc.

Number of Tertiary education institutions [[Image:Tabella.png|200px|frame|left|Source: OECD]]

=== Universities in Japan ===

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_education_in_Japan - which may not be up to date)

 

==== University Entrance ====

College entrance is based largely on the scores that students achieved in entrance examinations (''nyūgaku shiken or 入学試験''). With exceptions, the public national universities are the most highly regarded. This distinction had its origins in historical factors -- the long years of dominance of the select imperial universities, such as Tokyo and Kyoto universities, which trained Japan's leaders before the war -- and in differences in quality, particularly in government subsidy. In addition, certain prestigious employers, notably the government and select large corporations, continue to restrict their hiring of new employees to graduates of the most esteemed universities. There is a close link between university background and employment opportunity;however, this has started to change because of the urgent need to cope with ever accelerating globalization and internationalization of its economy and social structure.

Students applying to national universities take two entrance examinations, first a nationally administered uniform achievement test and then an examination administered by the university that the student hopes to enter. Applicants to private universities need to take only the university's examination. Some national schools have so many applicants that they use the first test, the Joint First Stage Achievement Test, as a screening device for qualification to their own admissions test.

An unsuccessful student, who could not compete successfully for admission to the college of their choice, can either accept an admission elsewhere, forego a college education, or wait until the following spring to take the national examinations again. These students who chose the second option, called ''ronin　or 浪人,'' meaning masterless samurai, spend an entire year, and sometimes longer, studying for another attempt at the entrance examinations.

''Yobiko or 予備校'' are private schools that, like many ''juku or 塾'', help students prepare for entrance examinations. While yobiko have many programs for upper-secondary school students, they are best known for their specially designed full-time, year-long classes for ronin.

The number of applicants to four-year universities totaled almost 560,000 in 1988. Ronin accounted for about 40% of new entrants to four-year colleges in 1988. Most ronin were men, but about 14% were women. The ronin experience is so common in Japan that the Japanese education structure is often said to have an extra ronin year built into it. -- need update

Yobiko sponsor a variety of programs, both full-time and part-time, and employ an extremely sophisticated battery of tests, student counseling sessions, and examination analysis to supplement their classroom instruction. The cost of yobiko education is high, comparable to first-year university expenses, and some specialized courses at yobiko are even more expensive. Some yobiko publish modified commercial versions of the proprietary texts they use in their classrooms through publishing affiliates or by other means, and these are popular among the general population preparing for college entrance exams. Yobiko also administer practice examinations throughout the year, which they open to all students for a fee.

In the late 1980s, the examination and entrance process were the subjects of renewed debate. In 1987 the schedule of the Joint First Stage Achievement Test was changed, and the content of the examination itself was revised for 1990. The schedule changes for the first time provided some flexibility for students wishing to apply to more than one national university. The new Joint First Stage Achievement Test was prepared and administered by the National Center for University Entrance Examinations and was designed to accomplish better assessment of academic achievement. -- may remove

The Ministry of Education hoped many private schools would adopt or adapt the new national test to their own admissions requirements and thereby reduce or eliminate the university tests. But, by the time the new test was administered in 1990, few schools had displayed any inclination to do so. The ministry urged universities to increase the number of students admitted through alternate selection methods, including admission of students returning to Japan from long overseas stays, admission by recommendation, and admission of students who had graduated from upper-secondary schools more than a few years before. Although a number of schools had programs in place or reserved spaces for returning students, only 5% of university students were admitted under these alternate arrangements in the late 1980s. -- may remove

Other college entrance issues include proper guidance for college placement at the upper-secondary level and better dissemination of information about university programs. The ministry provides information through the National Center for University Entrance Examination's on-line information access system and encourages universities, faculties, and departments to prepare brochures and video presentations about their programs.

 

==== Types of Universities ====

As of 2011, more than 2.8 million students were enrolled in 780 universities. At the top of the higher education structure, these institutions provide four-year training leading to a bachelor's degree, and some offer six-year programs leading to a professional degree. There are two types of public four-year colleges: the eighty-six national universities and the nifty-five local public universities, founded by prefectures and municipalities. The 599 remaining four-year colleges in 2012 were private (including the Open University of Japan). ([[e-Stat]], 2012).

As of 2011, women accounted for about 41% of all university undergraduates. ([[e-Stat]], 2012). A growing percentage of students are progressing to universities from high schools: as of 2010, 57.8% out of all 18 year old advanced to schools in higher education (universities and colleges), among which 59.2% are males and 56.3% are females (MEXT, 2012) [http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/toukei/data/kokusai/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2012/02/13/1302640_2_1.pdf]. Therefore, higher education is no longer reserved only for men as it has been in the past.

The average annual school and living expenses (tuition fees and living costs) for a year of higher education in 2006 were about 1.9 million yen (US$19,000) for undergraduates ([[JASSO]], 2008)[http://www.jasso.go.jp/statistics/gakusei_chosa/data06.html]. To help defray expenses, students frequently work part-time or borrow money through the government-supported Japan Student Services Organization ([[JASSO]]). Assistance also is offered by local governments, nonprofit corporations, and other institutions.

The overwhelming majority of college students attend full-time day programmes. In 1990 the most popular courses, enrolling almost 40% of all undergraduate students, were in the social sciences, including business, law, and accounting. Other popular subjects were engineering (19%), the humanities (15%), and education (7%). ??? - information about HE is also quite old and misleading.

Women's choices of majors and programs of study still tend to follow traditional patterns, with more than two-thirds of all women enroll in education, social sciences, or humanities courses. Only 15% studied scientific and technical subjects, and women represented less than 3% of students in engineering, the most popular subject for men in 1991. ???

The quality of universities and higher education in Japan is internationally recognized. The two top-ranking universities in Japan are often said to be the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University. There are only 5 Japanese universities in the top 200 Times Higher Education Rankings (2011)[http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/top-400.html]; QS World University Rankings (2011) [http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/]
with the University of Tokyo 25th and Kyoto University 32nd.

For a full list, see the ''list of universities in Japan'' at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Japan

 

==== Postgraduate Education ====

Graduate schools became a part of the formal higher education system only after World War II.

As of 2012, among the 780 universities that offer undergraduate programmes, 617 offer graduate programs (582 offer only master's and 428 offer doctoral). 456 out of the 617 universities are private and the rest 161 are public schools ([[e-Stat]], 2012). The parity between public and private graduate enrollments are 44% (174,456 including 16,593 public) versus 56% (98,110) ([[e-Stat]], 2012).

As of 2012, 272,566 are enrolled in graduate programmes, among which 70% are males and 30% are females.

The average annual school and living expenses for a year in 2006 were about 1.75 million yen (US$17,500) for masters' and 2.08 million yen (US$20,800) for doctoral ([[JASSO]], 2008).

Graduate education is largely a male preserve, and women, particularly at the master's level, are most heavily represented in the humanities, social sciences, and education. Men are frequently found in engineering programs where, at the master's level, women comprise only 2% of the students. At the doctoral level, the two highest levels of female enrollment are found in medical programmes and the humanities, where in both fields 30% of doctoral students are women. Women account for about 13% of all doctoral enrollments. ???

Even though 60% of all universities have graduate schools, only 7% of university graduates advance to master's programs, and total graduate school enrollment is about 4% of the entire university student population. ???

The pattern of graduate enrollment is almost the opposite of that of undergraduates: the majority (63%) of all graduate students are enrolled in the national universities, and it appears that the disparity between public and private graduate enrollments is widening. ???

The generally small numbers of graduate students and the graduate enrollment profile results from a number of factors, especially the traditional employment pattern of industry. The private sector frequently prefer to hire and train new university graduates, allowing them to develop their research skills within the corporate structure. Thus, the demand for students with advanced degrees is low. ???

 

=== Two year colleges ===

==== Junior Colleges ====

Junior colleges - mainly private institutions - are a legacy of the occupation period; many had been prewar institutions upgraded to college status at that time. More than 90% of the students in junior colleges are women, and higher education for women is still largely perceived as preparation for marriage or for a short-term career before marriage. Junior colleges provide many women with social credentials as well as education and some career opportunities. These colleges frequently emphasize home economics, nursing, teaching, the humanities, and social sciences in their curricula.

Don't understand what's written for polytechnics and junior colleges here.

 

==== Special Training Schools ====

Advanced courses in special training schools require uppersecondary-school completion. These schools offer training in specific skills, such as computer science and vocational training, and they enroll a large number of men. Some students attend these schools in addition to attending a university; others go to qualify for technical licenses or professional certification. The prestige of special training schools is lower than that of universities, but graduates, particularly in technical areas, are readily absorbed by the job market.

 

==== Miscellaneous Schools ====

In 1991 there were about 3,400 predominantly private "miscellaneous schools," whose attendance did not require uppersecondary school graduation. Miscellaneous schools offer a variety of courses in such programs as medical treatment, education, social welfare, and hygiene, diversifying practical postsecondary training and responding to social and economic demands for certain skills.

 

=== Technical colleges in Japan ===

Most colleges of technology are national institutions established to train highly skilled technicians in five-year programs in a number of fields, including the merchant marine.

Sixty-two technical colleges have been operating since the early 1960s. About 10% of college graduates transfer to universities as third-year students, and some universities, notably the University of Tokyo and the Tokyo Institute of Technology, earmarked entrance places for these transfer students in the 1980s.

These colleges are unique in that they accept students after three years of secondary school (grade 9 in the North American system or year 10 in the British system). The five year programme includes a general education programme at the beginning and then becomes increasingly specialized.

A recent white paper (need reference) from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology indicated that the colleges of technology are leaders in the use of internships, with more than 90% of institutions offering this opportunity compared to 46% of universities and 24% of junior colleges.

For more details see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colleges_of_Technology_(Japan)

== Education reform ==

=== Schools ===

In November 2004, MEXT announced a new reform plan titled “Japan! Rise again!” Among the major proposals included in this plan were the development of a new national assessment system; improving teacher quality through the establishment of professional graduate schools and a teacher qualification renewal system; board of education and school reform; and an overhaul of the funding system for compulsory education, so that local governments will be able to enact necessary educational initiatives without major budgetary concerns.
Since this plan was announced, MEXT has introduced one of its planned initiatives almost every year. In 2007, Japan piloted a National Assessment of Academic Ability in mathematics and Japanese for students in grades 6 and 9. In 2008 and 2009, MEXT published a revised version of the national curriculum for primary through upper secondary school, including special education. This new curriculum places increased emphasis on Japanese, social studies, mathematics, science and foreign languages, with the hope that students will develop “thinking capacity, decisiveness and expressiveness” alongside content knowledge. The challenge to maintain traditional high academic performance while enhancing expression, creativity and joyful learning is one which in the last decade seem to have affected the Japanese education system, with several reforms undertaken in the field. An interesting discussion is offered on the point at http://asiasociety.org/education/learning-world/japan-recent-trends-education-reform
In 2009, MEXT implemented a new system requiring educators to renew education personnel certificates every ten years, contingent on up-to-date professional development and skills. This complemented a 2008 initiative that required prefectural boards of education to provide extra training to struggling teachers. Currently, MEXT is working on revising standards in university teacher training programs, promoting career education and enhancing counseling in schools, and using school evaluations to target areas for improvement in school management.

=== Post-secondary ===

== Higher education reform ==

=== The Bologna Process ===

=== National University Corporation ===

Restructuring of national universities in 2009

== Administration and finance ==

=== Schools ===

==== administration ====
In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) sets policy and curriculum, establishes national standards, sets teacher and administrator pay scales and creates supervisory organizations. MEXT also allocates funding to prefectural and municipal authorities for schools. Local governments are responsible for the supervision of schools, special programs, school budgets and hiring personnel.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), in conjunction with university professors and the Central Council for Education, establishes broad guidelines for the content of each school subject from pre-school education through senior high school. The central government determines fundamental standards for schools to formulate their education curricula. In accordance with this, each school has been organizing and implementing its own distinctive curricula, taking into consideration the condition of the local community and school itself, the stages of mental and physical growth and the characters of children, pupils or students. Ministry specialists prepare teacher guidebooks in each subject with input from experienced teachers. All schools use the same texts, though how a text is taught is teacher-dependent.
At the prefectural level, there is a board of education comprised of five governor-appointed members; this board is responsible for several activities, including appointing teachers to primary and lower secondary schools, funding municipalities, appointing the superintendent of education at the prefectural level, and operating upper secondary schools.
Within the municipalities, there are boards of education appointed by the mayor. These boards are responsible for making recommendations on teacher appointments to the prefectural board of education, choosing textbooks from the MEXT-approved list, conducting in-service teacher and staff professional development, and overseeing the day-to-day operations of primary and lower secondary schools. In the schools, principals are the school leaders, and determine the school schedule, manage the teachers, and take on other management roles as needed. Teachers are responsible for determining how to teach the curriculum and for creating lesson plans, as well as being in contact with parents.

==== finance ====

Public schools are funded by a combination of support from the national, municipal and prefectural governments. Public upper secondary school did require tuition, but in March 2010, the government passed a measure intended to abolish these fees. Now, schools receive enrollment support funds that they apply to the cost of their students’ tuition which equals about $100 a month, per student. However, if these funds are not sufficient, the students must make up the difference. If students come from a low-income household, the government provides further subsidies of up to $200 a month.
Private schools also receive a great deal of public funding, with the Japanese government paying 50% of private school teachers’ salaries. Other forms of funding are capital grants, which go to private schools for specific costs, including new buildings and equipment. While private schools are considered to be more competitive and prestigious than public schools, public schools still account for 99% of primary schools and 94% of lower secondary schools. There are many more private upper secondary schools, however; 23% of upper secondary schools are classified as private.
In 2008, Japan spent 4.9% of its GDP on education – lower than the OECD average of 5.9%. However, Japan spends $9,673 per student, higher than the OECD average of $8,831.

=== Post-secondary ===

Significantly over 90% of Junior colleges and professional training colleges in Japan are private institutions (as much as a large proportion of universities). The large presence of private sectors in tertiary education partially explains also the very low level of government funding and strong private financial support. An remarkable exception is that of Kosen: 87.3% of institutions and 87.5% of students there are publicly funded, national institutions organized through the Institutes of National Colleges of Technology

=== Higher Education ===

== Quality assurance, inspection and accreditation ==

=== Schools ===

Schools are evaluated and inspected by municipal and prefectural board of education supervisors, who are expected to provide external guidance on school management, curriculum and teaching. Typically, these board of education supervisors are former teachers and administrators.
As of 2009, teachers are also required to renew their education personnel certificates every 10 years, after undergoing professional development to ensure that their skills and knowledge are up to date. This new system ensures ongoing professional development, and also provides schools with the ability to remove teachers who are not willing to upgrade or renew their certifications.
A final accountability measure is the newly introduced National Assessment of Academic Ability, a set of examinations in Japanese and mathematics for students in grades six and nine that began in 2007. The results of these examinations are used by schools and prefectures to plan and make policy decisions.

=== Post-secondary === 

 

=== Higher Education ===

== Information society ==

=== Towards the information society ===

=== Information society strategy ===

== E-learning and ICT implementation in education ==

The most recent as well as comprehensive research report [http://www.code.ouj.ac.jp/wp-content/uploads/ICT-2011.pdf] regarding the e-learning and ICT implementation in Japanese higher education is provided by CODE commissioned by MEXT made 2010-2011, covering the total number of 1,202 responded institutions in higher education, including universities, junior colleges, and technical colleges.

What is remarkable is that the average of 35.7% higher institutions (national:35.8%; public 35.3%, private: 32.2%) answered that they exercised some sort of internet-based distance learning (p.134).

Besides, the average of 16.0% (433 divisions) answered that they provide full-online course delivery (national: 20.8%, public: 17.6%, private: 14.2%) (p.133).

== Distance learning ==

=== Distance learning in secondary education ===

=== Distance learning in higher education ===

As of 2012, with the approval of the Distance Education Universities Law ([[e-Gov]]), 27 undergraduate, 10 graduate, and 17 undergraduate-graduate institutions and 11 distance education junior colleges are authorized to provide distance learning programs. Distance education higher institutions are run privately (100%) and most are dual-mode (89%), although this could change over time. ([[e-Stat]], 2012).

Currently seven universities are single mode and focus exclusively on distance education. Three of these offer only undergraduate programs, one offers only graduate programs, two offer both undergraduate and graduate programs, and one is a junior college; all of these universities show a high e-learning orientation , presumably a natural consequence of not having campus-based students ([[Miyazoe]] & [[Anderson]], 2012).

The number of undergraduates is 217,236 (or 7.8 % out of the total undergraduate students), and the number of graduate students is 8,241 (or 2.9%) ([[e-Stat]], 2012).

 

=== Open University ===

==== The Open University of Japan ====

The [[Open University of Japan]], formerly the [[University of the Air]] ([[Hoso Daigaku]]), is the largest distance learning institution of higher education, with about 85,000 enrollments (among which about 80,000 are undergraduates and 5,000 are graduates) in 2012 [http://www.ouj.ac.jp/hp/gaiyo/gaiyo09.html#zaigaku].

A particularity of distance learning program of OUJ lies in its providing courses in both face-to-face and distance modes. Many of the courses are offered as video lectures (TV and Internet) as well as face-to-face class meetings (weekly or intensively). Though it is the most obvious candidate to develop e-learning, it is slow in responding to the new environment.

In conjunction with the re-structuring of NIME and its graduate programs ([[Sogo Kenkyu Daigakuin]]), now merged into OUJ, master's level graduate programs were re-organized in 2009. New courses of e-learning and information management were further open in 2012 April.

==== CODE ====

The [[National Institute of Multimedia Education]] ([[NIME]]) started off life as an inter-university research institute and had many similarities to national iniatitives such as [[SURF]] and [[Norway Opening Universities]].

In April 2004, NIME ceased to be an inter-university research institute and became an independent administrative institution. While this organizational change was not without a degree of confusion, NIME was evaluated for the first time in 2005, earning considerable praise for the way it had managed to continue with its original work and at the same time launch some new activities.

NIME ended in 2009 and its work was transferred to CODE [http://www.code.ouj.ac.jp/] (Center of ICT and Distance Education), a research center of the Open University of Japan.
 

=== New attempts of traditional universities ===

Past attempts by Japanese universities to offer Internet-based classes have been of an experimental nature, with the main objective being limited to the advertisement of the universities concerned. Since the change in the regulations in 2001, there have been more serious attempts to set up e-learning courses including at some top-ranking universities. Two such examples among the national universities are [[Tohoku University]] in the Miyagi prefecture and [[Shinshu University]] in Nagano. Tohoku University’s plan is a very bold and comprehensive one, while Shinshu University’s programme is far more grounded and has already made some concrete progress.

Two top private universities, namely [[Keio University]] and [[Waseda University]], both have solid track records in experimentation with e-learning and are also each actively planning to open an Internet school in the near future. Keio has a distance education course; Waseda has night schools that already offer about 30 on-demand video streaming lectures on the Internet. Among the CEO judged awards, Keio won four awards, Waseda five, and Ritsumeikan three.

 

==== Kumamoto University ====

 

==== Tohoku University ====

The university was the first to start comprehensive and virtual graduate programmes in Japan, in an ambitious programme called the Internet School of Tohoku University (ISTU). The programme envisages a full-fledged graduate school covering political science, literature, economics, law, engineering, international relations, medicine, pharmacology, dentistry, and education. It plans to set up satellite campuses in Japan and also to seek affiliation with universities overseas. The initial offerings will be limited to the engineering divisions. An intermediate goal is to have 40% of all courses on campus on the Internet by the year 2007. In 2002, the university concurrently set up a new department called Education Informatics that will support the operation of the ISTU.

 

==== Shinshu University ====

Starting in April 2002, the university opened an e-learning graduate course on information technology leading to a doctoral degree. (See http://cai.cs.shinshu-u.ac.jp/sugsi/Nyushi/sugsi/sugsi-press.html.) There were more than 1000 inquiries after the announcement and now there are 81 students enrolled – with 80% of them holding full time jobs. The digital content is open to the public and fully accessible, including the interactive programmes. They accepted the first batch of students while the contents were not ready, but the production is in progress at a fairly good pace. (See http://server1.int-univ.com/CaiSupport/)

 

==== Waseda University ====

Waseda has been experimenting with an international collaboration in the use of a video conferencing system, called Cross Cultural Distance Learning (CCDL), which has a membership of 21 universities from 21 countries, including the Universities of Edinburgh and Essex. (See https://ccdlsrv.project.mnc.waseda.ac.jp/ccdl/index.asp.) CCDL is a part of a broader Waseda programme, called Digital Campus Consortium. It has also set up a subsidiary company called Waseda Learning Square to provide life-long learning courses. While its overall reputation trailed behind Keio for some time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, today it has re-established its brand with a wide range of initiatives from new professional graduate schools to new campus plans.

 

==== Keio University ====

Keio is advanced in its use of the Internet and its applications. In 1990, it opened its Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC), which received wide and positive publicity for its innovative undergraduate and graduate education; this fosters individual creativity while establishing IT as an integral element of education. Celebrated as one of the most significant higher education innovations, the SFC attracted top-calibre students and established its name not only in the IT world but also in other policy fields. Prior to SFC, Keio had established the WIDE Project in 1988, with a consortium of over 100 universities and corporations, which in turn spun off the first Internet provider in Japan, Internet Initiative (IIJ). WIDE is now responsible for the operation of a DNS server and is also experimenting with IPv6. Another programme under WIDE is the School of the Internet (SOI), which is experimenting in e-learning with six participating universities, including the University of Tokyo and Chiba Commerce University. The programme records live lectures that are later put on the Internet; an interesting feature is that students’ work is left on the Internet for mutual evaluation.

 

=== Innovative Universities ===

==== Sanno University ====

Sanno (The University of Industrial Productivity) launched several courses in business-related skills such as accounting, though their delivery is limited to fairly conventional access to video with limited interactivity.

 

==== Ritsumeikan University ====

Ritsumeikan is another well-respected private university that has established its repu-tation on the basis of its innovative reform measures in the 90s. It is well known, but had always been considered as the least desirable of the six best private schools in the Kansai area (of Western Japan close to Osaka). Under the strong leadership of its chairman, who used to be a non-faculty administrator within the university, it opened its Kusatsu Campus, which is now well-known for its forward thinking in educational content; it has been launching all initiatives from IT education, outsourcing in order to develop creative linkages with local industry. While Ritsumeikan has no specific plan for e-learning, it has the management style and ability to move quickly, unlike many other universities. -- am not sure if it's right to list here ???

 

==== Other institutions ====

For more details see the report ''The e-University and Potential Markets in Japan'' at http://www.matic-media.co.uk/ukeu/UKEU-r05-japan-2005.doc for information.

 

=== JOCW ===

 

== National initiatives - [[MEXT]] ==

(sourced from http://www.nime.ac.jp/reports/004/pdf/report2006.pdf)

In recent years, changes in the environment surrounding higher education and the progress of ICT

have led to an increasing need for education that is effective, efficient, and based on the demands for the greater sophistication and diversification of educational content. Education using ICT and elearning are increasingly being introduced as methods to meet these needs, and their promotion is seen as an important issue in government policy.

The New IT Reform Strategy by the Government (January 2006) and the Priority Policy Program 2006 (July 2006), formulated by the government’s Strategic Headquarters for the Advanced Information and Telecommunications Network Society (IT Strategic Headquarters), state that the government will:

:aim to increase by more than double the ratio of undergraduate faculties and graduate schools which implement e-learning education or distance learning using the Internet, improve cooperation between domestic/international universities and companies as well as promote the further education of members of society through the promotion of e-learning education programs using the Internet at universities, etc.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology ([[MEXT]]) has been conducting its Support Program for Contemporary Educational Needs, since 2004. Under this program, the theme of the development of e-learning programs for fostering human resources in line with needs was suggested, and education using ICT and e-learning are being promoted. By this promotion theme of the Ministry, 13 universities or colleges of technology were selected for financially support to develop e-learning courses in 2006. Responding to this state of affairs, our research, which was conducted in collaboration with MEXT, offers an analysis of the current state of education using ICT at Japan’s higher education institutions and the inherent issues, and also aims to provide some basic data and information to address policy issues surrounding higher education and IT strategy

 

== References ==

[http://www.nime.ac.jp/reports/004/ Report on education using ICT including e-Learning, 2006] (for tertiary education in Japan)

 

{{Reflist}}

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[[Countries]]

 

[[Main Page]]

[[Category:Japan]] [[Category:Asia]] [[Category:OECD]] [[Category:G8_countries]] [[Category:G-20_countries]] [[Category:Countries_with_Programmes]]

[[Category:VISCED]]

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Japan

2012-07-16T15:46:53Z

Daniela Proli: /* Further and Higher education */

''by [[Paul Bacsich]] ([[Sero]]), [[Gertjan]] ([[ATiT]]) and [[Daniela Proli]] ([[SCIENTER]]) with advice from colleagues at [[NIME]] and the [[Open University of Japan]]''

For entities in Japan see [[:Category:Japan]]

== Partners and experts in Japan ==

There is no partner in Japan for Re.ViCa, VISCED or POERUP.

Experts in virtual initiatives in Japan include (in alphabetical order):

Dr. Kumiko Aoki ([[Open University of Japan]]): e-learning and ICT 
Dr. Insung Jung ([[International Christian University]]): quality assurance (QA) 
Dr. Katsuaki Suzuki ([[Kumamoto University]]): instructional design (ID) 

and Dr. [[Terumi Miyazoe]], their developing successor (Tokyo Denki University http://atom.dendai.ac.jp/): e-learning and distance eduction (DE), who worked primarily on the contributions of 2011, 2012 year information.

== Japan in a nutshell ==

(sourced from Wikipedia)

''Japan'' (日本 '''Nihon''' or '''Nippon?''', officially 日本国 '''Nippon-koku?·i''' or '''Nihon-koku''') is an island country in [[East Asia]]. Located in the [[Pacific Ocean]], it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of [[China]], [[North Korea]], [[South Korea]] and [[Russia]], stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters which make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin country", which is why Japan is sometimes identified as the "Land of the Rising Sun".

[[Image:Japan.gif|right|thumb|400px|Source : http://www.cia.gov]]

Japan comprises over 3,000 islands making it an archipelago. The largest islands are Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku, together accounting for 97% of Japan's land area. Most of the islands are mountainous, many volcanic; for example, Japan’s highest peak, Mount Fuji, is a volcano. Japan has the world's tenth largest population, with about 128 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.

A major economic power, Japan has the world's second largest economy by nominal GDP and the third largest in purchasing power parity. It is a member of the United Nations, G8, G4, [[OECD]] and APEC, with the world's fifth largest defense budget. It is also the world's fourth largest exporter and sixth largest importer. It is a developed country with high living standards (8th highest HDI) and a world leader in technology, machinery, and robotics.

The English word Japan is an exonym. The Japanese names for Japan are Nippon (にっぽん) and Nihon (にほん). They are both written in Japanese using the kanji 日本. The Japanese name Nippon is used for most official purposes, including on Japanese money, postage stamps, and for many international sporting events. Nihon is a more casual term and the most frequently used in contemporary speech.

Both Nippon and Nihon literally mean "the sun's origin" and are often translated as the Land of the Rising Sun. This nomenclature comes from Imperial correspondence with Chinese Sui Dynasty and refers to Japan's eastward position relative to China. Before Japan had relations with China, it was known as Yamato and Hi no moto, which means "source of the sun".

Japan is a constitutional monarchy where the power of the Emperor is very limited. As a ceremonial figurehead, he is defined by the constitution as "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people". Power is held chiefly by the Prime Minister of Japan and other elected members of the Diet, while sovereignty is vested in the Japanese people. The Emperor effectively acts as the head of state on diplomatic occasions. Akihito is the current Emperor of Japan. Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan, stands as next in line to the throne.

Japan's legislative organ is the National Diet, a bicameral parliament. The Diet consists of a House of Representatives, containing 480 seats, elected by popular vote every four years or when dissolved and a House of Councillors of 242 seats, whose popularly-elected members serve six-year terms. There is universal suffrage for adults over 20 years of age, with a secret ballot for all elective offices.

The Prime Minister of Japan is the head of government. The position is appointed by the Emperor of Japan after being designated by the Diet from among its members and must enjoy the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office. The Prime Minister is the head of the Cabinet (the literal translation of his Japanese title is "Prime Minister of the Cabinet") and appoints and dismisses the Ministers of State, a majority of whom must be Diet members.

While there exist eight commonly defined regions of Japan, administratively Japan consists of forty-seven prefectures, each overseen by an elected governor, legislature and administrative bureaucracy. The former city of Tokyo is further divided into twenty-three special wards, each with the same powers as cities.

The nation is currently undergoing administrative reorganization by merging many of the cities, towns and villages with each other. This process will reduce the number of sub-prefecture administrative regions and is expected to cut administrative costs.

Japan has dozens of major cities, which play an important role in Japan's culture, heritage and economy.

Japan's population is estimated at just over 127 million. For the most part, Japanese society is linguistically and culturally homogeneous with small populations of foreign workers, Zainichi Koreans, Zainichi Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese Brazilians and others. The most dominant native ethnic group is the Yamato people; the primary minority groups include the indigenous Ainu and Ryukyuan, as well as social minority groups like the burakumin.

Japan has one of the highest life expectancy rates in the world, at 81.25 years of age as of 2006. The Japanese population is rapidly aging, the effect of a post-war baby boom followed by a decrease in births in the latter part of the twentieth century. In 2004, about 19.5% of the population was over the age of 65.

The changes in the demographic structure have created a number of social issues, particularly a potential decline in the workforce population and increases in the cost of social security benefits such as the public pension plan. Many Japanese youth are increasingly preferring not to marry or have families as adults. Japan's population is expected to drop to 100 million by 2050 and to 64 million by 2100. Demographers and government planners are currently in a heated debate over how to cope with this problem. Immigration and birth incentives are sometimes suggested as a solution to provide younger workers to support the nation's aging population. The highest estimates for the amount of Buddhists and Shintoists in Japan is 84-96%, representing a large number of believers in a syncretism of both religions. However, these estimates are based on people with an association with a temple, rather than the number of people truly following the religion. Professor Robert Kisala (Nanzan University) suggests that only 30 percent of the population identify themselves as belonging to a religion.

Taoism and Confucianism from China have also influenced Japanese beliefs and customs. Religion in Japan tends to be syncretic in nature, and this results in a variety of practices, such as parents and children celebrating Shinto rituals, students praying before exams, couples holding a wedding at a Christian church and funerals being held at Buddhist temples. A minority (2,595,397, or 2.04%) profess to Christianity.[90] In addition, since the mid-19th century, numerous religious sects (Shinshūkyō) have emerged in Japan, such as Tenrikyo and Aum Shinrikyo (or Aleph).

About 99% of the population speaks Japanese as their first language. It is an agglutinative language distinguished by a system of honorifics reflecting the hierarchical nature of Japanese society, with verb forms and particular vocabulary which indicate the relative status of speaker and listener. According to a Japanese dictionary Shinsen-kokugojiten, Chinese-based words comprise 49.1% of the total vocabulary, indigenous words are 33.8% and other loanwords are 8.8%. The writing system uses kanji (Chinese characters) and two sets of kana (syllabaries based on simplified Chinese characters), as well as the Latin alphabet and Arabic numerals. The Ryukyuan languages, also part of the Japonic language family to which Japanese belongs, are spoken in Okinawa, but few children learn these languages. The Ainu language is moribund, with only a few elderly native speakers remaining in Hokkaidō. Most public and private schools require students to take courses in both Japanese and English.

== Education in Japan ==

=== Policy ===

Primary, secondary schools and universities were introduced into Japan in 1872 as a result of the Meiji Restoration. Since 1947, compulsory education in Japan consists of elementary school and middle school, which lasts for nine years (from age 6 to age 15). Almost all children continue their education at a three-year senior high school, and, according to the Ministry, about 75.9% of high school graduates attend a university, junior college, trade school, or other post-secondary institution in 2005.

Japan's education is very competitive, especially for entrance to institutions of higher education. Anyone can enter one nowadays.

The two top-ranking universities in Japan are the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University. The Programme for International Student Assessment coordinated by the OECD, currently ranks Japanese knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds as the 6th best in the world.

I would remove this section as the information is not about policy as it is.

 

=== Japan education system ===

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Japan)

After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the methods and structures of Western learning were adopted as a means to make Japan a strong, modern nation. Students and even high-ranking government officials were sent abroad to study, such as the Iwakura mission. Foreign scholars, the so-called o-yatoi gaikokujin, were invited to teach at newly founded universities and military academies. Compulsory education was introduced, mainly after the Prussian model. By 1890, only 20 years after the resumption of full international relations, Japan discontinued employment of the foreign consultants.

The rise of militarism led to the use of the education system to prepare the nation for war. The military even sent its own instructors to schools. After the defeat in World War II, the allied occupation government set an education reform as one of its primary goals, to eradicate militarist teachings and "democratize" Japan. The education system was rebuilt after the American model.

The end of the 1960s were a time of student protests around the world, and also in Japan. The main subject of protest was the Japan-U.S. security treaty. A number of reforms were carried out in the post-war period until today. They aimed at easing the burden of entrance examinations, promoting internationalization and information technologies, diversifying education and supporting lifelong learning.

(sourced from http://www.ncee.org/programs-affiliates/center-on-international-education-benchmarking/top-performing-countries/japan-overview/japan-instructional-systems/)

In Japan education is compulsory for nine years, including '''primary school''' (six years) and '''lower secondary school''' (three years). Pupils can attend three years of non-compulsory kindergarten.

Students who have completed lower secondary school, at about age sixteen, may choose to apply to''' upper secondary school''', lasting three years.

There are three types of upper secondary schools in Japan:

* '''senior high schools'''. Senior high schools provide general, specialized and integrated courses. General courses are intended for students who hope to attend university, or for students who wish to seek employment after high school but have no particular vocational preference. Specialized courses are for students who have selected a particular vocational area of interest. Integrated courses allow a student to choose electives from both the general and specialized tracks.
Senior high school can be full-time, part-time or correspondence.

* '''Colleges of technology''' (''Kosen'' colleges) typically offer a five-year program in different occupational areas. Students can also choose to complete upper secondary vocational education after three years and go directly to the workplace. Upon graduation, a student who completes five years of technology college is considered an “associate” in his or her field.

* '''special training colleges''' for lower secondary graduates: special training colleges have been created in Japan in 1976, offering vocational and specialized technical education aiming at fostering abilities required for vocational or daily life or provide general education. Some special training colleges address people with lower secondary education, whereas two other categories are for people with upper secondary education Special training colleges offer vocational and technical education in a variety of degree programs, typically through the bachelor’s or master’s level) or for people without any academic background.

Admission into senior high schools is extremely competitive, and in addition to entrance examinations, the student’s academic work, behavior and attitude, and record of participation in the community is also taken into account. Senior high schools are ranked in each locality, and Japanese students consider the senior high school where they matriculate to be a determining factor in later success. Following senior high school, a Japanese student’s future is dependent on their score on the national achievement exam, as well as their performance on the individual exams administered by each university.

Colleges of technology require their own set of entrance exams, while special training colleges do not. After three years in a special training college, students may apply to enter a college of technology. These students are eligible for higher education after completing an upper secondary course of two to three years.

 

== Schools in Japan ==

=== Kindergarten and Nursery school ===

Early childhood education begins at home, and there are numerous books and television shows aimed at helping mothers of pre-school children to educate their children and to "parent" more effectively. Much of the home training is devoted to teaching manners, proper social behavior, and structured play, although verbal and number skills are also popular themes. Parents are strongly committed to early education and frequently enroll their children in preschools.

Kindergartens (yochien 幼稚園), predominantly staffed by young female junior college graduates, are supervised by the Ministry of Education, but are not part of the official education system. The 58% of kindergartens that are private accounted for 77% of all children enrolled. In addition to kindergartens there exists a well-developed system of government-supervised day-care centers (hoikuen 保育園), supervised by the Ministry of Labor. Where as kindergartens follow educational aims, preschools are predominately concerned with providing care for infants and toddlers. Same as kindergartens there are public or privately run preschools. Together, these two kinds of institutions enroll well over 90% of all preschoolage children prior to their entrance into the formal system at first grade. The Ministry of Education's 1990 Course of Study for Preschools, which applies to both kinds of institutions, covers such areas as human relationships, environment, words (language), and expression. Starting from March 2008 the new revision of curriculum guidelines for kindergartens as well as for preschools came into effect.

 

=== Elementary school ===

More than 99% of children are enrolled in elementary school. All children enter first grade at age six, and starting school is considered a very important event in a child's life.

Virtually all elementary education takes place in public schools; less than 1% of the schools are private. Private schools tended to be costly, although the rate of cost increases in tuition for these schools had slowed in the 1980s. Some private elementary schools are prestigious, and they serve as a first step to higher-level private schools with which they are affiliated, and thence to a university.

 

=== Junior high school ===

Lower secondary school covers grades seven, eight, and nine, children between the ages of roughly 12 and 15, with increased focus on academic studies. Although it is still possible to leave the formal education system after completing lower secondary school and find employment, fewer than 4% did so by the late 1980s.

Like elementary schools, most lower-secondary schools in the 1980s were public, but 5% were private. Private schools were costly, averaging 558,592 yen (US$3,989) per student in 1988, about four times more than the 130,828 yen (US$934) that the ministry estimated as the cost for students enrolled in public lower secondary schools. Teachers often majored in the subjects they taught, and more than 80% graduated from a four-year college. Classes are large, with thirty-eight students per class on average, and each class is assigned a homeroom teacher who doubles as counselor. Unlike elementary students, lower-secondary school students have different teachers for different subjects. The teacher, however, rather than the students, moves to a new room for each fifty-minute period.

Instruction in lower-secondary schools tends to rely on the lecture method. Teachers also use other media, such as television and radio, and there is some laboratory work. By 1989 about 45% of all public lower secondary schools had computers, including schools that used them only for administrative purposes. Classroom organization is still based on small work groups, although no longer for reasons of discipline.

All course contents are specified in the Course of Study for Lower-Secondary Schools. Some subjects, such as Japanese language and mathematics, are coordinated with the elementary curriculum. Others, such as foreign-language study, usually English, begin at this level. The curriculum covers Japanese language, social studies, mathematics, science, music, fine arts, health, and physical education. All students also are exposed to either industrial arts or homemaking. Moral education and special activities continue to receive attention. Many students also participate in after-school sport clubs that occupy them until around 6pm most weekdays.

A growing number of JHS students also attend Juku, private extracurricular study schools, in the evenings and weekends. A focus by students upon these other studies and the increasingly structured demands upon students' time have been criticized by teachers and in the media for contributing to a decline in classroom standards and student performance in recent years.

The ministry recognizes a need to improve the teaching of all foreign languages, especially English. To improve instruction in spoken English, the government invites many young native speakers of English to Japan to serve as assistants to school boards and prefectures under its Japan Exchange and Teaching Program. By 1988 participants numbered over 1,000. This program seems to be being phased out in many areas where the supply of foreign native speakers facilitates their employment through less expensive private agencies.

 

=== (Senior) High school ===

Even though upper secondary school is not compulsory in Japan, 99% of all lower secondary school graduates entered upper secondary schools as of 2005. Private upper-secondary schools account for about 55% of all upper-secondary schools, and neither public nor private schools are free . The Ministry of education estimated that annual family expenses for the education of a child in a public upper-secondary school were about 300,000 yen (US$2,142) in both 1980s and that private upper-secondary schools were about twice as expensive.

The most common type of upper-secondary schools has a fulltime, general program that offered academic courses for students preparing for higher education and also technical and vocational courses for students expecting to find employment after graduation. More than 70% of upper-secondary school students were enrolled in the general academic program in the late 1980s. A small number of schools offer part-time or evening courses or correspondence education.

The first-year programs for students in both academic and commercial courses are similar. They include basic academic courses, such as Japanese language, English, mathematics, and science. In upper-secondary school, differences in ability are first publicly acknowledged, and course content and course selection are far more individualized in the second year. However, there is a core of academic material throughout all programs.

Vocational-technical programs includes several hundred specialized courses, such as information processing, navigation, fish farming, business English, and ceramics. Business and industrial courses are the most popular, accounting for 72% of all students in full-time vocational programs in 1989.

Most upper-secondary teachers are university graduates. Uppersecondary schools are organized into departments, and teachers specialize in their major fields although they teach a variety of courses within their disciplines. Teaching depends largely on the lecture system, with the main goal of covering the very demanding curriculum in the time allotted. Approach and subject coverage tends to be uniform, at least in the public schools.

Training of disabled students, particularly at the uppersecondary level, emphasizes vocational education to enable students to be as independent as possible within society.

Vocational training varies considerably depending on the student's disability, but the options are limited for some. It is clear that the government is aware of the necessity of broadening the range of possibilities for these students. Advancement to higher education is also a goal of the government, and it struggles to have institutions of higher learning accept more disabled students.

== Further and Higher education ==

After the Second World War, Japan has moved rapidly from an “elite” to a “mass” higher education system and the rapid expansion in both the number and the size of Japanese universities has also witnessed the introduction of a trend towards more “vocational” degree programmes - i.e. ones which offer more of a fit-for-purpose licence to engage in professional practice. Thus the expansion of tertiary education has
been accompanied by increasing diversity in the mission and purposes of tertiary institutions, both within and between those categories outlined above. The cultivation of such mission diversity is now a stated policy aim.

Interestingly, Japan has traditionally blurred the distinction between further and higher education, whilst retaining a degree of distinctiveness between vocational and academic programs and qualifications. This has favored the flourishing of the college sector, offering post-18 sub-bachelor qualification. Many junior colleges are vocationally-oriented but also with a strong liberal-arts component.

Tertiary Education in Japan comprises the following

* Universities have as their aim to conduct teaching and research in depth in specialised academic subjects, to operate as “centres of learning” and to “develop intellectual, moral and practical abilities”.
* Junior colleges “cultivate such abilities as are required in vocation or practical life”, typically offering two-year sub-degree qualifications within a baccalaureate four-year bachelor’s degree framework. There are typically progression opportunities to
university programmes. The School Education Act was partially amended in 2005, and associate degrees came to be awarded to graduates of Japanese junior colleges.
* Colleges of technology, or kosen are institutions offering high-level vocational qualifications through teaching and related research. They are organized through the Institute of National Colleges of Technology and offer vocational education for those between the ages of 15 and 20, with the possibility of “topping-up” to a full degree
* Professional training colleges offer practical vocational and specialized technical education aiming to foster abilities required for vocational or daily life, or provide general education.
* Graduate schools conduct academic research, in particular basic research, and train researchers and professionals with advanced skills.
* Professional graduate schools are oriented towards high-level graduate entry to key professions - for example, law, business studies, etc.

Number of Tertiary education institutions [[Image:Tabella.png|200px|frame|left|alternative text such as the source]]

=== Universities in Japan ===

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_education_in_Japan - which may not be up to date)

 

==== University Entrance ====

College entrance is based largely on the scores that students achieved in entrance examinations (''nyūgaku shiken or 入学試験''). With exceptions, the public national universities are the most highly regarded. This distinction had its origins in historical factors -- the long years of dominance of the select imperial universities, such as Tokyo and Kyoto universities, which trained Japan's leaders before the war -- and in differences in quality, particularly in government subsidy. In addition, certain prestigious employers, notably the government and select large corporations, continue to restrict their hiring of new employees to graduates of the most esteemed universities. There is a close link between university background and employment opportunity;however, this has started to change because of the urgent need to cope with ever accelerating globalization and internationalization of its economy and social structure.

Students applying to national universities take two entrance examinations, first a nationally administered uniform achievement test and then an examination administered by the university that the student hopes to enter. Applicants to private universities need to take only the university's examination. Some national schools have so many applicants that they use the first test, the Joint First Stage Achievement Test, as a screening device for qualification to their own admissions test.

An unsuccessful student, who could not compete successfully for admission to the college of their choice, can either accept an admission elsewhere, forego a college education, or wait until the following spring to take the national examinations again. These students who chose the second option, called ''ronin　or 浪人,'' meaning masterless samurai, spend an entire year, and sometimes longer, studying for another attempt at the entrance examinations.

''Yobiko or 予備校'' are private schools that, like many ''juku or 塾'', help students prepare for entrance examinations. While yobiko have many programs for upper-secondary school students, they are best known for their specially designed full-time, year-long classes for ronin.

The number of applicants to four-year universities totaled almost 560,000 in 1988. Ronin accounted for about 40% of new entrants to four-year colleges in 1988. Most ronin were men, but about 14% were women. The ronin experience is so common in Japan that the Japanese education structure is often said to have an extra ronin year built into it. -- need update

Yobiko sponsor a variety of programs, both full-time and part-time, and employ an extremely sophisticated battery of tests, student counseling sessions, and examination analysis to supplement their classroom instruction. The cost of yobiko education is high, comparable to first-year university expenses, and some specialized courses at yobiko are even more expensive. Some yobiko publish modified commercial versions of the proprietary texts they use in their classrooms through publishing affiliates or by other means, and these are popular among the general population preparing for college entrance exams. Yobiko also administer practice examinations throughout the year, which they open to all students for a fee.

In the late 1980s, the examination and entrance process were the subjects of renewed debate. In 1987 the schedule of the Joint First Stage Achievement Test was changed, and the content of the examination itself was revised for 1990. The schedule changes for the first time provided some flexibility for students wishing to apply to more than one national university. The new Joint First Stage Achievement Test was prepared and administered by the National Center for University Entrance Examinations and was designed to accomplish better assessment of academic achievement. -- may remove

The Ministry of Education hoped many private schools would adopt or adapt the new national test to their own admissions requirements and thereby reduce or eliminate the university tests. But, by the time the new test was administered in 1990, few schools had displayed any inclination to do so. The ministry urged universities to increase the number of students admitted through alternate selection methods, including admission of students returning to Japan from long overseas stays, admission by recommendation, and admission of students who had graduated from upper-secondary schools more than a few years before. Although a number of schools had programs in place or reserved spaces for returning students, only 5% of university students were admitted under these alternate arrangements in the late 1980s. -- may remove

Other college entrance issues include proper guidance for college placement at the upper-secondary level and better dissemination of information about university programs. The ministry provides information through the National Center for University Entrance Examination's on-line information access system and encourages universities, faculties, and departments to prepare brochures and video presentations about their programs.

 

==== Types of Universities ====

As of 2011, more than 2.8 million students were enrolled in 780 universities. At the top of the higher education structure, these institutions provide four-year training leading to a bachelor's degree, and some offer six-year programs leading to a professional degree. There are two types of public four-year colleges: the eighty-six national universities and the nifty-five local public universities, founded by prefectures and municipalities. The 599 remaining four-year colleges in 2012 were private (including the Open University of Japan). ([[e-Stat]], 2012).

As of 2011, women accounted for about 41% of all university undergraduates. ([[e-Stat]], 2012). A growing percentage of students are progressing to universities from high schools: as of 2010, 57.8% out of all 18 year old advanced to schools in higher education (universities and colleges), among which 59.2% are males and 56.3% are females (MEXT, 2012) [http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/toukei/data/kokusai/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2012/02/13/1302640_2_1.pdf]. Therefore, higher education is no longer reserved only for men as it has been in the past.

The average annual school and living expenses (tuition fees and living costs) for a year of higher education in 2006 were about 1.9 million yen (US$19,000) for undergraduates ([[JASSO]], 2008)[http://www.jasso.go.jp/statistics/gakusei_chosa/data06.html]. To help defray expenses, students frequently work part-time or borrow money through the government-supported Japan Student Services Organization ([[JASSO]]). Assistance also is offered by local governments, nonprofit corporations, and other institutions.

The overwhelming majority of college students attend full-time day programmes. In 1990 the most popular courses, enrolling almost 40% of all undergraduate students, were in the social sciences, including business, law, and accounting. Other popular subjects were engineering (19%), the humanities (15%), and education (7%). ??? - information about HE is also quite old and misleading.

Women's choices of majors and programs of study still tend to follow traditional patterns, with more than two-thirds of all women enroll in education, social sciences, or humanities courses. Only 15% studied scientific and technical subjects, and women represented less than 3% of students in engineering, the most popular subject for men in 1991. ???

The quality of universities and higher education in Japan is internationally recognized. The two top-ranking universities in Japan are often said to be the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University. There are only 5 Japanese universities in the top 200 Times Higher Education Rankings (2011)[http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/top-400.html]; QS World University Rankings (2011) [http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/]
with the University of Tokyo 25th and Kyoto University 32nd.

For a full list, see the ''list of universities in Japan'' at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Japan

 

==== Postgraduate Education ====

Graduate schools became a part of the formal higher education system only after World War II.

As of 2012, among the 780 universities that offer undergraduate programmes, 617 offer graduate programs (582 offer only master's and 428 offer doctoral). 456 out of the 617 universities are private and the rest 161 are public schools ([[e-Stat]], 2012). The parity between public and private graduate enrollments are 44% (174,456 including 16,593 public) versus 56% (98,110) ([[e-Stat]], 2012).

As of 2012, 272,566 are enrolled in graduate programmes, among which 70% are males and 30% are females.

The average annual school and living expenses for a year in 2006 were about 1.75 million yen (US$17,500) for masters' and 2.08 million yen (US$20,800) for doctoral ([[JASSO]], 2008).

Graduate education is largely a male preserve, and women, particularly at the master's level, are most heavily represented in the humanities, social sciences, and education. Men are frequently found in engineering programs where, at the master's level, women comprise only 2% of the students. At the doctoral level, the two highest levels of female enrollment are found in medical programmes and the humanities, where in both fields 30% of doctoral students are women. Women account for about 13% of all doctoral enrollments. ???

Even though 60% of all universities have graduate schools, only 7% of university graduates advance to master's programs, and total graduate school enrollment is about 4% of the entire university student population. ???

The pattern of graduate enrollment is almost the opposite of that of undergraduates: the majority (63%) of all graduate students are enrolled in the national universities, and it appears that the disparity between public and private graduate enrollments is widening. ???

The generally small numbers of graduate students and the graduate enrollment profile results from a number of factors, especially the traditional employment pattern of industry. The private sector frequently prefer to hire and train new university graduates, allowing them to develop their research skills within the corporate structure. Thus, the demand for students with advanced degrees is low. ???

 

=== Two year colleges ===

==== Junior Colleges ====

Junior colleges - mainly private institutions - are a legacy of the occupation period; many had been prewar institutions upgraded to college status at that time. More than 90% of the students in junior colleges are women, and higher education for women is still largely perceived as preparation for marriage or for a short-term career before marriage. Junior colleges provide many women with social credentials as well as education and some career opportunities. These colleges frequently emphasize home economics, nursing, teaching, the humanities, and social sciences in their curricula.

Don't understand what's written for polytechnics and junior colleges here.

 

==== Special Training Schools ====

Advanced courses in special training schools require uppersecondary-school completion. These schools offer training in specific skills, such as computer science and vocational training, and they enroll a large number of men. Some students attend these schools in addition to attending a university; others go to qualify for technical licenses or professional certification. The prestige of special training schools is lower than that of universities, but graduates, particularly in technical areas, are readily absorbed by the job market.

 

==== Miscellaneous Schools ====

In 1991 there were about 3,400 predominantly private "miscellaneous schools," whose attendance did not require uppersecondary school graduation. Miscellaneous schools offer a variety of courses in such programs as medical treatment, education, social welfare, and hygiene, diversifying practical postsecondary training and responding to social and economic demands for certain skills.

 

=== Technical colleges in Japan ===

Most colleges of technology are national institutions established to train highly skilled technicians in five-year programs in a number of fields, including the merchant marine.

Sixty-two technical colleges have been operating since the early 1960s. About 10% of college graduates transfer to universities as third-year students, and some universities, notably the University of Tokyo and the Tokyo Institute of Technology, earmarked entrance places for these transfer students in the 1980s.

These colleges are unique in that they accept students after three years of secondary school (grade 9 in the North American system or year 10 in the British system). The five year programme includes a general education programme at the beginning and then becomes increasingly specialized.

A recent white paper (need reference) from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology indicated that the colleges of technology are leaders in the use of internships, with more than 90% of institutions offering this opportunity compared to 46% of universities and 24% of junior colleges.

For more details see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colleges_of_Technology_(Japan)

== Education reform ==

=== Schools ===

In November 2004, MEXT announced a new reform plan titled “Japan! Rise again!” Among the major proposals included in this plan were the development of a new national assessment system; improving teacher quality through the establishment of professional graduate schools and a teacher qualification renewal system; board of education and school reform; and an overhaul of the funding system for compulsory education, so that local governments will be able to enact necessary educational initiatives without major budgetary concerns.
Since this plan was announced, MEXT has introduced one of its planned initiatives almost every year. In 2007, Japan piloted a National Assessment of Academic Ability in mathematics and Japanese for students in grades 6 and 9. In 2008 and 2009, MEXT published a revised version of the national curriculum for primary through upper secondary school, including special education. This new curriculum places increased emphasis on Japanese, social studies, mathematics, science and foreign languages, with the hope that students will develop “thinking capacity, decisiveness and expressiveness” alongside content knowledge. The challenge to maintain traditional high academic performance while enhancing expression, creativity and joyful learning is one which in the last decade seem to have affected the Japanese education system, with several reforms undertaken in the field. An interesting discussion is offered on the point at http://asiasociety.org/education/learning-world/japan-recent-trends-education-reform
In 2009, MEXT implemented a new system requiring educators to renew education personnel certificates every ten years, contingent on up-to-date professional development and skills. This complemented a 2008 initiative that required prefectural boards of education to provide extra training to struggling teachers. Currently, MEXT is working on revising standards in university teacher training programs, promoting career education and enhancing counseling in schools, and using school evaluations to target areas for improvement in school management.

=== Post-secondary ===

== Higher education reform ==

=== The Bologna Process ===

=== National University Corporation ===

Restructuring of national universities in 2009

== Administration and finance ==

=== Schools ===

==== administration ====
In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) sets policy and curriculum, establishes national standards, sets teacher and administrator pay scales and creates supervisory organizations. MEXT also allocates funding to prefectural and municipal authorities for schools. Local governments are responsible for the supervision of schools, special programs, school budgets and hiring personnel.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), in conjunction with university professors and the Central Council for Education, establishes broad guidelines for the content of each school subject from pre-school education through senior high school. The central government determines fundamental standards for schools to formulate their education curricula. In accordance with this, each school has been organizing and implementing its own distinctive curricula, taking into consideration the condition of the local community and school itself, the stages of mental and physical growth and the characters of children, pupils or students. Ministry specialists prepare teacher guidebooks in each subject with input from experienced teachers. All schools use the same texts, though how a text is taught is teacher-dependent.
At the prefectural level, there is a board of education comprised of five governor-appointed members; this board is responsible for several activities, including appointing teachers to primary and lower secondary schools, funding municipalities, appointing the superintendent of education at the prefectural level, and operating upper secondary schools.
Within the municipalities, there are boards of education appointed by the mayor. These boards are responsible for making recommendations on teacher appointments to the prefectural board of education, choosing textbooks from the MEXT-approved list, conducting in-service teacher and staff professional development, and overseeing the day-to-day operations of primary and lower secondary schools. In the schools, principals are the school leaders, and determine the school schedule, manage the teachers, and take on other management roles as needed. Teachers are responsible for determining how to teach the curriculum and for creating lesson plans, as well as being in contact with parents.

==== finance ====

Public schools are funded by a combination of support from the national, municipal and prefectural governments. Public upper secondary school did require tuition, but in March 2010, the government passed a measure intended to abolish these fees. Now, schools receive enrollment support funds that they apply to the cost of their students’ tuition which equals about $100 a month, per student. However, if these funds are not sufficient, the students must make up the difference. If students come from a low-income household, the government provides further subsidies of up to $200 a month.
Private schools also receive a great deal of public funding, with the Japanese government paying 50% of private school teachers’ salaries. Other forms of funding are capital grants, which go to private schools for specific costs, including new buildings and equipment. While private schools are considered to be more competitive and prestigious than public schools, public schools still account for 99% of primary schools and 94% of lower secondary schools. There are many more private upper secondary schools, however; 23% of upper secondary schools are classified as private.
In 2008, Japan spent 4.9% of its GDP on education – lower than the OECD average of 5.9%. However, Japan spends $9,673 per student, higher than the OECD average of $8,831.

=== Post-secondary ===

Significantly over 90% of Junior colleges and professional training colleges in Japan are private institutions (as much as a large proportion of universities). The large presence of private sectors in tertiary education partially explains also the very low level of government funding and strong private financial support. An remarkable exception is that of Kosen: 87.3% of institutions and 87.5% of students there are publicly funded, national institutions organized through the Institutes of National Colleges of Technology

=== Higher Education ===

== Quality assurance, inspection and accreditation ==

=== Schools ===

Schools are evaluated and inspected by municipal and prefectural board of education supervisors, who are expected to provide external guidance on school management, curriculum and teaching. Typically, these board of education supervisors are former teachers and administrators.
As of 2009, teachers are also required to renew their education personnel certificates every 10 years, after undergoing professional development to ensure that their skills and knowledge are up to date. This new system ensures ongoing professional development, and also provides schools with the ability to remove teachers who are not willing to upgrade or renew their certifications.
A final accountability measure is the newly introduced National Assessment of Academic Ability, a set of examinations in Japanese and mathematics for students in grades six and nine that began in 2007. The results of these examinations are used by schools and prefectures to plan and make policy decisions.

=== Post-secondary === 

 

=== Higher Education ===

== Information society ==

=== Towards the information society ===

=== Information society strategy ===

== E-learning and ICT implementation in education ==

The most recent as well as comprehensive research report [http://www.code.ouj.ac.jp/wp-content/uploads/ICT-2011.pdf] regarding the e-learning and ICT implementation in Japanese higher education is provided by CODE commissioned by MEXT made 2010-2011, covering the total number of 1,202 responded institutions in higher education, including universities, junior colleges, and technical colleges.

What is remarkable is that the average of 35.7% higher institutions (national:35.8%; public 35.3%, private: 32.2%) answered that they exercised some sort of internet-based distance learning (p.134).

Besides, the average of 16.0% (433 divisions) answered that they provide full-online course delivery (national: 20.8%, public: 17.6%, private: 14.2%) (p.133).

== Distance learning ==

=== Distance learning in secondary education ===

=== Distance learning in higher education ===

As of 2012, with the approval of the Distance Education Universities Law ([[e-Gov]]), 27 undergraduate, 10 graduate, and 17 undergraduate-graduate institutions and 11 distance education junior colleges are authorized to provide distance learning programs. Distance education higher institutions are run privately (100%) and most are dual-mode (89%), although this could change over time. ([[e-Stat]], 2012).

Currently seven universities are single mode and focus exclusively on distance education. Three of these offer only undergraduate programs, one offers only graduate programs, two offer both undergraduate and graduate programs, and one is a junior college; all of these universities show a high e-learning orientation , presumably a natural consequence of not having campus-based students ([[Miyazoe]] & [[Anderson]], 2012).

The number of undergraduates is 217,236 (or 7.8 % out of the total undergraduate students), and the number of graduate students is 8,241 (or 2.9%) ([[e-Stat]], 2012).

 

=== Open University ===

==== The Open University of Japan ====

The [[Open University of Japan]], formerly the [[University of the Air]] ([[Hoso Daigaku]]), is the largest distance learning institution of higher education, with about 85,000 enrollments (among which about 80,000 are undergraduates and 5,000 are graduates) in 2012 [http://www.ouj.ac.jp/hp/gaiyo/gaiyo09.html#zaigaku].

A particularity of distance learning program of OUJ lies in its providing courses in both face-to-face and distance modes. Many of the courses are offered as video lectures (TV and Internet) as well as face-to-face class meetings (weekly or intensively). Though it is the most obvious candidate to develop e-learning, it is slow in responding to the new environment.

In conjunction with the re-structuring of NIME and its graduate programs ([[Sogo Kenkyu Daigakuin]]), now merged into OUJ, master's level graduate programs were re-organized in 2009. New courses of e-learning and information management were further open in 2012 April.

==== CODE ====

The [[National Institute of Multimedia Education]] ([[NIME]]) started off life as an inter-university research institute and had many similarities to national iniatitives such as [[SURF]] and [[Norway Opening Universities]].

In April 2004, NIME ceased to be an inter-university research institute and became an independent administrative institution. While this organizational change was not without a degree of confusion, NIME was evaluated for the first time in 2005, earning considerable praise for the way it had managed to continue with its original work and at the same time launch some new activities.

NIME ended in 2009 and its work was transferred to CODE [http://www.code.ouj.ac.jp/] (Center of ICT and Distance Education), a research center of the Open University of Japan.
 

=== New attempts of traditional universities ===

Past attempts by Japanese universities to offer Internet-based classes have been of an experimental nature, with the main objective being limited to the advertisement of the universities concerned. Since the change in the regulations in 2001, there have been more serious attempts to set up e-learning courses including at some top-ranking universities. Two such examples among the national universities are [[Tohoku University]] in the Miyagi prefecture and [[Shinshu University]] in Nagano. Tohoku University’s plan is a very bold and comprehensive one, while Shinshu University’s programme is far more grounded and has already made some concrete progress.

Two top private universities, namely [[Keio University]] and [[Waseda University]], both have solid track records in experimentation with e-learning and are also each actively planning to open an Internet school in the near future. Keio has a distance education course; Waseda has night schools that already offer about 30 on-demand video streaming lectures on the Internet. Among the CEO judged awards, Keio won four awards, Waseda five, and Ritsumeikan three.

 

==== Kumamoto University ====

 

==== Tohoku University ====

The university was the first to start comprehensive and virtual graduate programmes in Japan, in an ambitious programme called the Internet School of Tohoku University (ISTU). The programme envisages a full-fledged graduate school covering political science, literature, economics, law, engineering, international relations, medicine, pharmacology, dentistry, and education. It plans to set up satellite campuses in Japan and also to seek affiliation with universities overseas. The initial offerings will be limited to the engineering divisions. An intermediate goal is to have 40% of all courses on campus on the Internet by the year 2007. In 2002, the university concurrently set up a new department called Education Informatics that will support the operation of the ISTU.

 

==== Shinshu University ====

Starting in April 2002, the university opened an e-learning graduate course on information technology leading to a doctoral degree. (See http://cai.cs.shinshu-u.ac.jp/sugsi/Nyushi/sugsi/sugsi-press.html.) There were more than 1000 inquiries after the announcement and now there are 81 students enrolled – with 80% of them holding full time jobs. The digital content is open to the public and fully accessible, including the interactive programmes. They accepted the first batch of students while the contents were not ready, but the production is in progress at a fairly good pace. (See http://server1.int-univ.com/CaiSupport/)

 

==== Waseda University ====

Waseda has been experimenting with an international collaboration in the use of a video conferencing system, called Cross Cultural Distance Learning (CCDL), which has a membership of 21 universities from 21 countries, including the Universities of Edinburgh and Essex. (See https://ccdlsrv.project.mnc.waseda.ac.jp/ccdl/index.asp.) CCDL is a part of a broader Waseda programme, called Digital Campus Consortium. It has also set up a subsidiary company called Waseda Learning Square to provide life-long learning courses. While its overall reputation trailed behind Keio for some time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, today it has re-established its brand with a wide range of initiatives from new professional graduate schools to new campus plans.

 

==== Keio University ====

Keio is advanced in its use of the Internet and its applications. In 1990, it opened its Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC), which received wide and positive publicity for its innovative undergraduate and graduate education; this fosters individual creativity while establishing IT as an integral element of education. Celebrated as one of the most significant higher education innovations, the SFC attracted top-calibre students and established its name not only in the IT world but also in other policy fields. Prior to SFC, Keio had established the WIDE Project in 1988, with a consortium of over 100 universities and corporations, which in turn spun off the first Internet provider in Japan, Internet Initiative (IIJ). WIDE is now responsible for the operation of a DNS server and is also experimenting with IPv6. Another programme under WIDE is the School of the Internet (SOI), which is experimenting in e-learning with six participating universities, including the University of Tokyo and Chiba Commerce University. The programme records live lectures that are later put on the Internet; an interesting feature is that students’ work is left on the Internet for mutual evaluation.

 

=== Innovative Universities ===

==== Sanno University ====

Sanno (The University of Industrial Productivity) launched several courses in business-related skills such as accounting, though their delivery is limited to fairly conventional access to video with limited interactivity.

 

==== Ritsumeikan University ====

Ritsumeikan is another well-respected private university that has established its repu-tation on the basis of its innovative reform measures in the 90s. It is well known, but had always been considered as the least desirable of the six best private schools in the Kansai area (of Western Japan close to Osaka). Under the strong leadership of its chairman, who used to be a non-faculty administrator within the university, it opened its Kusatsu Campus, which is now well-known for its forward thinking in educational content; it has been launching all initiatives from IT education, outsourcing in order to develop creative linkages with local industry. While Ritsumeikan has no specific plan for e-learning, it has the management style and ability to move quickly, unlike many other universities. -- am not sure if it's right to list here ???

 

==== Other institutions ====

For more details see the report ''The e-University and Potential Markets in Japan'' at http://www.matic-media.co.uk/ukeu/UKEU-r05-japan-2005.doc for information.

 

=== JOCW ===

 

== National initiatives - [[MEXT]] ==

(sourced from http://www.nime.ac.jp/reports/004/pdf/report2006.pdf)

In recent years, changes in the environment surrounding higher education and the progress of ICT

have led to an increasing need for education that is effective, efficient, and based on the demands for the greater sophistication and diversification of educational content. Education using ICT and elearning are increasingly being introduced as methods to meet these needs, and their promotion is seen as an important issue in government policy.

The New IT Reform Strategy by the Government (January 2006) and the Priority Policy Program 2006 (July 2006), formulated by the government’s Strategic Headquarters for the Advanced Information and Telecommunications Network Society (IT Strategic Headquarters), state that the government will:

:aim to increase by more than double the ratio of undergraduate faculties and graduate schools which implement e-learning education or distance learning using the Internet, improve cooperation between domestic/international universities and companies as well as promote the further education of members of society through the promotion of e-learning education programs using the Internet at universities, etc.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology ([[MEXT]]) has been conducting its Support Program for Contemporary Educational Needs, since 2004. Under this program, the theme of the development of e-learning programs for fostering human resources in line with needs was suggested, and education using ICT and e-learning are being promoted. By this promotion theme of the Ministry, 13 universities or colleges of technology were selected for financially support to develop e-learning courses in 2006. Responding to this state of affairs, our research, which was conducted in collaboration with MEXT, offers an analysis of the current state of education using ICT at Japan’s higher education institutions and the inherent issues, and also aims to provide some basic data and information to address policy issues surrounding higher education and IT strategy

 

== References ==

[http://www.nime.ac.jp/reports/004/ Report on education using ICT including e-Learning, 2006] (for tertiary education in Japan)

 

{{Reflist}}

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[[Countries]]

 

[[Main Page]]

[[Category:Japan]] [[Category:Asia]] [[Category:OECD]] [[Category:G8_countries]] [[Category:G-20_countries]] [[Category:Countries_with_Programmes]]

[[Category:VISCED]]

Japan

2012-07-16T15:46:20Z

Daniela Proli: /* Further and Higher education */

''by [[Paul Bacsich]] ([[Sero]]), [[Gertjan]] ([[ATiT]]) and [[Daniela Proli]] ([[SCIENTER]]) with advice from colleagues at [[NIME]] and the [[Open University of Japan]]''

For entities in Japan see [[:Category:Japan]]

== Partners and experts in Japan ==

There is no partner in Japan for Re.ViCa, VISCED or POERUP.

Experts in virtual initiatives in Japan include (in alphabetical order):

Dr. Kumiko Aoki ([[Open University of Japan]]): e-learning and ICT 
Dr. Insung Jung ([[International Christian University]]): quality assurance (QA) 
Dr. Katsuaki Suzuki ([[Kumamoto University]]): instructional design (ID) 

and Dr. [[Terumi Miyazoe]], their developing successor (Tokyo Denki University http://atom.dendai.ac.jp/): e-learning and distance eduction (DE), who worked primarily on the contributions of 2011, 2012 year information.

== Japan in a nutshell ==

(sourced from Wikipedia)

''Japan'' (日本 '''Nihon''' or '''Nippon?''', officially 日本国 '''Nippon-koku?·i''' or '''Nihon-koku''') is an island country in [[East Asia]]. Located in the [[Pacific Ocean]], it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of [[China]], [[North Korea]], [[South Korea]] and [[Russia]], stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters which make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin country", which is why Japan is sometimes identified as the "Land of the Rising Sun".

[[Image:Japan.gif|right|thumb|400px|Source : http://www.cia.gov]]

Japan comprises over 3,000 islands making it an archipelago. The largest islands are Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku, together accounting for 97% of Japan's land area. Most of the islands are mountainous, many volcanic; for example, Japan’s highest peak, Mount Fuji, is a volcano. Japan has the world's tenth largest population, with about 128 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.

A major economic power, Japan has the world's second largest economy by nominal GDP and the third largest in purchasing power parity. It is a member of the United Nations, G8, G4, [[OECD]] and APEC, with the world's fifth largest defense budget. It is also the world's fourth largest exporter and sixth largest importer. It is a developed country with high living standards (8th highest HDI) and a world leader in technology, machinery, and robotics.

The English word Japan is an exonym. The Japanese names for Japan are Nippon (にっぽん) and Nihon (にほん). They are both written in Japanese using the kanji 日本. The Japanese name Nippon is used for most official purposes, including on Japanese money, postage stamps, and for many international sporting events. Nihon is a more casual term and the most frequently used in contemporary speech.

Both Nippon and Nihon literally mean "the sun's origin" and are often translated as the Land of the Rising Sun. This nomenclature comes from Imperial correspondence with Chinese Sui Dynasty and refers to Japan's eastward position relative to China. Before Japan had relations with China, it was known as Yamato and Hi no moto, which means "source of the sun".

Japan is a constitutional monarchy where the power of the Emperor is very limited. As a ceremonial figurehead, he is defined by the constitution as "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people". Power is held chiefly by the Prime Minister of Japan and other elected members of the Diet, while sovereignty is vested in the Japanese people. The Emperor effectively acts as the head of state on diplomatic occasions. Akihito is the current Emperor of Japan. Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan, stands as next in line to the throne.

Japan's legislative organ is the National Diet, a bicameral parliament. The Diet consists of a House of Representatives, containing 480 seats, elected by popular vote every four years or when dissolved and a House of Councillors of 242 seats, whose popularly-elected members serve six-year terms. There is universal suffrage for adults over 20 years of age, with a secret ballot for all elective offices.

The Prime Minister of Japan is the head of government. The position is appointed by the Emperor of Japan after being designated by the Diet from among its members and must enjoy the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office. The Prime Minister is the head of the Cabinet (the literal translation of his Japanese title is "Prime Minister of the Cabinet") and appoints and dismisses the Ministers of State, a majority of whom must be Diet members.

While there exist eight commonly defined regions of Japan, administratively Japan consists of forty-seven prefectures, each overseen by an elected governor, legislature and administrative bureaucracy. The former city of Tokyo is further divided into twenty-three special wards, each with the same powers as cities.

The nation is currently undergoing administrative reorganization by merging many of the cities, towns and villages with each other. This process will reduce the number of sub-prefecture administrative regions and is expected to cut administrative costs.

Japan has dozens of major cities, which play an important role in Japan's culture, heritage and economy.

Japan's population is estimated at just over 127 million. For the most part, Japanese society is linguistically and culturally homogeneous with small populations of foreign workers, Zainichi Koreans, Zainichi Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese Brazilians and others. The most dominant native ethnic group is the Yamato people; the primary minority groups include the indigenous Ainu and Ryukyuan, as well as social minority groups like the burakumin.

Japan has one of the highest life expectancy rates in the world, at 81.25 years of age as of 2006. The Japanese population is rapidly aging, the effect of a post-war baby boom followed by a decrease in births in the latter part of the twentieth century. In 2004, about 19.5% of the population was over the age of 65.

The changes in the demographic structure have created a number of social issues, particularly a potential decline in the workforce population and increases in the cost of social security benefits such as the public pension plan. Many Japanese youth are increasingly preferring not to marry or have families as adults. Japan's population is expected to drop to 100 million by 2050 and to 64 million by 2100. Demographers and government planners are currently in a heated debate over how to cope with this problem. Immigration and birth incentives are sometimes suggested as a solution to provide younger workers to support the nation's aging population. The highest estimates for the amount of Buddhists and Shintoists in Japan is 84-96%, representing a large number of believers in a syncretism of both religions. However, these estimates are based on people with an association with a temple, rather than the number of people truly following the religion. Professor Robert Kisala (Nanzan University) suggests that only 30 percent of the population identify themselves as belonging to a religion.

Taoism and Confucianism from China have also influenced Japanese beliefs and customs. Religion in Japan tends to be syncretic in nature, and this results in a variety of practices, such as parents and children celebrating Shinto rituals, students praying before exams, couples holding a wedding at a Christian church and funerals being held at Buddhist temples. A minority (2,595,397, or 2.04%) profess to Christianity.[90] In addition, since the mid-19th century, numerous religious sects (Shinshūkyō) have emerged in Japan, such as Tenrikyo and Aum Shinrikyo (or Aleph).

About 99% of the population speaks Japanese as their first language. It is an agglutinative language distinguished by a system of honorifics reflecting the hierarchical nature of Japanese society, with verb forms and particular vocabulary which indicate the relative status of speaker and listener. According to a Japanese dictionary Shinsen-kokugojiten, Chinese-based words comprise 49.1% of the total vocabulary, indigenous words are 33.8% and other loanwords are 8.8%. The writing system uses kanji (Chinese characters) and two sets of kana (syllabaries based on simplified Chinese characters), as well as the Latin alphabet and Arabic numerals. The Ryukyuan languages, also part of the Japonic language family to which Japanese belongs, are spoken in Okinawa, but few children learn these languages. The Ainu language is moribund, with only a few elderly native speakers remaining in Hokkaidō. Most public and private schools require students to take courses in both Japanese and English.

== Education in Japan ==

=== Policy ===

Primary, secondary schools and universities were introduced into Japan in 1872 as a result of the Meiji Restoration. Since 1947, compulsory education in Japan consists of elementary school and middle school, which lasts for nine years (from age 6 to age 15). Almost all children continue their education at a three-year senior high school, and, according to the Ministry, about 75.9% of high school graduates attend a university, junior college, trade school, or other post-secondary institution in 2005.

Japan's education is very competitive, especially for entrance to institutions of higher education. Anyone can enter one nowadays.

The two top-ranking universities in Japan are the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University. The Programme for International Student Assessment coordinated by the OECD, currently ranks Japanese knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds as the 6th best in the world.

I would remove this section as the information is not about policy as it is.

 

=== Japan education system ===

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Japan)

After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the methods and structures of Western learning were adopted as a means to make Japan a strong, modern nation. Students and even high-ranking government officials were sent abroad to study, such as the Iwakura mission. Foreign scholars, the so-called o-yatoi gaikokujin, were invited to teach at newly founded universities and military academies. Compulsory education was introduced, mainly after the Prussian model. By 1890, only 20 years after the resumption of full international relations, Japan discontinued employment of the foreign consultants.

The rise of militarism led to the use of the education system to prepare the nation for war. The military even sent its own instructors to schools. After the defeat in World War II, the allied occupation government set an education reform as one of its primary goals, to eradicate militarist teachings and "democratize" Japan. The education system was rebuilt after the American model.

The end of the 1960s were a time of student protests around the world, and also in Japan. The main subject of protest was the Japan-U.S. security treaty. A number of reforms were carried out in the post-war period until today. They aimed at easing the burden of entrance examinations, promoting internationalization and information technologies, diversifying education and supporting lifelong learning.

(sourced from http://www.ncee.org/programs-affiliates/center-on-international-education-benchmarking/top-performing-countries/japan-overview/japan-instructional-systems/)

In Japan education is compulsory for nine years, including '''primary school''' (six years) and '''lower secondary school''' (three years). Pupils can attend three years of non-compulsory kindergarten.

Students who have completed lower secondary school, at about age sixteen, may choose to apply to''' upper secondary school''', lasting three years.

There are three types of upper secondary schools in Japan:

* '''senior high schools'''. Senior high schools provide general, specialized and integrated courses. General courses are intended for students who hope to attend university, or for students who wish to seek employment after high school but have no particular vocational preference. Specialized courses are for students who have selected a particular vocational area of interest. Integrated courses allow a student to choose electives from both the general and specialized tracks.
Senior high school can be full-time, part-time or correspondence.

* '''Colleges of technology''' (''Kosen'' colleges) typically offer a five-year program in different occupational areas. Students can also choose to complete upper secondary vocational education after three years and go directly to the workplace. Upon graduation, a student who completes five years of technology college is considered an “associate” in his or her field.

* '''special training colleges''' for lower secondary graduates: special training colleges have been created in Japan in 1976, offering vocational and specialized technical education aiming at fostering abilities required for vocational or daily life or provide general education. Some special training colleges address people with lower secondary education, whereas two other categories are for people with upper secondary education Special training colleges offer vocational and technical education in a variety of degree programs, typically through the bachelor’s or master’s level) or for people without any academic background.

Admission into senior high schools is extremely competitive, and in addition to entrance examinations, the student’s academic work, behavior and attitude, and record of participation in the community is also taken into account. Senior high schools are ranked in each locality, and Japanese students consider the senior high school where they matriculate to be a determining factor in later success. Following senior high school, a Japanese student’s future is dependent on their score on the national achievement exam, as well as their performance on the individual exams administered by each university.

Colleges of technology require their own set of entrance exams, while special training colleges do not. After three years in a special training college, students may apply to enter a college of technology. These students are eligible for higher education after completing an upper secondary course of two to three years.

 

== Schools in Japan ==

=== Kindergarten and Nursery school ===

Early childhood education begins at home, and there are numerous books and television shows aimed at helping mothers of pre-school children to educate their children and to "parent" more effectively. Much of the home training is devoted to teaching manners, proper social behavior, and structured play, although verbal and number skills are also popular themes. Parents are strongly committed to early education and frequently enroll their children in preschools.

Kindergartens (yochien 幼稚園), predominantly staffed by young female junior college graduates, are supervised by the Ministry of Education, but are not part of the official education system. The 58% of kindergartens that are private accounted for 77% of all children enrolled. In addition to kindergartens there exists a well-developed system of government-supervised day-care centers (hoikuen 保育園), supervised by the Ministry of Labor. Where as kindergartens follow educational aims, preschools are predominately concerned with providing care for infants and toddlers. Same as kindergartens there are public or privately run preschools. Together, these two kinds of institutions enroll well over 90% of all preschoolage children prior to their entrance into the formal system at first grade. The Ministry of Education's 1990 Course of Study for Preschools, which applies to both kinds of institutions, covers such areas as human relationships, environment, words (language), and expression. Starting from March 2008 the new revision of curriculum guidelines for kindergartens as well as for preschools came into effect.

 

=== Elementary school ===

More than 99% of children are enrolled in elementary school. All children enter first grade at age six, and starting school is considered a very important event in a child's life.

Virtually all elementary education takes place in public schools; less than 1% of the schools are private. Private schools tended to be costly, although the rate of cost increases in tuition for these schools had slowed in the 1980s. Some private elementary schools are prestigious, and they serve as a first step to higher-level private schools with which they are affiliated, and thence to a university.

 

=== Junior high school ===

Lower secondary school covers grades seven, eight, and nine, children between the ages of roughly 12 and 15, with increased focus on academic studies. Although it is still possible to leave the formal education system after completing lower secondary school and find employment, fewer than 4% did so by the late 1980s.

Like elementary schools, most lower-secondary schools in the 1980s were public, but 5% were private. Private schools were costly, averaging 558,592 yen (US$3,989) per student in 1988, about four times more than the 130,828 yen (US$934) that the ministry estimated as the cost for students enrolled in public lower secondary schools. Teachers often majored in the subjects they taught, and more than 80% graduated from a four-year college. Classes are large, with thirty-eight students per class on average, and each class is assigned a homeroom teacher who doubles as counselor. Unlike elementary students, lower-secondary school students have different teachers for different subjects. The teacher, however, rather than the students, moves to a new room for each fifty-minute period.

Instruction in lower-secondary schools tends to rely on the lecture method. Teachers also use other media, such as television and radio, and there is some laboratory work. By 1989 about 45% of all public lower secondary schools had computers, including schools that used them only for administrative purposes. Classroom organization is still based on small work groups, although no longer for reasons of discipline.

All course contents are specified in the Course of Study for Lower-Secondary Schools. Some subjects, such as Japanese language and mathematics, are coordinated with the elementary curriculum. Others, such as foreign-language study, usually English, begin at this level. The curriculum covers Japanese language, social studies, mathematics, science, music, fine arts, health, and physical education. All students also are exposed to either industrial arts or homemaking. Moral education and special activities continue to receive attention. Many students also participate in after-school sport clubs that occupy them until around 6pm most weekdays.

A growing number of JHS students also attend Juku, private extracurricular study schools, in the evenings and weekends. A focus by students upon these other studies and the increasingly structured demands upon students' time have been criticized by teachers and in the media for contributing to a decline in classroom standards and student performance in recent years.

The ministry recognizes a need to improve the teaching of all foreign languages, especially English. To improve instruction in spoken English, the government invites many young native speakers of English to Japan to serve as assistants to school boards and prefectures under its Japan Exchange and Teaching Program. By 1988 participants numbered over 1,000. This program seems to be being phased out in many areas where the supply of foreign native speakers facilitates their employment through less expensive private agencies.

 

=== (Senior) High school ===

Even though upper secondary school is not compulsory in Japan, 99% of all lower secondary school graduates entered upper secondary schools as of 2005. Private upper-secondary schools account for about 55% of all upper-secondary schools, and neither public nor private schools are free . The Ministry of education estimated that annual family expenses for the education of a child in a public upper-secondary school were about 300,000 yen (US$2,142) in both 1980s and that private upper-secondary schools were about twice as expensive.

The most common type of upper-secondary schools has a fulltime, general program that offered academic courses for students preparing for higher education and also technical and vocational courses for students expecting to find employment after graduation. More than 70% of upper-secondary school students were enrolled in the general academic program in the late 1980s. A small number of schools offer part-time or evening courses or correspondence education.

The first-year programs for students in both academic and commercial courses are similar. They include basic academic courses, such as Japanese language, English, mathematics, and science. In upper-secondary school, differences in ability are first publicly acknowledged, and course content and course selection are far more individualized in the second year. However, there is a core of academic material throughout all programs.

Vocational-technical programs includes several hundred specialized courses, such as information processing, navigation, fish farming, business English, and ceramics. Business and industrial courses are the most popular, accounting for 72% of all students in full-time vocational programs in 1989.

Most upper-secondary teachers are university graduates. Uppersecondary schools are organized into departments, and teachers specialize in their major fields although they teach a variety of courses within their disciplines. Teaching depends largely on the lecture system, with the main goal of covering the very demanding curriculum in the time allotted. Approach and subject coverage tends to be uniform, at least in the public schools.

Training of disabled students, particularly at the uppersecondary level, emphasizes vocational education to enable students to be as independent as possible within society.

Vocational training varies considerably depending on the student's disability, but the options are limited for some. It is clear that the government is aware of the necessity of broadening the range of possibilities for these students. Advancement to higher education is also a goal of the government, and it struggles to have institutions of higher learning accept more disabled students.

== Further and Higher education ==

After the Second World War, Japan has moved rapidly from an “elite” to a “mass” higher education system and the rapid expansion in both the number and the size of Japanese universities has also witnessed the introduction of a trend towards more “vocational” degree programmes - i.e. ones which offer more of a fit-for-purpose licence to engage in professional practice. Thus the expansion of tertiary education has
been accompanied by increasing diversity in the mission and purposes of tertiary institutions, both within and between those categories outlined above. The cultivation of such mission diversity is now a stated policy aim.

Interestingly, Japan has traditionally blurred the distinction between further and higher education, whilst retaining a degree of distinctiveness between vocational and academic programs and qualifications. This has favored the flourishing of the college sector, offering post-18 sub-bachelor qualification. Many junior colleges are vocationally-oriented but also with a strong liberal-arts component.

Tertiary Education in Japan comprises the following

* Universities have as their aim to conduct teaching and research in depth in specialised academic subjects, to operate as “centres of learning” and to “develop intellectual, moral and practical abilities”.
* Junior colleges “cultivate such abilities as are required in vocation or practical life”, typically offering two-year sub-degree qualifications within a baccalaureate four-year bachelor’s degree framework. There are typically progression opportunities to
university programmes. The School Education Act was partially amended in 2005, and associate degrees came to be awarded to graduates of Japanese junior colleges.
* Colleges of technology, or kosen are institutions offering high-level vocational qualifications through teaching and related research. They are organized through the Institute of National Colleges of Technology and offer vocational education for those between the ages of 15 and 20, with the possibility of “topping-up” to a full degree
* Professional training colleges offer practical vocational and specialized technical education aiming to foster abilities required for vocational or daily life, or provide general education.
* Graduate schools conduct academic research, in particular basic research, and train researchers and professionals with advanced skills.
* Professional graduate schools are oriented towards high-level graduate entry to key professions - for example, law, business studies, etc.

Number of Tertiary education institutions
[[Image:Tabella.png|200px|frame|left|alternative text such as the source]]

=== Universities in Japan ===

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_education_in_Japan - which may not be up to date)

 

==== University Entrance ====

College entrance is based largely on the scores that students achieved in entrance examinations (''nyūgaku shiken or 入学試験''). With exceptions, the public national universities are the most highly regarded. This distinction had its origins in historical factors -- the long years of dominance of the select imperial universities, such as Tokyo and Kyoto universities, which trained Japan's leaders before the war -- and in differences in quality, particularly in government subsidy. In addition, certain prestigious employers, notably the government and select large corporations, continue to restrict their hiring of new employees to graduates of the most esteemed universities. There is a close link between university background and employment opportunity;however, this has started to change because of the urgent need to cope with ever accelerating globalization and internationalization of its economy and social structure.

Students applying to national universities take two entrance examinations, first a nationally administered uniform achievement test and then an examination administered by the university that the student hopes to enter. Applicants to private universities need to take only the university's examination. Some national schools have so many applicants that they use the first test, the Joint First Stage Achievement Test, as a screening device for qualification to their own admissions test.

An unsuccessful student, who could not compete successfully for admission to the college of their choice, can either accept an admission elsewhere, forego a college education, or wait until the following spring to take the national examinations again. These students who chose the second option, called ''ronin　or 浪人,'' meaning masterless samurai, spend an entire year, and sometimes longer, studying for another attempt at the entrance examinations.

''Yobiko or 予備校'' are private schools that, like many ''juku or 塾'', help students prepare for entrance examinations. While yobiko have many programs for upper-secondary school students, they are best known for their specially designed full-time, year-long classes for ronin.

The number of applicants to four-year universities totaled almost 560,000 in 1988. Ronin accounted for about 40% of new entrants to four-year colleges in 1988. Most ronin were men, but about 14% were women. The ronin experience is so common in Japan that the Japanese education structure is often said to have an extra ronin year built into it. -- need update

Yobiko sponsor a variety of programs, both full-time and part-time, and employ an extremely sophisticated battery of tests, student counseling sessions, and examination analysis to supplement their classroom instruction. The cost of yobiko education is high, comparable to first-year university expenses, and some specialized courses at yobiko are even more expensive. Some yobiko publish modified commercial versions of the proprietary texts they use in their classrooms through publishing affiliates or by other means, and these are popular among the general population preparing for college entrance exams. Yobiko also administer practice examinations throughout the year, which they open to all students for a fee.

In the late 1980s, the examination and entrance process were the subjects of renewed debate. In 1987 the schedule of the Joint First Stage Achievement Test was changed, and the content of the examination itself was revised for 1990. The schedule changes for the first time provided some flexibility for students wishing to apply to more than one national university. The new Joint First Stage Achievement Test was prepared and administered by the National Center for University Entrance Examinations and was designed to accomplish better assessment of academic achievement. -- may remove

The Ministry of Education hoped many private schools would adopt or adapt the new national test to their own admissions requirements and thereby reduce or eliminate the university tests. But, by the time the new test was administered in 1990, few schools had displayed any inclination to do so. The ministry urged universities to increase the number of students admitted through alternate selection methods, including admission of students returning to Japan from long overseas stays, admission by recommendation, and admission of students who had graduated from upper-secondary schools more than a few years before. Although a number of schools had programs in place or reserved spaces for returning students, only 5% of university students were admitted under these alternate arrangements in the late 1980s. -- may remove

Other college entrance issues include proper guidance for college placement at the upper-secondary level and better dissemination of information about university programs. The ministry provides information through the National Center for University Entrance Examination's on-line information access system and encourages universities, faculties, and departments to prepare brochures and video presentations about their programs.

 

==== Types of Universities ====

As of 2011, more than 2.8 million students were enrolled in 780 universities. At the top of the higher education structure, these institutions provide four-year training leading to a bachelor's degree, and some offer six-year programs leading to a professional degree. There are two types of public four-year colleges: the eighty-six national universities and the nifty-five local public universities, founded by prefectures and municipalities. The 599 remaining four-year colleges in 2012 were private (including the Open University of Japan). ([[e-Stat]], 2012).

As of 2011, women accounted for about 41% of all university undergraduates. ([[e-Stat]], 2012). A growing percentage of students are progressing to universities from high schools: as of 2010, 57.8% out of all 18 year old advanced to schools in higher education (universities and colleges), among which 59.2% are males and 56.3% are females (MEXT, 2012) [http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/toukei/data/kokusai/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2012/02/13/1302640_2_1.pdf]. Therefore, higher education is no longer reserved only for men as it has been in the past.

The average annual school and living expenses (tuition fees and living costs) for a year of higher education in 2006 were about 1.9 million yen (US$19,000) for undergraduates ([[JASSO]], 2008)[http://www.jasso.go.jp/statistics/gakusei_chosa/data06.html]. To help defray expenses, students frequently work part-time or borrow money through the government-supported Japan Student Services Organization ([[JASSO]]). Assistance also is offered by local governments, nonprofit corporations, and other institutions.

The overwhelming majority of college students attend full-time day programmes. In 1990 the most popular courses, enrolling almost 40% of all undergraduate students, were in the social sciences, including business, law, and accounting. Other popular subjects were engineering (19%), the humanities (15%), and education (7%). ??? - information about HE is also quite old and misleading.

Women's choices of majors and programs of study still tend to follow traditional patterns, with more than two-thirds of all women enroll in education, social sciences, or humanities courses. Only 15% studied scientific and technical subjects, and women represented less than 3% of students in engineering, the most popular subject for men in 1991. ???

The quality of universities and higher education in Japan is internationally recognized. The two top-ranking universities in Japan are often said to be the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University. There are only 5 Japanese universities in the top 200 Times Higher Education Rankings (2011)[http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/top-400.html]; QS World University Rankings (2011) [http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/]
with the University of Tokyo 25th and Kyoto University 32nd.

For a full list, see the ''list of universities in Japan'' at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Japan

 

==== Postgraduate Education ====

Graduate schools became a part of the formal higher education system only after World War II.

As of 2012, among the 780 universities that offer undergraduate programmes, 617 offer graduate programs (582 offer only master's and 428 offer doctoral). 456 out of the 617 universities are private and the rest 161 are public schools ([[e-Stat]], 2012). The parity between public and private graduate enrollments are 44% (174,456 including 16,593 public) versus 56% (98,110) ([[e-Stat]], 2012).

As of 2012, 272,566 are enrolled in graduate programmes, among which 70% are males and 30% are females.

The average annual school and living expenses for a year in 2006 were about 1.75 million yen (US$17,500) for masters' and 2.08 million yen (US$20,800) for doctoral ([[JASSO]], 2008).

Graduate education is largely a male preserve, and women, particularly at the master's level, are most heavily represented in the humanities, social sciences, and education. Men are frequently found in engineering programs where, at the master's level, women comprise only 2% of the students. At the doctoral level, the two highest levels of female enrollment are found in medical programmes and the humanities, where in both fields 30% of doctoral students are women. Women account for about 13% of all doctoral enrollments. ???

Even though 60% of all universities have graduate schools, only 7% of university graduates advance to master's programs, and total graduate school enrollment is about 4% of the entire university student population. ???

The pattern of graduate enrollment is almost the opposite of that of undergraduates: the majority (63%) of all graduate students are enrolled in the national universities, and it appears that the disparity between public and private graduate enrollments is widening. ???

The generally small numbers of graduate students and the graduate enrollment profile results from a number of factors, especially the traditional employment pattern of industry. The private sector frequently prefer to hire and train new university graduates, allowing them to develop their research skills within the corporate structure. Thus, the demand for students with advanced degrees is low. ???

 

=== Two year colleges ===

==== Junior Colleges ====

Junior colleges - mainly private institutions - are a legacy of the occupation period; many had been prewar institutions upgraded to college status at that time. More than 90% of the students in junior colleges are women, and higher education for women is still largely perceived as preparation for marriage or for a short-term career before marriage. Junior colleges provide many women with social credentials as well as education and some career opportunities. These colleges frequently emphasize home economics, nursing, teaching, the humanities, and social sciences in their curricula.

Don't understand what's written for polytechnics and junior colleges here.

 

==== Special Training Schools ====

Advanced courses in special training schools require uppersecondary-school completion. These schools offer training in specific skills, such as computer science and vocational training, and they enroll a large number of men. Some students attend these schools in addition to attending a university; others go to qualify for technical licenses or professional certification. The prestige of special training schools is lower than that of universities, but graduates, particularly in technical areas, are readily absorbed by the job market.

 

==== Miscellaneous Schools ====

In 1991 there were about 3,400 predominantly private "miscellaneous schools," whose attendance did not require uppersecondary school graduation. Miscellaneous schools offer a variety of courses in such programs as medical treatment, education, social welfare, and hygiene, diversifying practical postsecondary training and responding to social and economic demands for certain skills.

 

=== Technical colleges in Japan ===

Most colleges of technology are national institutions established to train highly skilled technicians in five-year programs in a number of fields, including the merchant marine.

Sixty-two technical colleges have been operating since the early 1960s. About 10% of college graduates transfer to universities as third-year students, and some universities, notably the University of Tokyo and the Tokyo Institute of Technology, earmarked entrance places for these transfer students in the 1980s.

These colleges are unique in that they accept students after three years of secondary school (grade 9 in the North American system or year 10 in the British system). The five year programme includes a general education programme at the beginning and then becomes increasingly specialized.

A recent white paper (need reference) from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology indicated that the colleges of technology are leaders in the use of internships, with more than 90% of institutions offering this opportunity compared to 46% of universities and 24% of junior colleges.

For more details see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colleges_of_Technology_(Japan)

== Education reform ==

=== Schools ===

In November 2004, MEXT announced a new reform plan titled “Japan! Rise again!” Among the major proposals included in this plan were the development of a new national assessment system; improving teacher quality through the establishment of professional graduate schools and a teacher qualification renewal system; board of education and school reform; and an overhaul of the funding system for compulsory education, so that local governments will be able to enact necessary educational initiatives without major budgetary concerns.
Since this plan was announced, MEXT has introduced one of its planned initiatives almost every year. In 2007, Japan piloted a National Assessment of Academic Ability in mathematics and Japanese for students in grades 6 and 9. In 2008 and 2009, MEXT published a revised version of the national curriculum for primary through upper secondary school, including special education. This new curriculum places increased emphasis on Japanese, social studies, mathematics, science and foreign languages, with the hope that students will develop “thinking capacity, decisiveness and expressiveness” alongside content knowledge. The challenge to maintain traditional high academic performance while enhancing expression, creativity and joyful learning is one which in the last decade seem to have affected the Japanese education system, with several reforms undertaken in the field. An interesting discussion is offered on the point at http://asiasociety.org/education/learning-world/japan-recent-trends-education-reform
In 2009, MEXT implemented a new system requiring educators to renew education personnel certificates every ten years, contingent on up-to-date professional development and skills. This complemented a 2008 initiative that required prefectural boards of education to provide extra training to struggling teachers. Currently, MEXT is working on revising standards in university teacher training programs, promoting career education and enhancing counseling in schools, and using school evaluations to target areas for improvement in school management.

=== Post-secondary ===

== Higher education reform ==

=== The Bologna Process ===

=== National University Corporation ===

Restructuring of national universities in 2009

== Administration and finance ==

=== Schools ===

==== administration ====
In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) sets policy and curriculum, establishes national standards, sets teacher and administrator pay scales and creates supervisory organizations. MEXT also allocates funding to prefectural and municipal authorities for schools. Local governments are responsible for the supervision of schools, special programs, school budgets and hiring personnel.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), in conjunction with university professors and the Central Council for Education, establishes broad guidelines for the content of each school subject from pre-school education through senior high school. The central government determines fundamental standards for schools to formulate their education curricula. In accordance with this, each school has been organizing and implementing its own distinctive curricula, taking into consideration the condition of the local community and school itself, the stages of mental and physical growth and the characters of children, pupils or students. Ministry specialists prepare teacher guidebooks in each subject with input from experienced teachers. All schools use the same texts, though how a text is taught is teacher-dependent.
At the prefectural level, there is a board of education comprised of five governor-appointed members; this board is responsible for several activities, including appointing teachers to primary and lower secondary schools, funding municipalities, appointing the superintendent of education at the prefectural level, and operating upper secondary schools.
Within the municipalities, there are boards of education appointed by the mayor. These boards are responsible for making recommendations on teacher appointments to the prefectural board of education, choosing textbooks from the MEXT-approved list, conducting in-service teacher and staff professional development, and overseeing the day-to-day operations of primary and lower secondary schools. In the schools, principals are the school leaders, and determine the school schedule, manage the teachers, and take on other management roles as needed. Teachers are responsible for determining how to teach the curriculum and for creating lesson plans, as well as being in contact with parents.

==== finance ====

Public schools are funded by a combination of support from the national, municipal and prefectural governments. Public upper secondary school did require tuition, but in March 2010, the government passed a measure intended to abolish these fees. Now, schools receive enrollment support funds that they apply to the cost of their students’ tuition which equals about $100 a month, per student. However, if these funds are not sufficient, the students must make up the difference. If students come from a low-income household, the government provides further subsidies of up to $200 a month.
Private schools also receive a great deal of public funding, with the Japanese government paying 50% of private school teachers’ salaries. Other forms of funding are capital grants, which go to private schools for specific costs, including new buildings and equipment. While private schools are considered to be more competitive and prestigious than public schools, public schools still account for 99% of primary schools and 94% of lower secondary schools. There are many more private upper secondary schools, however; 23% of upper secondary schools are classified as private.
In 2008, Japan spent 4.9% of its GDP on education – lower than the OECD average of 5.9%. However, Japan spends $9,673 per student, higher than the OECD average of $8,831.

=== Post-secondary ===

Significantly over 90% of Junior colleges and professional training colleges in Japan are private institutions (as much as a large proportion of universities). The large presence of private sectors in tertiary education partially explains also the very low level of government funding and strong private financial support. An remarkable exception is that of Kosen: 87.3% of institutions and 87.5% of students there are publicly funded, national institutions organized through the Institutes of National Colleges of Technology

=== Higher Education ===

== Quality assurance, inspection and accreditation ==

=== Schools ===

Schools are evaluated and inspected by municipal and prefectural board of education supervisors, who are expected to provide external guidance on school management, curriculum and teaching. Typically, these board of education supervisors are former teachers and administrators.
As of 2009, teachers are also required to renew their education personnel certificates every 10 years, after undergoing professional development to ensure that their skills and knowledge are up to date. This new system ensures ongoing professional development, and also provides schools with the ability to remove teachers who are not willing to upgrade or renew their certifications.
A final accountability measure is the newly introduced National Assessment of Academic Ability, a set of examinations in Japanese and mathematics for students in grades six and nine that began in 2007. The results of these examinations are used by schools and prefectures to plan and make policy decisions.

=== Post-secondary === 

 

=== Higher Education ===

== Information society ==

=== Towards the information society ===

=== Information society strategy ===

== E-learning and ICT implementation in education ==

The most recent as well as comprehensive research report [http://www.code.ouj.ac.jp/wp-content/uploads/ICT-2011.pdf] regarding the e-learning and ICT implementation in Japanese higher education is provided by CODE commissioned by MEXT made 2010-2011, covering the total number of 1,202 responded institutions in higher education, including universities, junior colleges, and technical colleges.

What is remarkable is that the average of 35.7% higher institutions (national:35.8%; public 35.3%, private: 32.2%) answered that they exercised some sort of internet-based distance learning (p.134).

Besides, the average of 16.0% (433 divisions) answered that they provide full-online course delivery (national: 20.8%, public: 17.6%, private: 14.2%) (p.133).

== Distance learning ==

=== Distance learning in secondary education ===

=== Distance learning in higher education ===

As of 2012, with the approval of the Distance Education Universities Law ([[e-Gov]]), 27 undergraduate, 10 graduate, and 17 undergraduate-graduate institutions and 11 distance education junior colleges are authorized to provide distance learning programs. Distance education higher institutions are run privately (100%) and most are dual-mode (89%), although this could change over time. ([[e-Stat]], 2012).

Currently seven universities are single mode and focus exclusively on distance education. Three of these offer only undergraduate programs, one offers only graduate programs, two offer both undergraduate and graduate programs, and one is a junior college; all of these universities show a high e-learning orientation , presumably a natural consequence of not having campus-based students ([[Miyazoe]] & [[Anderson]], 2012).

The number of undergraduates is 217,236 (or 7.8 % out of the total undergraduate students), and the number of graduate students is 8,241 (or 2.9%) ([[e-Stat]], 2012).

 

=== Open University ===

==== The Open University of Japan ====

The [[Open University of Japan]], formerly the [[University of the Air]] ([[Hoso Daigaku]]), is the largest distance learning institution of higher education, with about 85,000 enrollments (among which about 80,000 are undergraduates and 5,000 are graduates) in 2012 [http://www.ouj.ac.jp/hp/gaiyo/gaiyo09.html#zaigaku].

A particularity of distance learning program of OUJ lies in its providing courses in both face-to-face and distance modes. Many of the courses are offered as video lectures (TV and Internet) as well as face-to-face class meetings (weekly or intensively). Though it is the most obvious candidate to develop e-learning, it is slow in responding to the new environment.

In conjunction with the re-structuring of NIME and its graduate programs ([[Sogo Kenkyu Daigakuin]]), now merged into OUJ, master's level graduate programs were re-organized in 2009. New courses of e-learning and information management were further open in 2012 April.

==== CODE ====

The [[National Institute of Multimedia Education]] ([[NIME]]) started off life as an inter-university research institute and had many similarities to national iniatitives such as [[SURF]] and [[Norway Opening Universities]].

In April 2004, NIME ceased to be an inter-university research institute and became an independent administrative institution. While this organizational change was not without a degree of confusion, NIME was evaluated for the first time in 2005, earning considerable praise for the way it had managed to continue with its original work and at the same time launch some new activities.

NIME ended in 2009 and its work was transferred to CODE [http://www.code.ouj.ac.jp/] (Center of ICT and Distance Education), a research center of the Open University of Japan.
 

=== New attempts of traditional universities ===

Past attempts by Japanese universities to offer Internet-based classes have been of an experimental nature, with the main objective being limited to the advertisement of the universities concerned. Since the change in the regulations in 2001, there have been more serious attempts to set up e-learning courses including at some top-ranking universities. Two such examples among the national universities are [[Tohoku University]] in the Miyagi prefecture and [[Shinshu University]] in Nagano. Tohoku University’s plan is a very bold and comprehensive one, while Shinshu University’s programme is far more grounded and has already made some concrete progress.

Two top private universities, namely [[Keio University]] and [[Waseda University]], both have solid track records in experimentation with e-learning and are also each actively planning to open an Internet school in the near future. Keio has a distance education course; Waseda has night schools that already offer about 30 on-demand video streaming lectures on the Internet. Among the CEO judged awards, Keio won four awards, Waseda five, and Ritsumeikan three.

 

==== Kumamoto University ====

 

==== Tohoku University ====

The university was the first to start comprehensive and virtual graduate programmes in Japan, in an ambitious programme called the Internet School of Tohoku University (ISTU). The programme envisages a full-fledged graduate school covering political science, literature, economics, law, engineering, international relations, medicine, pharmacology, dentistry, and education. It plans to set up satellite campuses in Japan and also to seek affiliation with universities overseas. The initial offerings will be limited to the engineering divisions. An intermediate goal is to have 40% of all courses on campus on the Internet by the year 2007. In 2002, the university concurrently set up a new department called Education Informatics that will support the operation of the ISTU.

 

==== Shinshu University ====

Starting in April 2002, the university opened an e-learning graduate course on information technology leading to a doctoral degree. (See http://cai.cs.shinshu-u.ac.jp/sugsi/Nyushi/sugsi/sugsi-press.html.) There were more than 1000 inquiries after the announcement and now there are 81 students enrolled – with 80% of them holding full time jobs. The digital content is open to the public and fully accessible, including the interactive programmes. They accepted the first batch of students while the contents were not ready, but the production is in progress at a fairly good pace. (See http://server1.int-univ.com/CaiSupport/)

 

==== Waseda University ====

Waseda has been experimenting with an international collaboration in the use of a video conferencing system, called Cross Cultural Distance Learning (CCDL), which has a membership of 21 universities from 21 countries, including the Universities of Edinburgh and Essex. (See https://ccdlsrv.project.mnc.waseda.ac.jp/ccdl/index.asp.) CCDL is a part of a broader Waseda programme, called Digital Campus Consortium. It has also set up a subsidiary company called Waseda Learning Square to provide life-long learning courses. While its overall reputation trailed behind Keio for some time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, today it has re-established its brand with a wide range of initiatives from new professional graduate schools to new campus plans.

 

==== Keio University ====

Keio is advanced in its use of the Internet and its applications. In 1990, it opened its Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC), which received wide and positive publicity for its innovative undergraduate and graduate education; this fosters individual creativity while establishing IT as an integral element of education. Celebrated as one of the most significant higher education innovations, the SFC attracted top-calibre students and established its name not only in the IT world but also in other policy fields. Prior to SFC, Keio had established the WIDE Project in 1988, with a consortium of over 100 universities and corporations, which in turn spun off the first Internet provider in Japan, Internet Initiative (IIJ). WIDE is now responsible for the operation of a DNS server and is also experimenting with IPv6. Another programme under WIDE is the School of the Internet (SOI), which is experimenting in e-learning with six participating universities, including the University of Tokyo and Chiba Commerce University. The programme records live lectures that are later put on the Internet; an interesting feature is that students’ work is left on the Internet for mutual evaluation.

 

=== Innovative Universities ===

==== Sanno University ====

Sanno (The University of Industrial Productivity) launched several courses in business-related skills such as accounting, though their delivery is limited to fairly conventional access to video with limited interactivity.

 

==== Ritsumeikan University ====

Ritsumeikan is another well-respected private university that has established its repu-tation on the basis of its innovative reform measures in the 90s. It is well known, but had always been considered as the least desirable of the six best private schools in the Kansai area (of Western Japan close to Osaka). Under the strong leadership of its chairman, who used to be a non-faculty administrator within the university, it opened its Kusatsu Campus, which is now well-known for its forward thinking in educational content; it has been launching all initiatives from IT education, outsourcing in order to develop creative linkages with local industry. While Ritsumeikan has no specific plan for e-learning, it has the management style and ability to move quickly, unlike many other universities. -- am not sure if it's right to list here ???

 

==== Other institutions ====

For more details see the report ''The e-University and Potential Markets in Japan'' at http://www.matic-media.co.uk/ukeu/UKEU-r05-japan-2005.doc for information.

 

=== JOCW ===

 

== National initiatives - [[MEXT]] ==

(sourced from http://www.nime.ac.jp/reports/004/pdf/report2006.pdf)

In recent years, changes in the environment surrounding higher education and the progress of ICT

have led to an increasing need for education that is effective, efficient, and based on the demands for the greater sophistication and diversification of educational content. Education using ICT and elearning are increasingly being introduced as methods to meet these needs, and their promotion is seen as an important issue in government policy.

The New IT Reform Strategy by the Government (January 2006) and the Priority Policy Program 2006 (July 2006), formulated by the government’s Strategic Headquarters for the Advanced Information and Telecommunications Network Society (IT Strategic Headquarters), state that the government will:

:aim to increase by more than double the ratio of undergraduate faculties and graduate schools which implement e-learning education or distance learning using the Internet, improve cooperation between domestic/international universities and companies as well as promote the further education of members of society through the promotion of e-learning education programs using the Internet at universities, etc.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology ([[MEXT]]) has been conducting its Support Program for Contemporary Educational Needs, since 2004. Under this program, the theme of the development of e-learning programs for fostering human resources in line with needs was suggested, and education using ICT and e-learning are being promoted. By this promotion theme of the Ministry, 13 universities or colleges of technology were selected for financially support to develop e-learning courses in 2006. Responding to this state of affairs, our research, which was conducted in collaboration with MEXT, offers an analysis of the current state of education using ICT at Japan’s higher education institutions and the inherent issues, and also aims to provide some basic data and information to address policy issues surrounding higher education and IT strategy

 

== References ==

[http://www.nime.ac.jp/reports/004/ Report on education using ICT including e-Learning, 2006] (for tertiary education in Japan)

 

{{Reflist}}

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[[Countries]]

 

[[Main Page]]

[[Category:Japan]] [[Category:Asia]] [[Category:OECD]] [[Category:G8_countries]] [[Category:G-20_countries]] [[Category:Countries_with_Programmes]]

[[Category:VISCED]]

2012-07-06T08:40:05Z

Daniela Proli:

[http://www.must.edu.mn/must_en/modules.php?R_Id=28 E-Open school of Mongolian University of Science and Technology] offer advanced training courses (as well as bachelor and master courses) through distance education.

[[Category:Mongolia]]
[[Category:Asia]]
[[Category:Virtual colleges]]
[[Category:VISCED]]

E-Open school of Mongolian University of Science and Technology

2012-07-06T08:39:53Z

Daniela Proli: Created page with " [http://www.must.edu.mn/must_en/modules.php?R_Id=28 E-Open school of Mongolian University of Science and Technology] offer advanced training courses (as well as bachelor and mas..."

Mongolia

2012-07-06T08:38:36Z

Daniela Proli: /* Virtual initiatives in post-secondary education */

== Partners and Experts in Mongolia ==




== Mongolia in a nutshell ==
(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolia)

''Mongolia'' ( Mongolian: Монгол улс, literally Mongol country/nation) is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It borders [[Russia]] to the north and [[China]] to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with [[Kazakhstan]], its western-most point is only 24 miles (38 km) from Kazakhstan's eastern tip.

[[Image:Mongolia.gif|right|thumb|350px|Source : http://www.cia.gov]]
The population of Mongolia is around 2.9 million.

Ulan Bator, the capital and largest city, is home to about 38% of the population.

Mongolia's political system is a parliamentary republic.

At 1,564,116 square kilometres, Mongolia is the nineteenth largest and the most sparsely populated independent country in the world. It is also the world's second-largest landlocked country after [[Kazakhstan]].

The country contains very little arable land, as much of its area is covered by steppes, with mountains to the north and west and the Gobi Desert to the south.

Approximately 30% of the country's people are nomadic or semi-nomadic. However, Mongolia has become more urbanized. About 40 percent of the population lives in Ulaanbaatar, and in 2002 a further 23% lived in Darkhan, Erdenet, the aimag centers and sum-level permanent settlements. Another share of the population lives in the sum centers. In 2002, about 30 percent of all households in Mongolia lived from breeding lifestock. Most herders in Mongolia follow a pattern of nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralism.

The predominant religion in Mongolia is Tibetan Buddhism, and the majority of the state's citizens are of the Mongol ethnicity, though Kazakhs, Tuvans, and other minorities also live in the country, especially in the west.

Mongolia is divided into 21 aimags (provinces), which are in turn divided into 315 sums (districts). The capital Ulan Bator is administrated separately as a khot (municipality) with provincial status.

The official language of Mongolia is Khalkha Mongolian, which uses the Cyrillic alphabet, and is spoken by 90% of the population. A variety of different dialects are spoken across the country. In the west the Kazakh and Tuvan languages, among others, are also spoken. The Russian language is the most frequently spoken foreign language in Mongolia, followed by English, though English has been gradually replacing Russian as the second language.[citation needed] Korean has gained popularity as tens of thousands of Mongolians work in South Korea.[30] Interest in Chinese, as the language of the other neighbouring power, has been growing. Japanese is also popular among the younger people. A number of older educated Mongolians speak some German, as they studied in the former East Germany, while a few speak other languages from the former Eastern Bloc. Besides that, many younger Mongolians are fluent in the Western European languages as they study or work in foreign countries including [[Germany]], [[France]] and [[Italy]].

== Education in Mongolia ==

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Mongolia

During the state socialist period, education was one of the areas of significant achievement in Mongolia. Illiteracy was virtually eliminated, in part through the use of seasonal boarding schools for children of nomadic families. Funding to these boarding schools was cut in the 1990s, contributing to slightly increased illiteracy.

Primary and secondary education formerly lasted ten years, but was expanded to eleven years. Since the 2008-2009 school year, new first graders are using the twelve year system. As such, full transition to the twelve year system will not happen until the 2019-2020 school year, when the current first graders graduate.

from Wikipedia

Mongolia's education system has undergone major changes in the past century. The educational reforms during communist times were a stark break with traditional education that was often religious and esoteric. These reforms were modeled on Soviet education systems and greatly expanded access to education for Mongolian citizens. Among the changes was a transition from the traditional Mongolian script, from 1941 to 1946, to the Cyrillic alphabet. Literacy was also greatly expanded as most of the population enjoyed free primary school. However, the move to democracy and free markets in the 1990s has had some negative impacts on education in Mongolia, though these setbacks have been ameliorated some by an improving economy and policy reforms. Many adults also benefit from the non-formal distance education programs sponsored by the government in conjunction with foreign NGOs in Mongolia. Today education in Mongolia is overseen by the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science.

Mongolia has an extensive, state-financed pre-school education system. Currently there are over 700 state and private kindergartens (name for a day care). While during socialist times, every sum used to have at least one nursery school and a kindergarten. Currently there only exist kindergartens that enroll children over the age of 3. In Ulaanbaatar, there are also some privately run nursery schools and kindergartens, many offer language training, for example, Russian.

The system in place for lower-level education in Mongolia has been similar to the one used during communist times, though the government has begun reforms to expand it. The original system included four years of compulsory schooling followed by a further four years of compulsory lower-secondary education. There were then two years of upper-secondary non-compulsory education that either have a vocational, technical, or general education focus.[2] The expansion, began in 2004 with the official school entry age dropping from age 8 to 7. A further expansion is set to take place in 2008 with the entry grade-level dropping one more year to age 6. The goal is to have a 12 year, 6-4-2, system for primary and secondary education.[3]

== Schools in Mongolia ==

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Mongolia

As of 2003 there were 688 primary and secondary schools with about 528,000 students and 20,725 teachers. There were 32 vocational and technical training centers with 20,000 students and over 800 teachers.[4]

The earliest example of public education in Mongolia is a secular school set up by the Buddhist monk and poet Dazan Ravjaa at the Khamar Monastery in the 1820s.

Schools in sum centers usually have boarding schools for pupils from the countryside. Many of these sum schools only go to the eighth grade, pupils who want to complete the secondary school then have to attend schools in the aimag centers.

In Ulaanbaatar and cities like Erdenet there are private schools, though of mixed quality. Ulaanbaatar also has some foreign-language themed public schools, for example for Russian, Chinese, Turkish, English, and German.

In Ulaanbaatar, there are several private secondary schools that have instruction in English and Mongolian, and just a few that have English-only instruction.

== Further and Higher education ==

=== Universities in Mongolia ===

Mongolian national universities are all spin-offs from the National University of Mongolia and the Mongolian University of Science and Technology.

The broad liberalization of the 1990s led to a boom in private institutions of higher education.

'''National University of Mongolia'''
(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_University_of_Mongolia)

The National University of Mongolia (short: NUM; Mongolian Монгол Улсын Их Сургууль, Mongol Ulsyn Ikh Surguul) is the oldest University in Mongolia. It hosts twelve schools and faculties in Ulan Bator, and runs branches in the Zavkhan and Orkhon Aimags. Approximately one third of the academically educated Mongolians have graduated from NUM.

During socialism, the University served as a training center for the party elite. Education was paid for and strictly controlled by the state. After democratization it gradually changed into a more modern university. In 1995 it started to offer bachelor's, master's, and PhD programs.

In 2006 there were 12,000 students enrolled, including 2000 graduate students. The University offers over 80 undergraduate and graduate programs, mostly using Mongolian language as the medium of instruction.

Its web site is in theory at http://www.num.edu.mn but is not always accessible.

'''Mongolian University of Science and Technology'''
(sourced from its web site at http://www.must.edu.mn/emust/)

The Mongolian University of Science and Technology (MUST), one of the Leading State Universities of the country, is situated on its extensive campuses in Ulaanbaatar City, Darkhan, Erdenet, Uburkhangai, and Sukhbaatar provinces.

MUST is made up of 17 professional schools, colleges and 3 research institutes and 36 experimental and technology centers whose faculty offer educational opportunities to students ranging from first-year undergraduates through doctoral-level candidates in engineering, technology, and others. Currently about 20,000 students including international students are enrolling and enjoying life at the university, and and 120 professors and over 1000 staff are engaged in student training, educational and research activities, university administration and management.

=== Polytechnics in Mongolia ===

For some other institutions see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Mongolia

=== Colleges in Mongolia ===



== Education reform ==

=== Schools ===

In June 2011, VSO Mongolia published a report on the Mongolian Education Sector which looked at progress, challenges and future priorities given the current socio-economic changes in Mongolia.[1] The report, which was launched to commemorate IYV+10 (10th Anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers, showed that there were numerous opportunities presented by the high level of economic growth, which has brought more resources into the sector. However, it showed that as Mongolia emerges onto the world stage, the disparity between rich and poor could leave many marginalised when it comes to benefitting from education. The report argued that the Mongolian Government has made an immense effort to develop the education sector at all levels since its transition to democracy with an admirable openness and willingness to progress towards its further development. This was particularly noted in accommodating for Mongolia's unique country characteristics such as the nomadic lifestyle, low population density in remote areas, and striving towards meeting international standards.

The report also showed that Mongolian people have always valued education over other attributes and have habitually made it their priority to educate their children. Due to these efforts, the findings showed that overall the parents were satisfied with their children’s progress at school. However, there were still many challenges that remain to be tackled. The findings also showed that amongst all stakeholders, there was an overwhelming majority who gave a negative response when asked about the performance of the sector at present; this was in terms of the quality of education (68%), Access to education (83%), and the inclusiveness of the system for disadvantaged groups (76%).

In concluding what VSO Mongolia achieved in its education programme over the last 20 years, the report showed that international volunteers have and continue to make a significant impact in the development of the education sector. Stakeholders who took part in this research generally held a positive view of the role and influence of the international volunteers, with 67% of respondents regarding them as having played a crucial role in education. While just over half of respondents had experience of working with international volunteers, 94% of all respondents were willing to work with them in the future. At this stage in Mongolia’s development, the relevance and impact of international volunteering was highlighted when addressing these challenges and future priorities in taking the education sector forward to achieve its ultimate goal of Education for All.

=== Post-secondary ===

==== Higher education reform ====

==== The Bologna Process ====

== Administration and finance ==

=== Schools ===

Mongolia’s educational administrative structure is organized with MECS as the national and central authoritative body, followed by subsequent administrative bodies, such as aimags (provinces) education boards, sums (districts) education offices, and school councils. At the district level (sums), the administrative office of the sum governor is responsible for appointing directors of schools and and overseeing school management.

=== Post-secondary ===

== Quality assurance, inspection and accreditation ==

=== Schools ===

=== Post-secondary ===

== Information society ==

'''ICT Vision - 2010'''

In 1999, Mongolia held a National ICT Summit, closely followed in February 2000 by “ National Vision for ICT development of Mongolia up to 2010”, the first ICT policy paper for Mongolia, ratified by parliament. It recognized that ICT was an important tool for development in Mongolia. Shortly after the "National ICT Committee" was created, as was the "Mongolian Information Development Application Scheme" (MIDAS). MIDAS is now a committee of experts that amongst others, supports the National ICT Committee by sharing expert knowledge.

ICT Vision-2010 has three major components: a government-legislation framework, a business-economy framework and a people-society framework. Within the people-society framework, the goal is to “create a favourable environment for Mongolian citizens to communicate freely among themselves and with the world community, ensure opportunities for their equal and active participation in social life and improve quality of people’s lives.”

'''E-Mongolia National Program 2005-2012'''

The vision of the eMongolia National Program for 2012 was to establish the information society and the foundation of the Knowledge based society in Mongolia by enhancing extensive application of ICT in all society sectors. The program is the Government mid-term strategy for ICT development and is desigend around 22 sub-strategies, one of those is e-education strategy

== ICT in education initiatives ==

The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (MOECS) has used Vision-2010 as a model to implement ICTs in the education sector, developing an action plan which was approved in 2001. MOECS’s vision for ICT in education had four major components, covering areas of:

* Training - the full utilization of ICT in each educational level’s curriculum and contents in order to introduce ICT possibilities and gain knowledge and skills in using it.
* Hardware - Supply of hardware allows the conduct of training according to different level of modern ICT development and provides possibilities of free access to information.
* Teaching staff - Supply of teaching staffs which have the capabilities to develop themselves in terms of their own knowledge and skills in line with rapid development of ICT.
* Information ware - Creation of possibilities of available and accessible information service by establishing educational information database and network.

Within the E-Mongolia Program, the E-education axis include the following goals

'''Goal 1: Development of the mechanism for the managementof information technology policy and the administration of effective education'''

*Create an administration system and the shared application of educational resources in order to reduce duplicate investment, and use educational resources efficiently and for the maximum benefit of students;
*Enhance the capabilities of organizations and agencies involved in the development of education technology, whose duties are to promote and support student centered learning;

'''Goal 2: Development of an equitable information infrastructure for education-Expedite the development and provision of equitable telecommunication infrastructure service'''

*Develop an effective IT network for education at a reasonable price;
*Provide complete IT utility in every school in order to move into e-school. By 2012 every 10 student in a high school will have a PC. By 2012 every teacher will have a PC (10% of them notebook);
*Transfer every content to electronic means;

'''Goal 3: Development of the human resources'''

*Develop and train personnel and education related human resource at all levels to increase their ICT knowledge and skills;
*Accelerate the production of graduates, improve the quality of training and develop advanced ICT labor in order to support the rising demand;
*Increase the production of postgraduates (masters and PhDs);
*Develop programs for training and life-long learning for knowledge workers;
*Extended utilization of distance learning centresto develop public ICT literacy
*Establish multimedia centres in order to develop human resource
*Introduce international standards of ICT education
*Increase the production and training of ICT engineers, qualified specialists in order to success in the world software market
*Develop and improve educational curriculum that supports students in the use of ICT in order to increase the knowledge
*Establish a model e-school to support e-schools through Mongolia
*Extended utilization of ICT in “English as a second language”program to obtain world recognized education in Mongolia.
*Promote and support R&D which focuses on the development of knowledge, learning processes, and achievement trough knowledge.

'''Goal 4: Development of the public ICT literacy'''

*Introduce International Computer Driving License for public ICT literacy
*Create internet access in the public (community) areas: library, post office, recreation centre etc.
*Support private sector investment in the development of e-education

The principal limiting factor in integrating ICT into education in Mongolia has been that the focus has been on the teaching of ICT as a subject, rather than the way in which it can be integrated to enhance the teaching/learning process.

=== Virtual initiatives in schools ===

A set of initiatives and projects have been developed in the country to support mainly non-formal rural distance education. Though the use of ICT was limited due to the fact that internet broadband connection is not yet diffused in the country, especially out of the capital.

The initiatives and experimentations undertaken so far try to build on the well consolidate network of non-formal education centres developed thanks to the [http://www.literacyportal.net/artc/mongolia.html National Centre of Non-formal and distance Education (NCNFDE)] and the experience gained in distance education couldbe a good basis for ICT supported initiative once the infrastructure are fully available.

Some examples include the [http://www.unesco.org/uil/litbase/?menu=4&programme=51 Literacy Through Distance Learning Programme] of the NCNFDE.

This program provides basic and advanced literacy skills training to out-of-school youth and illiterate or semi-illiterate youth and adults through distance education. The programme has been implemented in 12 of the country's 21 aimags (provinces), namely Bayan-Ulgii, Khovd, Uvs, Zavkhan, Bayan-Khongor, Sukhbaatar, Tuv, Umnugobi, Dundgobi, Dornogobi, Khentii and Gobi-Altai. It benefit 3,500 illiterates and 4,500 semi-literates per year.

Other relevant initiatives can be found at http://www.literacyportal.net/artc/mongolia.html

====Internet Based Distance Education Project====

In 2001 the [http://www.idrc.ca/EN/Pages/default.aspx International Development Research Centre of Canada (IDRC)] funded the [http://www.elearning.mn/ Internet Based Distance Education Project] in Mongolia. The project initiated selected Mongolian institutions into the processes of research, development and experimentation with web-based instruction methods and technologies for distance education. In particular, the project aimed at introducing internet-based distance education methodology and experiemet it to selected mongolian learning communities. The project offered experimental web-based instructional courses on specific subjects such as English language, IT and computer skills, gender issues and legal rights.
A parallel aim of this project is to encourage and facilitate the educational authority within the country to formulate a vision and strategic plan for technology-based distance education, within the national education policy framework.

This project was aimed at benefiting the following categories of people in Mongolia:

* People learning English, gender education, Information Technology
* Grade five to ten school children
* Pupils passing math and English based entrance exams
* Self-learners on above mentioned fields
* School dropped children and others

=== Virtual initiatives in post-secondary education ===

[http://www.must.edu.mn/must_en/modules.php?R_Id=28 E-Open school of Mongolian University of Science and Technology] offer advanced training courses (as well as bachelor and master courses) through distance education.

See the [[Health Sciences University of Mongolia]] - but there is doubt as to how active this is.

== Lessons learnt ==

=== General lessons ===

Several experiences exist in distance education, especially in order to come up with drop out in rural areas and ensure universal coverage of education. Also interest can be found in the literature on the issue of ICT integration in Education. However distance education is not yet much supported by the web due to infrastructural shortage and there are no virtual schools and online learning programme at school level.

Given the consolidated experience, they might be easily built in the future once the costs drop down.

=== Notable practices ===



== References ==

[http://www.mecs.gov.mn/lang-English.mw Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences]

[http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/viewArticle/721/1234 Brenda McDonald, Appropriate Distance Education Media in the Philippines and Mongolia]

[http://76.12.54.203/work/openaccess/assets/Open%20Access%20-%20Mongolia.pdf Batchuluun Yembuu Open And Distance Education In Mongolia: Possible Relevance of Open Access]

[http://www.unescobkk.org/education/ict/themes/policy/regional-country-overviews/mongolia/ Unesco Office in Bangkok: Mongolia]
----
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[[Category:VISCED]]

South Korea

2012-07-06T08:33:20Z

Daniela Proli:

''by Paul Bacsich and Daniela Proli''

== Experts situated in South Korea ==

Heeok Heo, Associate Professor, SunChon National University

== South Korea in a nutshell ==
(sourced from Wikipedia)

''South Korea'', officially the '''Republic of Korea''' and often referred to as '''Korea''' (Korean: 대한민국, Hanja: 大韓民國), is a presidential republic in East Asia, occupying the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. Also known as the '''Land of the Morning Calm''', it is neighbored by [[China]] to the west, [[Japan]] to the east and borders [[North Korea]] to the north. South Korea's capital and largest city, Seoul, is a global financial and cultural center and the second largest metropolitan city in the world.

Following the unification of the Three Korean Kingdoms in 668 CE, Korea went through the Goryeo and Joseon Dynasty as one nation until the end of the Korean Empire in 1910. After division, South Korea was established in 1948 and has since developed a successful democracy, a prosperous economy and an advanced military, maintaining a strong alliance with the United States. It is now working towards a peaceful reunification with North Korea.

South Korea is a major economic power and one of the wealthiest countries in Asia. It is a developed country with a high standard of living, having a trillion dollar economy that is the third largest in Asia and 13th largest in the world. Forming the G20 industrial nations and the world's top ten exporters, it is an APEC and [[OECD]] member, defined as a High Income Nation by the World Bank and an Advanced Economy by the IMF and CIA. A major non-NATO ally, it has the world's sixth largest armed forces and the tenth largest defence budget in the world.

The government of South Korea is divided into three branches: executive, judicial, and legislative. The executive and legislative branches operate primarily at the national level, although various ministries in the executive branch also carry out local functions. Local governments are semi-autonomous, and contain executive and legislative bodies of their own. The judicial branch operates at both the national and local levels. South Korea is a constitutional democracy.

The South Korean government's structure is determined by the Constitution of the Republic of Korea. This document has been revised several times since its first promulgation in 1948. However, it has retained many broad characteristics; with the exception of the short-lived Second Republic of South Korea, the country has always had a presidential system with an independent chief executive. South Korea has developed a successful liberal democracy since the 1960s and the first direct election was held in 1987.

South Korea is divided into 8 provinces (do), 1 special autonomous province (teukbyeol jachido), 6 metropolitan cities (gwangyeoksi), and 1 special city (teukbyeolsi). These are further subdivided into a variety of smaller entities, including cities (si), counties (gun), districts (gu), towns (eup), townships (myeon), neighborhoods (dong) and villages (ri), as explained below.

(Note on translation: although the terms "Special City," "Metropolitan City," "Province," and "City" are commonly used on English-language government websites, the other translations ("county," "town," "district," etc.) are not official translations, and are only intended to serve as useful illustrations of each entity's meaning.)

Most South Koreans live in urban areas, due to rapid migration from the countryside during the country's quick economic expansion in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The capital city of Seoul is also the country's largest city and chief industrial center. It had 10.3 million inhabitants in 2006, making Seoul one of the most populated single cities in the world.[79] Other major cities include Busan (3.65 million), Incheon (2.63 million), Daegu (2.53 million), Daejeon (1.46 million), Gwangju (1.41 million) and Ulsan (1.10 million).[

The population has also been shaped by international migration. Following the division of the Korean peninsula after World War II, about four million people from North Korea crossed the border to South Korea. This trend of net entry reversed over the next forty years due to emigration, especially to the United States and Canada. However, South Korea's burgeoning economy and democracy in the early and mid-1990s slowed the high emigration rates typical of the previous decades. The current population of South Korea is roughly 48,850,000.

Although small, the percentage of non-Koreans has been increasing. Officially, as of the summer of 2007, there are just over 1 million foreigners living in Korea. That number includes foreign residents, students, tourists and illegal aliens. Among them, 104,749 people were married to Koreans, 404,051 were working in Korea and 225,273 were illegal aliens.

Korean farmers have a hard time finding a wife, as few women want to live in the countryside. Farmers are forced to look abroad to find their wife, mostly from Southeast Asia, and increasingly from Eastern Europe. For the year 2006, 41% of the marriages amongst the farmers were to foreign nationals.

There are 31,000 US military personnel.

== Education in South Korea ==
=== South Korea education policy ===

Education in South Korea is regarded crucial to success and competition is consequently very heated and fierce. In the most recent OECD Programme for International Student Assessment, South Korea came first in Problem solving, first in Reading, third in Mathematics and eleventh in Science, all being significantly higher than Western European and North American countries. South Korea has the highest national IQ in the world, estimated at 106.

A centralised administration in South Korea oversees the process for the education of children from kindergarten to third grade high school. South Korea has adopted a new educational program. It was planned to increase the number of their foreign students through the year 2010. According to Ministry of Education, Science and Technology estimate, by that time, the number of scholarships for foreign students in S. Korea will be doubled, and the number of foreign students will reach 100,000. Mathematics, science, Korean, social studies, and English are generally considered to be the most important subjects and are considered compulsory.

South Korea was the first country in the world to provide high-speed internet access to every primary, junior, and high school.

The school year is divided into two semesters. The first begins in the beginning of March and ends in mid-July; the second begins in late August and ends in mid-February. The schedules are not uniformly standardised and vary from school to school.

==== Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development ====

The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development is responsible for South Korean education. It was renamed by the former Ministry of education, who enhanced its function in 2001 because the administration of Kim Dae-jung considered education and human resources development as a matter of the highest priority. As a result of the reform, it began to cover the whole field of human resource development and the minister of education was appointed to the Vice Prime Minister.

Like other ministers, the Minister of Education and Human Resources Development is appointed by the president. They are mainly chosen from candidates who have an academic background and often resign in a fairly short term (around one year).

=== South Korea education system ===
(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_South_Korea)

Education in South Korea is seen as the most important key to success and competition is consequently very heated and fierce. A centralized administration oversees the process for the education of children from kindergarten to the third and final year of high school. Mathematics, science, Korean, social studies, and English are generally considered to be the most important subjects. Sometimes physical education is not considered important as it is not regarded to be education and therefore many schools lack high-quality gymnasiums and varsity athletics. South Korea was the first country in the world to provide high-speed internet access from every primary, junior, and high school.

The school year is divided into two semesters. The first begins in the beginning of March and ends in mid-July; the second begins in late August and ends in mid-February. They have summer vacation from mid-July to late August, and winter vacation from late-December to early February, and also take a short vacation from mid-February to end of that month. The schedules are not rigidly standardized, however, and can vary from school to school.

== Schools in South Korea==

=== Kindergarten ===

Kindergarten in Korea is not a publicly administered program. Parents send their children to private schools: most are taught in Korean, many of those have an English class, and some kindergartens are taught almost entirely in English.

Kindergarten in South Korea is composed of children from ages three to five. Most children do not attend "preschool" but are lumped together in a kindergarten class with other children who may be within a three years age difference. When the child reaches about six years of age he/she is systematically moved on to the first year of elementary school. From kindergarten to high school, matriculating through the grade levels is not determined on knowledge, grades or passing of any tests, but is based purely upon the student's age. Enrollment in kindergartens or preschools expanded impressively during the 1980s. In 1980 there were 66,433 children attending 901 kindergartens or preschools. By 1987 there were 397,020 children in 7,792 institutions. The number of kindergarten and preschool teachers rose from 3,339 to 11,920 during the same period. The overwhelming majority of these teachers--approximately 92 percent--were women. This growth was attributable to several factors: Ministry of Education encouragement of preschool education, the greater number of women entering the work force, growth in the number of nuclear families where a grandparent was often unavailable to take care of children, and the feeling that kindergarten might give children an "edge" in later educational competition. Kindergartens often paid homage to the expectations of parents with impressive graduation ceremonies, complete with diplomas and gowns.

=== Elementary School ===

Elementary school consists of grades one to six(age 8 to age 13 in Korean years - 6 to 12 in western years). Students learn subjects including, but not limited to, Korean, mathematics, science, social studies, language arts, fine arts, and music. Usually, the class teacher covers most of the subjects; however, there are some specialized teachers in professions such as physical education and foreign languages, including English. About 20 years ago, English used to be taught first in middle school, but nowadays, students begin learning English in the third year of elementary school. Korean language has a very different grammatical structure from English, and English education in Korea is more or less inefficient, so this is a frequent source of concern to parents. Many choose to send their children to additional private educational institutions called hagwon (학원). More schools in the country are recruiting native English speakers to facilitate learning English.

Alongside public elementary schools there are a number of private elementary schools in Korea, usually distinguishable by the uniforms their students wear (public elementary school students do not wear uniforms apart from PE kit). These schools follow a similar curriculum as public elementary schools, but often offer superior facilities, a higher teacher-to-student ratio, and extra programmes. They also usually offer a higher standard of learning. Though highly desirable, they are prohibitively expensive for many Korean parents.

Elementary schools are called chodeung-hakgyo (Hangul:초등학교 Hanja:初等學校,), meaning elementary school. The South Korean government changed its name to the current form from gukmin hakgyo (Hangul:국민학교 Hanja:國民學校) meaning citizens' school in 1996. This was done as a gesture of restoring national pride. The word, abbreviated from 황국신민의 학교 (皇國臣民의 學校), means "school for the subjects of the imperial state" carried over from Japanese colonial rule.

=== Secondary education ===

In 1987 there were approximately 4,895,354 students enrolled in middle schools and high schools, with approximately 150,873 teachers. About 69 percent of these teachers were male. The secondary-school enrollment figure also reflected changing population trends--there were 3,959,975 students in secondary schools in 1979. Given the importance of entry into higher education, the majority of students attended general or academic high schools in 1987: 1,397,359 students, or 60 percent of the total, attended general or academic high schools, as compared with 840,265 students in vocational secondary schools. Vocational schools specialized in a number of fields: primarily agriculture, fishery, commerce, trades, merchant marine, engineering, and the arts.[citation needed]

Competitive entrance examinations at the middle-school level were abolished in 1968. Although as of the late 1980s, students still had to pass noncompetitive qualifying examinations, they were assigned to secondary institutions by lottery, or else by location within the boundary of the school district. Secondary schools, formerly ranked according to the quality of their students, have been equalized, with a portion of good, mediocre, and poor students being assigned to each one. The reform, however, did not equalize secondary schools completely. In Seoul, students who performed well in qualifying examinations were allowed to attend better quality schools in a "common" district, while other students attended schools in one of five geographical districts. The reforms applied equally to public and private schools whose enrollments were strictly controlled by the Ministry of Education.

Unlike United States, where the grade of a student is commonly incremented until 12th grade as the student progresses through primary and secondary education system, in South Korea, the grade of a student is reset as the student progresses through elementary, middle and high school. To differentiate the grades between students, one would often state the grade based on the level of education he/she is in. For example, a student in a first year of middle school (equivalent to 7th grade in the United States) would be referred to as "First grade in Middle School (중학교 1학년)".

Middle schools are called 중학교 in Korean (中學校, jung hakgyo), which literally means middle school. High schools are called 고등학교 in Korean (高等學校, godeung hakgyo), literally meaning "high-level school."

'''Middle School'''

Middle schools in South Korea consist of three grades. Most students enter at age 12 and finish at age 15 (western years). These three grades correspond roughly to grades 7-9 in the North American system and 2nd to 4th form in the British system.

Middle school in South Korea marks a considerable shift from elementary school, with students expected to take studies and school much more seriously. At most middle schools regulation uniforms and haircuts are enforced fairly strictly, and some aspects of students' lives are highly controlled. Like in elementary school, students spend most of the day in the same homeroom classroom with the same classmates; however, students have different teachers for each subject. Teachers move around from classroom to classroom, and few teachers apart from those who teach special subjects have their own rooms to which students come. Homeroom teachers (담임선생님 dam im seonsangnim) play a very important role in students' lives, and have considerably more authority over and responsibility for their students' than their American counterparts.

Most middle school students take six lessons a day, and in addition to this usually have an early morning block that precedes regular lessons and a seventh lesson specialising in an extra subject to finish the day. Unlike with high school, middle school curricula do not vary much from school to school. Maths, English, Korean, and science form the core subjects, with students also receiving instruction in art, PE, history, Hanja (Chinese characters), ethics, home economics, and computers. What subjects students study and in what amount may vary from year to year. All regular lessons are 45 minutes long. Before school, students have an extra block, 30-or-more minutes long, that may be used for self-study, watching Educational Broadcast System (EBS) broadcasts, or for personal or class administration. As of 2008, students attend school from Monday to Friday, and have a half-day every 1st, 3rd, and 5th (calendar permitting) Saturday of the month. Saturday lessons usually include Club Activity (CA) lessons, where students may participate in extra-curricular activities.

In the late 1960s the government abolished entrance examinations for middle school students, replacing it with a system whereby elementary school students within the same district are selected for middle schools by a lottery system. This has the effect of equalising the quality of students from school to school, though schools in areas where students come from more privileged backgrounds still tend to outperform schools in poorer areas. Until recently most middle schools have been same-sex, though in the past decade most new middle schools have been mixed, and some previously same-sex schools have converted to mixed as well.

As with elementary schools, students pass from grade to grade regardless of knowledge or academic achievement, the result being that classes often have students of vastly differing abilities learning the same subject material together. In the final year of middle school examination scores become very important for the top students hoping to gain entrance into the top high schools, and for those in the middle hoping to get into an academic rather a technical or vocation high school. Otherwise, examinations and marks only matter in so far as pleasing parents and teachers (or avoiding their wrath). There are some standardised examinations for certain subjects, and teachers of academic subjects are expected to follow approved textbooks, but generally middle school teachers have more flexibility over curricula and methods than teachers at high school.

Many middle school students also attend after-school academies, known as hagwon, and some receive extra instruction from private tutors. The core subjects, especially the cumulative subjects of English and maths, receive the most stress. Some hagwon specialise in just one subject, and others offer all core subjects, constituting a second round of schooling every day for their pupils. Indeed, some parents place more stress on their children's hagwon studies than their public school studies. Additionally, many students attend academies for things such as martial arts or music. The result of all this is that many middle school students, like their high school counterparts, return from a day of schooling well after dark or even around midnight.

'''High school'''

High schools in South Korea teach students from first grade (age 17) to third grade (age 19), and students commonly graduate at age 19. High schools in Korea can be divided into specialty tracks that accord with a student's interest and career path. For example, there are science (Science high school), foreign language and art specialty high schools to which students can attend with prior entrance examinations, which are generally highly competitive. Other type of high schools include public high schools and private high schools, both with or without entrance examinations. These high schools do not report to specialize in a field, but are more focused on sending their students to college. For students who do not wish a college education, vocational schools specializing in fields such as technology, agriculture or finance are available, in which the students are employeed right after graduation. On noting the schedule of many high school students, it is not abnormal for them to arrive home from school at midnight, after intensive "self-study" sessions supported by the school. The curriculum is often noted as rigorous, with as many as 11 or so subjects and some students choose to attend private academies called 학원 (學院, pronounced hagwons) to boost their academic performance. Core subjects include Korean, English and Math, with adequate emphasis on social and physical science subjects. It is critical to note that the type and level of subjects may differ from school to school, depending on the degree of selectivity and specialization of the school.

High school is not strictly mandatory, unlike middle school education in Korea. However, according to a 2005 study of OECD member countries, some 97% of South Korea's young adults do complete high school. This was the highest percentage recorded in any country.

== Further and Higher education ==

''There is a very long article on this topic at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_South_Korea#Post-secondary_education =- very hard to summarise and much of it off-topic for the purposes of Re.ViCa. Work will continue on trying to find a better source document.''

=== Universities in South Korea ===

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_South_Korea

===Polytechnics in South Korea ===

Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_South_Korea

=== Colleges in South Korea ===

== Education reform ==

=== Schools ===

=== Post-secondary ===

For a start see http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/Arley33-12772-Sheena-Yeom-Higher-Education-Reform-South-Korea-New-University-Regional-Innovation-NURI-Entertainment-ppt-powerpoint/

==== The Bologna Process ====

See ''The Impact of the Bologna Process beyond Europe, Part II: Asia-Pacific'' at http://www.wes.org/ewenr/07sept/feature.htm

== Administration and finance ==

=== Schools ===

=== Post-secondary ===

== Quality assurance, inspection and accreditation ==

=== Schools ===



=== Post-secondary ===





== Information society ==
A very up-to-date and reach blog is [http://www.koreainformationsociety.com/Korea's Information Society], authored by Prof. James F. Larson.

the [http://www.kisdi.re.kr/kisdi/jsp/fp/eng/main.jspKorea Information Society Development Institute KISDI] and the [http://eng.nia.or.kr/special_content/eng/National Information Society Agency NIA] are governmental organizations supporting the development of information society in the country and the formulation of IT policy.

the NIA publishes report on informatization in the countries and several research papers and publications can be found in its website illustrating the state of development of the information society in different sectors. These diverse reports can be found at http://eng.nia.or.kr/special_content/eng/

Source [http://eng.nia.or.kr/special_content/eng/Digital Society Development of Korea 2011]

Following to the global momentum of informatization of the 80s, Korea also established the ‘Act on Expansion of Dissemination and Promotion of Utilization of Information System’ and began to computerize major government functions such as administration, finance, and national security.
From the 1990s onwards, Korea completely overhauled its informatization implementation structure and related laws shifting its focus from basic computerization to a global knowledge and information powerhouse in the 21st century. To achieve this new status, the Informatization Promotion Fund was created to ensure a stable funding mechanism. Priority was given to building a high-speed communication network, which formed the fundamental infrastructure of informatization. At the same time, e-Government projects were also aggressively pursued as a strategic tool to enhance the overall capacity of the government.
In addition, the government was very active in its efforts to deal with the negative effects of informatization including cyber attacks in form of hacking and computer viruses, as well as the growing digital divide.
As a result, Korea has become a well recognized global IT powerhouse and ranked first in 2010 UN Global e-Government Survey.

== ICT in education initiatives ==

The Korean school system is mainly directed by government rules and regulations, and organized according to nation-wide standards and curricula. Many educational policies and strategies are implemented with the top-down approach. ICT use in education is no exception.

A new movement for the adaptation of technology in education was initiated in 1980s. The efforts to utilize ICT in the Korean educational system were embodied in the initiative called the ‘Plan for the renovation of education 5.31’proposed by the Education Renovation Committee in 1995. The Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has developed a five-year master plan for ICT use in education. It began in 2010 and is now in the fourth stage. The aims and visions of the fourth stage of ICT use in education are to strengthen the future competitiveness of education, science and technology, and to cope with rapid changes in the economy and society, and in science, technology and education worldwide.

Recently, the ministry has announced an advanced plan for 'Smart Education.' It includes the development and dissemination of digital textbooks and online evaluation systems, building an open environment for the public and facilitating the safe use of educational materials. Professional development will be enhanced by Smart education, and an educational infrastructure will be created with cloud computing.

=== Virtual initiatives in schools ===




====Telepresence robot learning programme - English as foreign language====
In 2010 the government ran a pilot equipping classrooms with telepresence robots so that English teachers located in the Philippines could teach pupils in South Korean elementary schools the English language. Among the robots is EngKey, developed by the [http://www.kist.re.kr/en/iv/sy.jsp Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST)]. The robot is controlled by teachers abroad who can communicate using embedded microphones and speakers. The Engkey ‘robot’ features a small display with a woman’s face which mimics the facial expression of the teacher, who has cameras in his/her room.

[http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/22/south.korea.robot.teacher Another version of the Engkey] does not connect students to a teacher but uses voice recognition technology to help students practice their English pronunciation and dialogue.

Elementary schools involved in the pilot were located in Masan and Daegu, as mentioned in the news articles below:
*"Get to know Engkey and Kibot! South Korea’s Most Famous Education Robots", Amy Jung, Advanced Technology Korea, 22 July 2011, http://www.advancedtechnologykorea.com/6372, 20 April 2012
*"Robot teachers invade South Korean classrooms", Susannah Palk, CNN, 22 October 2010, http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/22/south.korea.robot.teachers, 20 April 2012
*"South Korea’s Robot Teachers To Test Telepresence Tools in the New Year", Aaron Saenz, Singularity Hub, 3 January 2011, http://singularityhub.com/2011/01/03/south-korea%E2%80%99s-robot-teachers-to-test-telepresence-tools-in-the-new-year/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SingularityHub+%28Singularity+Hub%29, 20 April 2012

====EDUNET====

[http://www.edunet4u.net EDUNET] is an educational information service which aims to improve the quality of education at all K-12 levels, focusing on the distribution and utilization of educational materials and resources. It is the largest educational portal system established by government since the early stages of ICT use in education in 1996. Teachers have access to information and resources related to school education, and students can access a diverse range of educational materials for learning in and outside of schools. EDUNET also provides national standards, educational models and guidelines for ICT use in education, and supports regional learning centers and individual schools for expanding the use of ICT in teaching and learning.

====Cyber home learning system====

The [[Cyber Home Learning System]] (CHLS), launched in 2004, provides learners with free online services offering learning content, adaptive supports to complement learners' capabilities by cyber teachers and tutors, and private learning spaces on cyberspace. The major purpose of the project is to pursue better performance within public school systems and equity of educational opportunities. Basically, CHLS offers supplemental materials and activities related to school work.
Students can voluntarily access the system through the Internet at home and be involved in additional learning opportunities with teachers' and tutors' guidance. Students who want to study in CHLS must register on a separate web site operated by regional educational institutes. Educational contents delivered through CHLS cover core subject matter in the 4th ~ 6th grades of elementary school, the 7th ~9th grades of middle school and the 10th grade of high school.

====Digital textbooks====

The development of [http://www.dtbook.kr/renew/sub/index.jsp digital textbooks] in Korea has been carried out through governmental initiative since 2007. Digital textbooks provide learners with various resources and tools beyond the limitations of paper-based textbooks and the classroom-based learning environment, and also assist teachers to obtain high-quality resources to improve their teaching. A digital textbook is defined as an electronic textbook that includes the existing paper-based textbooks and activity booklets, integrating them with multimedia and interactive contents such as video-clips, animation, virtual reality, and online interaction. It allows learners and teachers to access unlimited resources and promotes advanced learning.

This project is in the pilot stage of research and the investigation of cases. So far, digital textbooks have been developed for language, social studies, science and mathematics in elementary schools, and language and science in middle schools. Pilot studies for the utilization of digital textbooks have been conducted in over 100 schools. The initial versions of the digital textbooks were used on a learning platform and application programs operated in a Windows OS environment. Since 2009 the platform and applications have been upgraded and revised to use digital textbooks without the limitation of operating systems and digital devices.

====Digital library system====

A [http://dls.edunet.net/ digital library system] (DLS) was developed for improving the capacity of school libraries in 2001 and extended under the School Libraries Support Project in 2009. DLS is a standardized information system for school libraries installed at the municipal educational office level. It aims to provide individual schools with educational resource management services and enhance students' reading and writing abilities. Librarians in schools upload and share various resources, and open their services to users beyond the schools. Currently, 95.8% of schools are registered in the service and over 8 million students in the K-12 levels have access to the service.

====EBS Internet services====

The [[EBS Internet Service]] was launched by the Korea Educational Broadcasting System (KEBS) in 2004. The major purpose of this service is to promote the quality of public educational services and reduce the citizens' economic burden of private education. This service provides online lectures for high school students preparing for a national entrance exam for higher education. It offers the students high quality learning materials and helps to reduce the educational gaps between regions and people of differing social status. In order to enhance the service in 2010, KEBS recruited outstanding teachers in design, development and delivery of online lectures. It also began to offer learners differentiated courses according to their level of proficiency, and to provide a mobile service using smart phones.

====NEIS====

The NEIS (National Education Information System) is an integrated management system of educational administration in schools, which was constructed as an online system in 2002. The areas covered by the NEIS include personnel management, student enrollment, school facilities and academic/administrative affairs. The NEIS reduces the administrative work-load in schools, establishes and implements educational policies in a fair and objective way, and facilitates education and academic research in schools.

====Distance education in teacher training on ICT use====

Distance education teacher training provides teachers with self-directed and learner-centered learning opportunities through cyberspace. Over 40% of teacher training was conducted as distance education in 2010. There are three types of training centers: 1) Metro/provincial distance education training centers supported by the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST), and operated by regional centers for teacher training, 2) distance training centers certified by the MEST, 3) distance training centers in special fields appointed by regional educational offices. Recently a support center was established for enhancing the quality of distance education teacher training and for supporting educational services in those centers that offer distance education.

====Air and Correspondence High school====

The [[Air and Correspondence High School]] (ACHS) was established in 1974. The primary purpose of ACHS is to provide secondary education to people who are under-privileged for economic or personal reasons. Since 2009, 40 ACHSs have been affiliated with public schools in Seoul and Pusan. The ACHS offers an effective learning program blended with Internet and offline classes (2 times per month), various learning tools and differentiated educational methods. The ACHS reflects a new paradigm for 21st century education.

=== Virtual initiatives in post-secondary education ===





==== Cyber-universities ====

For a list see http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i30/30a04101.htm.

A few of the more major ones are described below.

==== Ewha Womans University ====

[[Ewha Womans University]] (Ewha) is a private women's university in central Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the world's largest female educational institutions. Ewha was founded in 1886 by the American Methodist Episcopal missionary Mary F. Scranton. It has roughly 20,000 students.

Ewha hosts the [[International Cyber University]] ([[ICU]]), whose goal is to promote understanding and awareness of Korean culture and history via course materials places online (in English). Currently established courses are Korean Studies and Women Studies.

The Ewha Womans University web site is at http://www.ewha.ac.kr/english/

==== Hanyang Cyber University ====

The [[Hanyang Cyber University]] (HYCU) was established by the [http://www.hanyang.ac.kr/english/Research/indexD2.html Hanyang Institutes] in [[South Korea]], in March 2002. Based in Seoul, Hanyang Cyber University focusses on the practical fields and skills most in demand by the marketplace. It has expanded since 2002 from 5 to 15 departments.

Its vision is to train creative leaders through open, online education, and seeks to maintain excellence in education as a distance learning university.

The Hanyang Cyber University web site is at http://www.hanyangcyber.ac.kr/English/UnivInfo/UnivInfo01.asp

==== International Cyber University ====

Hosted by Ewha Womans University, South Korea, the [[International Cyber University]] mission is to promote understanding and awareness of Korean culture and history worldwide, via course materials placed online (in English). Currently established courses are in Korean Studies and Women Studies. See also Ewha Womans University.

The International Cyber University web site is at http://icu.ewha.ac.kr:8080/edutrack/Main.cmd?cmd=setMainForm&pMODE=I

Students of schools that have exchange programme arrangements with Ewha are offered access to ICU free of charge.

==== KERIS ====

[[KERIS]] ('''Korea Education & Research Information Service''') is a governmental organization under the South Korea Ministry of Education, Science and Technology that develops, proposes, and advises on current and future government policies and initiatives regarding education in South Korea.

Its current focus is on the development of ICT in educational systems in Korea and abroad and works closely with international organizations such as the World Bank and UNESCO to assist other nations in developing or improving their own ICT infrastructure and implementation.

In addition to policy, KERIS provides educators and the public with educational services such as the National Education Information Service(NEIS) - neis.go.kr, the Research Information Service System(RISS) - riss4u.net, the National Education Service System(EDUNET) - edunet.net, and Korea Open CourseWare(KOCW) - kocw.net.

Its web site is at http://english.keris.or.kr

==== Korea National Open University ====

The [[Korea National Open University]] ([[KNOU]]) is the national open university of Korea.

KNOU was founded in 1972 as a branch of Seoul National University. It began by offering a two-year junior college programme to 12,000 students and now has over 200,000 full-time, degree-seeking students for four-year university programs and some part-time students for non-degree, lifelong education programs. It also offers online postgraduate programs in several major areas.

The university has campuses in 12 major cites of South Korea including the capital, Seoul.

==== Korea Virtual Campus ====

The [[Korea Virtual Campus]] (KVC) consortium was founded in 1997 with 10 member universities. Participants have included the [[Korea National Open University]] ([[KNOU]]) and [[Ewha Womans University]] ([[Ewha]]). As of October 2008, it was difficult to judge the status of KVC via web searches in English.

The Korea Virtual Campus web site could not be located in October 2008; many roads lead to the Korea Cyber University web site, however (http://www.kcu.or.kr/english/sub_01_03.asp). It may be more useful to profile that institution.

==== Seoul Digital University ====

[[Seoul Digital University]] (SDU) opened in 2001, and is considered the "the first digital (E-learning) college in Korea". Based in Seoul, it recently boasted enrolment of 10,000 students from Korea and 23 other countries.

The Seoul Digital University web site is at http://en.sdu.ac.kr/

== Lessons learnt ==

=== General lessons ===

=== Notable practices ===



== References ==

[http://www.keris.or.kr/index.jsp2009 Whitepaper on ‘Adapting education on the information age’, MEST & KERIS.]

[http://www.kice.re.kr/ko/index.do2010 Whitepaper on ‘Adapting education on the information age’, MEST & KERIS.]

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[[Category:South Korea| ]]
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South Korea

2012-07-05T16:45:54Z

Daniela Proli: /* Cyber home learning system */

''by Paul Bacsich and Daniela Proli''

== Experts situated in South Korea ==

Heeok Heo, Associate Professor, SunChon National University

== South Korea in a nutshell ==
(sourced from Wikipedia)

''South Korea'', officially the '''Republic of Korea''' and often referred to as '''Korea''' (Korean: 대한민국, Hanja: 大韓民國), is a presidential republic in East Asia, occupying the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. Also known as the '''Land of the Morning Calm''', it is neighbored by [[China]] to the west, [[Japan]] to the east and borders [[North Korea]] to the north. South Korea's capital and largest city, Seoul, is a global financial and cultural center and the second largest metropolitan city in the world.

Following the unification of the Three Korean Kingdoms in 668 CE, Korea went through the Goryeo and Joseon Dynasty as one nation until the end of the Korean Empire in 1910. After division, South Korea was established in 1948 and has since developed a successful democracy, a prosperous economy and an advanced military, maintaining a strong alliance with the United States. It is now working towards a peaceful reunification with North Korea.

South Korea is a major economic power and one of the wealthiest countries in Asia. It is a developed country with a high standard of living, having a trillion dollar economy that is the third largest in Asia and 13th largest in the world. Forming the G20 industrial nations and the world's top ten exporters, it is an APEC and [[OECD]] member, defined as a High Income Nation by the World Bank and an Advanced Economy by the IMF and CIA. A major non-NATO ally, it has the world's sixth largest armed forces and the tenth largest defence budget in the world.

The government of South Korea is divided into three branches: executive, judicial, and legislative. The executive and legislative branches operate primarily at the national level, although various ministries in the executive branch also carry out local functions. Local governments are semi-autonomous, and contain executive and legislative bodies of their own. The judicial branch operates at both the national and local levels. South Korea is a constitutional democracy.

The South Korean government's structure is determined by the Constitution of the Republic of Korea. This document has been revised several times since its first promulgation in 1948. However, it has retained many broad characteristics; with the exception of the short-lived Second Republic of South Korea, the country has always had a presidential system with an independent chief executive. South Korea has developed a successful liberal democracy since the 1960s and the first direct election was held in 1987.

South Korea is divided into 8 provinces (do), 1 special autonomous province (teukbyeol jachido), 6 metropolitan cities (gwangyeoksi), and 1 special city (teukbyeolsi). These are further subdivided into a variety of smaller entities, including cities (si), counties (gun), districts (gu), towns (eup), townships (myeon), neighborhoods (dong) and villages (ri), as explained below.

(Note on translation: although the terms "Special City," "Metropolitan City," "Province," and "City" are commonly used on English-language government websites, the other translations ("county," "town," "district," etc.) are not official translations, and are only intended to serve as useful illustrations of each entity's meaning.)

Most South Koreans live in urban areas, due to rapid migration from the countryside during the country's quick economic expansion in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The capital city of Seoul is also the country's largest city and chief industrial center. It had 10.3 million inhabitants in 2006, making Seoul one of the most populated single cities in the world.[79] Other major cities include Busan (3.65 million), Incheon (2.63 million), Daegu (2.53 million), Daejeon (1.46 million), Gwangju (1.41 million) and Ulsan (1.10 million).[

The population has also been shaped by international migration. Following the division of the Korean peninsula after World War II, about four million people from North Korea crossed the border to South Korea. This trend of net entry reversed over the next forty years due to emigration, especially to the United States and Canada. However, South Korea's burgeoning economy and democracy in the early and mid-1990s slowed the high emigration rates typical of the previous decades. The current population of South Korea is roughly 48,850,000.

Although small, the percentage of non-Koreans has been increasing. Officially, as of the summer of 2007, there are just over 1 million foreigners living in Korea. That number includes foreign residents, students, tourists and illegal aliens. Among them, 104,749 people were married to Koreans, 404,051 were working in Korea and 225,273 were illegal aliens.

Korean farmers have a hard time finding a wife, as few women want to live in the countryside. Farmers are forced to look abroad to find their wife, mostly from Southeast Asia, and increasingly from Eastern Europe. For the year 2006, 41% of the marriages amongst the farmers were to foreign nationals.

There are 31,000 US military personnel.

== Education in South Korea ==
=== South Korea education policy ===

Education in South Korea is regarded crucial to success and competition is consequently very heated and fierce. In the most recent OECD Programme for International Student Assessment, South Korea came first in Problem solving, first in Reading, third in Mathematics and eleventh in Science, all being significantly higher than Western European and North American countries. South Korea has the highest national IQ in the world, estimated at 106.

A centralised administration in South Korea oversees the process for the education of children from kindergarten to third grade high school. South Korea has adopted a new educational program. It was planned to increase the number of their foreign students through the year 2010. According to Ministry of Education, Science and Technology estimate, by that time, the number of scholarships for foreign students in S. Korea will be doubled, and the number of foreign students will reach 100,000. Mathematics, science, Korean, social studies, and English are generally considered to be the most important subjects and are considered compulsory.

South Korea was the first country in the world to provide high-speed internet access to every primary, junior, and high school.

The school year is divided into two semesters. The first begins in the beginning of March and ends in mid-July; the second begins in late August and ends in mid-February. The schedules are not uniformly standardised and vary from school to school.

==== Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development ====

The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development is responsible for South Korean education. It was renamed by the former Ministry of education, who enhanced its function in 2001 because the administration of Kim Dae-jung considered education and human resources development as a matter of the highest priority. As a result of the reform, it began to cover the whole field of human resource development and the minister of education was appointed to the Vice Prime Minister.

Like other ministers, the Minister of Education and Human Resources Development is appointed by the president. They are mainly chosen from candidates who have an academic background and often resign in a fairly short term (around one year).

=== South Korea education system ===
(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_South_Korea)

Education in South Korea is seen as the most important key to success and competition is consequently very heated and fierce. A centralized administration oversees the process for the education of children from kindergarten to the third and final year of high school. Mathematics, science, Korean, social studies, and English are generally considered to be the most important subjects. Sometimes physical education is not considered important as it is not regarded to be education and therefore many schools lack high-quality gymnasiums and varsity athletics. South Korea was the first country in the world to provide high-speed internet access from every primary, junior, and high school.

The school year is divided into two semesters. The first begins in the beginning of March and ends in mid-July; the second begins in late August and ends in mid-February. They have summer vacation from mid-July to late August, and winter vacation from late-December to early February, and also take a short vacation from mid-February to end of that month. The schedules are not rigidly standardized, however, and can vary from school to school.

== Schools in South Korea==

=== Kindergarten ===

Kindergarten in Korea is not a publicly administered program. Parents send their children to private schools: most are taught in Korean, many of those have an English class, and some kindergartens are taught almost entirely in English.

Kindergarten in South Korea is composed of children from ages three to five. Most children do not attend "preschool" but are lumped together in a kindergarten class with other children who may be within a three years age difference. When the child reaches about six years of age he/she is systematically moved on to the first year of elementary school. From kindergarten to high school, matriculating through the grade levels is not determined on knowledge, grades or passing of any tests, but is based purely upon the student's age. Enrollment in kindergartens or preschools expanded impressively during the 1980s. In 1980 there were 66,433 children attending 901 kindergartens or preschools. By 1987 there were 397,020 children in 7,792 institutions. The number of kindergarten and preschool teachers rose from 3,339 to 11,920 during the same period. The overwhelming majority of these teachers--approximately 92 percent--were women. This growth was attributable to several factors: Ministry of Education encouragement of preschool education, the greater number of women entering the work force, growth in the number of nuclear families where a grandparent was often unavailable to take care of children, and the feeling that kindergarten might give children an "edge" in later educational competition. Kindergartens often paid homage to the expectations of parents with impressive graduation ceremonies, complete with diplomas and gowns.

=== Elementary School ===

Elementary school consists of grades one to six(age 8 to age 13 in Korean years - 6 to 12 in western years). Students learn subjects including, but not limited to, Korean, mathematics, science, social studies, language arts, fine arts, and music. Usually, the class teacher covers most of the subjects; however, there are some specialized teachers in professions such as physical education and foreign languages, including English. About 20 years ago, English used to be taught first in middle school, but nowadays, students begin learning English in the third year of elementary school. Korean language has a very different grammatical structure from English, and English education in Korea is more or less inefficient, so this is a frequent source of concern to parents. Many choose to send their children to additional private educational institutions called hagwon (학원). More schools in the country are recruiting native English speakers to facilitate learning English.

Alongside public elementary schools there are a number of private elementary schools in Korea, usually distinguishable by the uniforms their students wear (public elementary school students do not wear uniforms apart from PE kit). These schools follow a similar curriculum as public elementary schools, but often offer superior facilities, a higher teacher-to-student ratio, and extra programmes. They also usually offer a higher standard of learning. Though highly desirable, they are prohibitively expensive for many Korean parents.

Elementary schools are called chodeung-hakgyo (Hangul:초등학교 Hanja:初等學校,), meaning elementary school. The South Korean government changed its name to the current form from gukmin hakgyo (Hangul:국민학교 Hanja:國民學校) meaning citizens' school in 1996. This was done as a gesture of restoring national pride. The word, abbreviated from 황국신민의 학교 (皇國臣民의 學校), means "school for the subjects of the imperial state" carried over from Japanese colonial rule.

=== Secondary education ===

In 1987 there were approximately 4,895,354 students enrolled in middle schools and high schools, with approximately 150,873 teachers. About 69 percent of these teachers were male. The secondary-school enrollment figure also reflected changing population trends--there were 3,959,975 students in secondary schools in 1979. Given the importance of entry into higher education, the majority of students attended general or academic high schools in 1987: 1,397,359 students, or 60 percent of the total, attended general or academic high schools, as compared with 840,265 students in vocational secondary schools. Vocational schools specialized in a number of fields: primarily agriculture, fishery, commerce, trades, merchant marine, engineering, and the arts.[citation needed]

Competitive entrance examinations at the middle-school level were abolished in 1968. Although as of the late 1980s, students still had to pass noncompetitive qualifying examinations, they were assigned to secondary institutions by lottery, or else by location within the boundary of the school district. Secondary schools, formerly ranked according to the quality of their students, have been equalized, with a portion of good, mediocre, and poor students being assigned to each one. The reform, however, did not equalize secondary schools completely. In Seoul, students who performed well in qualifying examinations were allowed to attend better quality schools in a "common" district, while other students attended schools in one of five geographical districts. The reforms applied equally to public and private schools whose enrollments were strictly controlled by the Ministry of Education.

Unlike United States, where the grade of a student is commonly incremented until 12th grade as the student progresses through primary and secondary education system, in South Korea, the grade of a student is reset as the student progresses through elementary, middle and high school. To differentiate the grades between students, one would often state the grade based on the level of education he/she is in. For example, a student in a first year of middle school (equivalent to 7th grade in the United States) would be referred to as "First grade in Middle School (중학교 1학년)".

Middle schools are called 중학교 in Korean (中學校, jung hakgyo), which literally means middle school. High schools are called 고등학교 in Korean (高等學校, godeung hakgyo), literally meaning "high-level school."

'''Middle School'''

Middle schools in South Korea consist of three grades. Most students enter at age 12 and finish at age 15 (western years). These three grades correspond roughly to grades 7-9 in the North American system and 2nd to 4th form in the British system.

Middle school in South Korea marks a considerable shift from elementary school, with students expected to take studies and school much more seriously. At most middle schools regulation uniforms and haircuts are enforced fairly strictly, and some aspects of students' lives are highly controlled. Like in elementary school, students spend most of the day in the same homeroom classroom with the same classmates; however, students have different teachers for each subject. Teachers move around from classroom to classroom, and few teachers apart from those who teach special subjects have their own rooms to which students come. Homeroom teachers (담임선생님 dam im seonsangnim) play a very important role in students' lives, and have considerably more authority over and responsibility for their students' than their American counterparts.

Most middle school students take six lessons a day, and in addition to this usually have an early morning block that precedes regular lessons and a seventh lesson specialising in an extra subject to finish the day. Unlike with high school, middle school curricula do not vary much from school to school. Maths, English, Korean, and science form the core subjects, with students also receiving instruction in art, PE, history, Hanja (Chinese characters), ethics, home economics, and computers. What subjects students study and in what amount may vary from year to year. All regular lessons are 45 minutes long. Before school, students have an extra block, 30-or-more minutes long, that may be used for self-study, watching Educational Broadcast System (EBS) broadcasts, or for personal or class administration. As of 2008, students attend school from Monday to Friday, and have a half-day every 1st, 3rd, and 5th (calendar permitting) Saturday of the month. Saturday lessons usually include Club Activity (CA) lessons, where students may participate in extra-curricular activities.

In the late 1960s the government abolished entrance examinations for middle school students, replacing it with a system whereby elementary school students within the same district are selected for middle schools by a lottery system. This has the effect of equalising the quality of students from school to school, though schools in areas where students come from more privileged backgrounds still tend to outperform schools in poorer areas. Until recently most middle schools have been same-sex, though in the past decade most new middle schools have been mixed, and some previously same-sex schools have converted to mixed as well.

As with elementary schools, students pass from grade to grade regardless of knowledge or academic achievement, the result being that classes often have students of vastly differing abilities learning the same subject material together. In the final year of middle school examination scores become very important for the top students hoping to gain entrance into the top high schools, and for those in the middle hoping to get into an academic rather a technical or vocation high school. Otherwise, examinations and marks only matter in so far as pleasing parents and teachers (or avoiding their wrath). There are some standardised examinations for certain subjects, and teachers of academic subjects are expected to follow approved textbooks, but generally middle school teachers have more flexibility over curricula and methods than teachers at high school.

Many middle school students also attend after-school academies, known as hagwon, and some receive extra instruction from private tutors. The core subjects, especially the cumulative subjects of English and maths, receive the most stress. Some hagwon specialise in just one subject, and others offer all core subjects, constituting a second round of schooling every day for their pupils. Indeed, some parents place more stress on their children's hagwon studies than their public school studies. Additionally, many students attend academies for things such as martial arts or music. The result of all this is that many middle school students, like their high school counterparts, return from a day of schooling well after dark or even around midnight.

'''High school'''

High schools in South Korea teach students from first grade (age 17) to third grade (age 19), and students commonly graduate at age 19. High schools in Korea can be divided into specialty tracks that accord with a student's interest and career path. For example, there are science (Science high school), foreign language and art specialty high schools to which students can attend with prior entrance examinations, which are generally highly competitive. Other type of high schools include public high schools and private high schools, both with or without entrance examinations. These high schools do not report to specialize in a field, but are more focused on sending their students to college. For students who do not wish a college education, vocational schools specializing in fields such as technology, agriculture or finance are available, in which the students are employeed right after graduation. On noting the schedule of many high school students, it is not abnormal for them to arrive home from school at midnight, after intensive "self-study" sessions supported by the school. The curriculum is often noted as rigorous, with as many as 11 or so subjects and some students choose to attend private academies called 학원 (學院, pronounced hagwons) to boost their academic performance. Core subjects include Korean, English and Math, with adequate emphasis on social and physical science subjects. It is critical to note that the type and level of subjects may differ from school to school, depending on the degree of selectivity and specialization of the school.

High school is not strictly mandatory, unlike middle school education in Korea. However, according to a 2005 study of OECD member countries, some 97% of South Korea's young adults do complete high school. This was the highest percentage recorded in any country.

== Further and Higher education ==

''There is a very long article on this topic at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_South_Korea#Post-secondary_education =- very hard to summarise and much of it off-topic for the purposes of Re.ViCa. Work will continue on trying to find a better source document.''

=== Universities in South Korea ===

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_South_Korea

===Polytechnics in South Korea ===

Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_South_Korea

=== Colleges in South Korea ===

== Education reform ==

=== Schools ===

=== Post-secondary ===

For a start see http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/Arley33-12772-Sheena-Yeom-Higher-Education-Reform-South-Korea-New-University-Regional-Innovation-NURI-Entertainment-ppt-powerpoint/

==== The Bologna Process ====

See ''The Impact of the Bologna Process beyond Europe, Part II: Asia-Pacific'' at http://www.wes.org/ewenr/07sept/feature.htm

== Administration and finance ==

=== Schools ===

=== Post-secondary ===

== Quality assurance, inspection and accreditation ==

=== Schools ===



=== Post-secondary ===





== Information society ==
A very up-to-date and reach blog is [http://www.koreainformationsociety.com/Korea's Information Society], authored by Prof. James F. Larson.

the [http://www.kisdi.re.kr/kisdi/jsp/fp/eng/main.jspKorea Information Society Development Institute KISDI] and the [http://eng.nia.or.kr/special_content/eng/National Information Society Agency NIA] are governmental organizations supporting the development of information society in the country and the formulation of IT policy.

the NIA publishes report on informatization in the countries and several research papers and publications can be found in its website illustrating the state of development of the information society in different sectors. These diverse reports can be found at http://eng.nia.or.kr/special_content/eng/

Source [http://eng.nia.or.kr/special_content/eng/Digital Society Development of Korea 2011]

Following to the global momentum of informatization of the 80s, Korea also established the ‘Act on Expansion of Dissemination and Promotion of Utilization of Information System’ and began to computerize major government functions such as administration, finance, and national security.
From the 1990s onwards, Korea completely overhauled its informatization implementation structure and related laws shifting its focus from basic computerization to a global knowledge and information powerhouse in the 21st century. To achieve this new status, the Informatization Promotion Fund was created to ensure a stable funding mechanism. Priority was given to building a high-speed communication network, which formed the fundamental infrastructure of informatization. At the same time, e-Government projects were also aggressively pursued as a strategic tool to enhance the overall capacity of the government.
In addition, the government was very active in its efforts to deal with the negative effects of informatization including cyber attacks in form of hacking and computer viruses, as well as the growing digital divide.
As a result, Korea has become a well recognized global IT powerhouse and ranked first in 2010 UN Global e-Government Survey.

== ICT in education initiatives ==

The Korean school system is mainly directed by government rules and regulations, and organized according to nation-wide standards and curricula. Many educational policies and strategies are implemented with the top-down approach. ICT use in education is no exception.

A new movement for the adaptation of technology in education was initiated in 1980s. The efforts to utilize ICT in the Korean educational system were embodied in the initiative called the ‘Plan for the renovation of education 5.31’proposed by the Education Renovation Committee in 1995. The Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has developed a five-year master plan for ICT use in education. It began in 2010 and is now in the fourth stage. The aims and visions of the fourth stage of ICT use in education are to strengthen the future competitiveness of education, science and technology, and to cope with rapid changes in the economy and society, and in science, technology and education worldwide.

Recently, the ministry has announced an advanced plan for 'Smart Education.' It includes the development and dissemination of digital textbooks and online evaluation systems, building an open environment for the public and facilitating the safe use of educational materials. Professional development will be enhanced by Smart education, and an educational infrastructure will be created with cloud computing.

=== Virtual initiatives in schools ===




====Telepresence robot learning programme - English as foreign language====
In 2010 the government ran a pilot equipping classrooms with telepresence robots so that English teachers located in the Philippines could teach pupils in South Korean elementary schools the English language. Among the robots is EngKey, developed by the [http://www.kist.re.kr/en/iv/sy.jsp Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST)]. The robot is controlled by teachers abroad who can communicate using embedded microphones and speakers. The Engkey ‘robot’ features a small display with a woman’s face which mimics the facial expression of the teacher, who has cameras in his/her room.

[http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/22/south.korea.robot.teacher Another version of the Engkey] does not connect students to a teacher but uses voice recognition technology to help students practice their English pronunciation and dialogue.

Elementary schools involved in the pilot were located in Masan and Daegu, as mentioned in the news articles below:
*"Get to know Engkey and Kibot! South Korea’s Most Famous Education Robots", Amy Jung, Advanced Technology Korea, 22 July 2011, http://www.advancedtechnologykorea.com/6372, 20 April 2012
*"Robot teachers invade South Korean classrooms", Susannah Palk, CNN, 22 October 2010, http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/22/south.korea.robot.teachers, 20 April 2012
*"South Korea’s Robot Teachers To Test Telepresence Tools in the New Year", Aaron Saenz, Singularity Hub, 3 January 2011, http://singularityhub.com/2011/01/03/south-korea%E2%80%99s-robot-teachers-to-test-telepresence-tools-in-the-new-year/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SingularityHub+%28Singularity+Hub%29, 20 April 2012

====EDUNET====

[http://www.edunet4u.net EDUNET] is an educational information service which aims to improve the quality of education at all K-12 levels, focusing on the distribution and utilization of educational materials and resources. It is the largest educational portal system established by government since the early stages of ICT use in education in 1996. Teachers have access to information and resources related to school education, and students can access a diverse range of educational materials for learning in and outside of schools. EDUNET also provides national standards, educational models and guidelines for ICT use in education, and supports regional learning centers and individual schools for expanding the use of ICT in teaching and learning.

====Cyber home learning system====

The [[Cyber Home Learning System]] (CHLS), launched in 2004, provides learners with free online services offering learning content, adaptive supports to complement learners' capabilities by cyber teachers and tutors, and private learning spaces on cyberspace. The major purpose of the project is to pursue better performance within public school systems and equity of educational opportunities. Basically, CHLS offers supplemental materials and activities related to school work.
Students can voluntarily access the system through the Internet at home and be involved in additional learning opportunities with teachers' and tutors' guidance. Students who want to study in CHLS must register on a separate web site operated by regional educational institutes. Educational contents delivered through CHLS cover core subject matter in the 4th ~ 6th grades of elementary school, the 7th ~9th grades of middle school and the 10th grade of high school.

====Digital textbooks====

The development of [http://www.dtbook.kr/renew/sub/index.jsp digital textbooks] in Korea has been carried out through governmental initiative since 2007. Digital textbooks provide learners with various resources and tools beyond the limitations of paper-based textbooks and the classroom-based learning environment, and also assist teachers to obtain high-quality resources to improve their teaching. A digital textbook is defined as an electronic textbook that includes the existing paper-based textbooks and activity booklets, integrating them with multimedia and interactive contents such as video-clips, animation, virtual reality, and online interaction. It allows learners and teachers to access unlimited resources and promotes advanced learning.

This project is in the pilot stage of research and the investigation of cases. So far, digital textbooks have been developed for language, social studies, science and mathematics in elementary schools, and language and science in middle schools. Pilot studies for the utilization of digital textbooks have been conducted in over 100 schools. The initial versions of the digital textbooks were used on a learning platform and application programs operated in a Windows OS environment. Since 2009 the platform and applications have been upgraded and revised to use digital textbooks without the limitation of operating systems and digital devices.

====Digital library system====

A [http://dls.edunet.net/ digital library system] (DLS) was developed for improving the capacity of school libraries in 2001 and extended under the School Libraries Support Project in 2009. DLS is a standardized information system for school libraries installed at the municipal educational office level. It aims to provide individual schools with educational resource management services and enhance students' reading and writing abilities. Librarians in schools upload and share various resources, and open their services to users beyond the schools. Currently, 95.8% of schools are registered in the service and over 8 million students in the K-12 levels have access to the service.

====EBS Internet services====

The [http://www.ebsi.co.kr EBS Internet services] (EBS) was launched by the Korea Educational Broadcasting System (KEBS) in 2004. The major purpose of this service is to promote the quality of public educational services and reduce the citizens' economic burden of private education. This service provides online lectures for high school students preparing for a national entrance exam for higher education. It offers the students high quality learning materials and helps to reduce the educational gaps between regions and people of differing social status. In order to enhance the service in 2010, KEBS recruited outstanding teachers in design, development and delivery of online lectures. It also began to offer learners differentiated courses according to their level of proficiency, and to provide a mobile service using smart phones.

====NEIS====

The NEIS (National Education Information System) is an integrated management system of educational administration in schools, which was constructed as an online system in 2002. The areas covered by the NEIS include personnel management, student enrollment, school facilities and academic/administrative affairs. The NEIS reduces the administrative work-load in schools, establishes and implements educational policies in a fair and objective way, and facilitates education and academic research in schools.

====Distance education in teacher training on ICT use====

Distance education teacher training provides teachers with self-directed and learner-centered learning opportunities through cyberspace. Over 40% of teacher training was conducted as distance education in 2010. There are three types of training centers: 1) Metro/provincial distance education training centers supported by the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST), and operated by regional centers for teacher training, 2) distance training centers certified by the MEST, 3) distance training centers in special fields appointed by regional educational offices. Recently a support center was established for enhancing the quality of distance education teacher training and for supporting educational services in those centers that offer distance education.

====Air and Correspondence High school====

The [[Air and Correspondence High School]] (ACHS) was established in 1974. The primary purpose of ACHS is to provide secondary education to people who are under-privileged for economic or personal reasons. Since 2009, 40 ACHSs have been affiliated with public schools in Seoul and Pusan. The ACHS offers an effective learning program blended with Internet and offline classes (2 times per month), various learning tools and differentiated educational methods. The ACHS reflects a new paradigm for 21st century education.

=== Virtual initiatives in post-secondary education ===





==== Cyber-universities ====

For a list see http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i30/30a04101.htm.

A few of the more major ones are described below.

==== Ewha Womans University ====

[[Ewha Womans University]] (Ewha) is a private women's university in central Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the world's largest female educational institutions. Ewha was founded in 1886 by the American Methodist Episcopal missionary Mary F. Scranton. It has roughly 20,000 students.

Ewha hosts the [[International Cyber University]] ([[ICU]]), whose goal is to promote understanding and awareness of Korean culture and history via course materials places online (in English). Currently established courses are Korean Studies and Women Studies.

The Ewha Womans University web site is at http://www.ewha.ac.kr/english/

==== Hanyang Cyber University ====

The [[Hanyang Cyber University]] (HYCU) was established by the [http://www.hanyang.ac.kr/english/Research/indexD2.html Hanyang Institutes] in [[South Korea]], in March 2002. Based in Seoul, Hanyang Cyber University focusses on the practical fields and skills most in demand by the marketplace. It has expanded since 2002 from 5 to 15 departments.

Its vision is to train creative leaders through open, online education, and seeks to maintain excellence in education as a distance learning university.

The Hanyang Cyber University web site is at http://www.hanyangcyber.ac.kr/English/UnivInfo/UnivInfo01.asp

==== International Cyber University ====

Hosted by Ewha Womans University, South Korea, the [[International Cyber University]] mission is to promote understanding and awareness of Korean culture and history worldwide, via course materials placed online (in English). Currently established courses are in Korean Studies and Women Studies. See also Ewha Womans University.

The International Cyber University web site is at http://icu.ewha.ac.kr:8080/edutrack/Main.cmd?cmd=setMainForm&pMODE=I

Students of schools that have exchange programme arrangements with Ewha are offered access to ICU free of charge.

==== KERIS ====

[[KERIS]] ('''Korea Education & Research Information Service''') is a governmental organization under the South Korea Ministry of Education, Science and Technology that develops, proposes, and advises on current and future government policies and initiatives regarding education in South Korea.

Its current focus is on the development of ICT in educational systems in Korea and abroad and works closely with international organizations such as the World Bank and UNESCO to assist other nations in developing or improving their own ICT infrastructure and implementation.

In addition to policy, KERIS provides educators and the public with educational services such as the National Education Information Service(NEIS) - neis.go.kr, the Research Information Service System(RISS) - riss4u.net, the National Education Service System(EDUNET) - edunet.net, and Korea Open CourseWare(KOCW) - kocw.net.

Its web site is at http://english.keris.or.kr

==== Korea National Open University ====

The [[Korea National Open University]] ([[KNOU]]) is the national open university of Korea.

KNOU was founded in 1972 as a branch of Seoul National University. It began by offering a two-year junior college programme to 12,000 students and now has over 200,000 full-time, degree-seeking students for four-year university programs and some part-time students for non-degree, lifelong education programs. It also offers online postgraduate programs in several major areas.

The university has campuses in 12 major cites of South Korea including the capital, Seoul.

==== Korea Virtual Campus ====

The [[Korea Virtual Campus]] (KVC) consortium was founded in 1997 with 10 member universities. Participants have included the [[Korea National Open University]] ([[KNOU]]) and [[Ewha Womans University]] ([[Ewha]]). As of October 2008, it was difficult to judge the status of KVC via web searches in English.

The Korea Virtual Campus web site could not be located in October 2008; many roads lead to the Korea Cyber University web site, however (http://www.kcu.or.kr/english/sub_01_03.asp). It may be more useful to profile that institution.

==== Seoul Digital University ====

[[Seoul Digital University]] (SDU) opened in 2001, and is considered the "the first digital (E-learning) college in Korea". Based in Seoul, it recently boasted enrolment of 10,000 students from Korea and 23 other countries.

The Seoul Digital University web site is at http://en.sdu.ac.kr/

== Lessons learnt ==

=== General lessons ===

=== Notable practices ===



== References ==

[http://www.keris.or.kr/index.jsp2009 Whitepaper on ‘Adapting education on the information age’, MEST & KERIS.]

[http://www.kice.re.kr/ko/index.do2010 Whitepaper on ‘Adapting education on the information age’, MEST & KERIS.]

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South Korea

2012-07-05T16:45:09Z

Daniela Proli: /* Air and Correspondence High school */

''by Paul Bacsich and Daniela Proli''

== Experts situated in South Korea ==

Heeok Heo, Associate Professor, SunChon National University

== South Korea in a nutshell ==
(sourced from Wikipedia)

''South Korea'', officially the '''Republic of Korea''' and often referred to as '''Korea''' (Korean: 대한민국, Hanja: 大韓民國), is a presidential republic in East Asia, occupying the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. Also known as the '''Land of the Morning Calm''', it is neighbored by [[China]] to the west, [[Japan]] to the east and borders [[North Korea]] to the north. South Korea's capital and largest city, Seoul, is a global financial and cultural center and the second largest metropolitan city in the world.

Following the unification of the Three Korean Kingdoms in 668 CE, Korea went through the Goryeo and Joseon Dynasty as one nation until the end of the Korean Empire in 1910. After division, South Korea was established in 1948 and has since developed a successful democracy, a prosperous economy and an advanced military, maintaining a strong alliance with the United States. It is now working towards a peaceful reunification with North Korea.

South Korea is a major economic power and one of the wealthiest countries in Asia. It is a developed country with a high standard of living, having a trillion dollar economy that is the third largest in Asia and 13th largest in the world. Forming the G20 industrial nations and the world's top ten exporters, it is an APEC and [[OECD]] member, defined as a High Income Nation by the World Bank and an Advanced Economy by the IMF and CIA. A major non-NATO ally, it has the world's sixth largest armed forces and the tenth largest defence budget in the world.

The government of South Korea is divided into three branches: executive, judicial, and legislative. The executive and legislative branches operate primarily at the national level, although various ministries in the executive branch also carry out local functions. Local governments are semi-autonomous, and contain executive and legislative bodies of their own. The judicial branch operates at both the national and local levels. South Korea is a constitutional democracy.

The South Korean government's structure is determined by the Constitution of the Republic of Korea. This document has been revised several times since its first promulgation in 1948. However, it has retained many broad characteristics; with the exception of the short-lived Second Republic of South Korea, the country has always had a presidential system with an independent chief executive. South Korea has developed a successful liberal democracy since the 1960s and the first direct election was held in 1987.

South Korea is divided into 8 provinces (do), 1 special autonomous province (teukbyeol jachido), 6 metropolitan cities (gwangyeoksi), and 1 special city (teukbyeolsi). These are further subdivided into a variety of smaller entities, including cities (si), counties (gun), districts (gu), towns (eup), townships (myeon), neighborhoods (dong) and villages (ri), as explained below.

(Note on translation: although the terms "Special City," "Metropolitan City," "Province," and "City" are commonly used on English-language government websites, the other translations ("county," "town," "district," etc.) are not official translations, and are only intended to serve as useful illustrations of each entity's meaning.)

Most South Koreans live in urban areas, due to rapid migration from the countryside during the country's quick economic expansion in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The capital city of Seoul is also the country's largest city and chief industrial center. It had 10.3 million inhabitants in 2006, making Seoul one of the most populated single cities in the world.[79] Other major cities include Busan (3.65 million), Incheon (2.63 million), Daegu (2.53 million), Daejeon (1.46 million), Gwangju (1.41 million) and Ulsan (1.10 million).[

The population has also been shaped by international migration. Following the division of the Korean peninsula after World War II, about four million people from North Korea crossed the border to South Korea. This trend of net entry reversed over the next forty years due to emigration, especially to the United States and Canada. However, South Korea's burgeoning economy and democracy in the early and mid-1990s slowed the high emigration rates typical of the previous decades. The current population of South Korea is roughly 48,850,000.

Although small, the percentage of non-Koreans has been increasing. Officially, as of the summer of 2007, there are just over 1 million foreigners living in Korea. That number includes foreign residents, students, tourists and illegal aliens. Among them, 104,749 people were married to Koreans, 404,051 were working in Korea and 225,273 were illegal aliens.

Korean farmers have a hard time finding a wife, as few women want to live in the countryside. Farmers are forced to look abroad to find their wife, mostly from Southeast Asia, and increasingly from Eastern Europe. For the year 2006, 41% of the marriages amongst the farmers were to foreign nationals.

There are 31,000 US military personnel.

== Education in South Korea ==
=== South Korea education policy ===

Education in South Korea is regarded crucial to success and competition is consequently very heated and fierce. In the most recent OECD Programme for International Student Assessment, South Korea came first in Problem solving, first in Reading, third in Mathematics and eleventh in Science, all being significantly higher than Western European and North American countries. South Korea has the highest national IQ in the world, estimated at 106.

A centralised administration in South Korea oversees the process for the education of children from kindergarten to third grade high school. South Korea has adopted a new educational program. It was planned to increase the number of their foreign students through the year 2010. According to Ministry of Education, Science and Technology estimate, by that time, the number of scholarships for foreign students in S. Korea will be doubled, and the number of foreign students will reach 100,000. Mathematics, science, Korean, social studies, and English are generally considered to be the most important subjects and are considered compulsory.

South Korea was the first country in the world to provide high-speed internet access to every primary, junior, and high school.

The school year is divided into two semesters. The first begins in the beginning of March and ends in mid-July; the second begins in late August and ends in mid-February. The schedules are not uniformly standardised and vary from school to school.

==== Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development ====

The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development is responsible for South Korean education. It was renamed by the former Ministry of education, who enhanced its function in 2001 because the administration of Kim Dae-jung considered education and human resources development as a matter of the highest priority. As a result of the reform, it began to cover the whole field of human resource development and the minister of education was appointed to the Vice Prime Minister.

Like other ministers, the Minister of Education and Human Resources Development is appointed by the president. They are mainly chosen from candidates who have an academic background and often resign in a fairly short term (around one year).

=== South Korea education system ===
(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_South_Korea)

Education in South Korea is seen as the most important key to success and competition is consequently very heated and fierce. A centralized administration oversees the process for the education of children from kindergarten to the third and final year of high school. Mathematics, science, Korean, social studies, and English are generally considered to be the most important subjects. Sometimes physical education is not considered important as it is not regarded to be education and therefore many schools lack high-quality gymnasiums and varsity athletics. South Korea was the first country in the world to provide high-speed internet access from every primary, junior, and high school.

The school year is divided into two semesters. The first begins in the beginning of March and ends in mid-July; the second begins in late August and ends in mid-February. They have summer vacation from mid-July to late August, and winter vacation from late-December to early February, and also take a short vacation from mid-February to end of that month. The schedules are not rigidly standardized, however, and can vary from school to school.

== Schools in South Korea==

=== Kindergarten ===

Kindergarten in Korea is not a publicly administered program. Parents send their children to private schools: most are taught in Korean, many of those have an English class, and some kindergartens are taught almost entirely in English.

Kindergarten in South Korea is composed of children from ages three to five. Most children do not attend "preschool" but are lumped together in a kindergarten class with other children who may be within a three years age difference. When the child reaches about six years of age he/she is systematically moved on to the first year of elementary school. From kindergarten to high school, matriculating through the grade levels is not determined on knowledge, grades or passing of any tests, but is based purely upon the student's age. Enrollment in kindergartens or preschools expanded impressively during the 1980s. In 1980 there were 66,433 children attending 901 kindergartens or preschools. By 1987 there were 397,020 children in 7,792 institutions. The number of kindergarten and preschool teachers rose from 3,339 to 11,920 during the same period. The overwhelming majority of these teachers--approximately 92 percent--were women. This growth was attributable to several factors: Ministry of Education encouragement of preschool education, the greater number of women entering the work force, growth in the number of nuclear families where a grandparent was often unavailable to take care of children, and the feeling that kindergarten might give children an "edge" in later educational competition. Kindergartens often paid homage to the expectations of parents with impressive graduation ceremonies, complete with diplomas and gowns.

=== Elementary School ===

Elementary school consists of grades one to six(age 8 to age 13 in Korean years - 6 to 12 in western years). Students learn subjects including, but not limited to, Korean, mathematics, science, social studies, language arts, fine arts, and music. Usually, the class teacher covers most of the subjects; however, there are some specialized teachers in professions such as physical education and foreign languages, including English. About 20 years ago, English used to be taught first in middle school, but nowadays, students begin learning English in the third year of elementary school. Korean language has a very different grammatical structure from English, and English education in Korea is more or less inefficient, so this is a frequent source of concern to parents. Many choose to send their children to additional private educational institutions called hagwon (학원). More schools in the country are recruiting native English speakers to facilitate learning English.

Alongside public elementary schools there are a number of private elementary schools in Korea, usually distinguishable by the uniforms their students wear (public elementary school students do not wear uniforms apart from PE kit). These schools follow a similar curriculum as public elementary schools, but often offer superior facilities, a higher teacher-to-student ratio, and extra programmes. They also usually offer a higher standard of learning. Though highly desirable, they are prohibitively expensive for many Korean parents.

Elementary schools are called chodeung-hakgyo (Hangul:초등학교 Hanja:初等學校,), meaning elementary school. The South Korean government changed its name to the current form from gukmin hakgyo (Hangul:국민학교 Hanja:國民學校) meaning citizens' school in 1996. This was done as a gesture of restoring national pride. The word, abbreviated from 황국신민의 학교 (皇國臣民의 學校), means "school for the subjects of the imperial state" carried over from Japanese colonial rule.

=== Secondary education ===

In 1987 there were approximately 4,895,354 students enrolled in middle schools and high schools, with approximately 150,873 teachers. About 69 percent of these teachers were male. The secondary-school enrollment figure also reflected changing population trends--there were 3,959,975 students in secondary schools in 1979. Given the importance of entry into higher education, the majority of students attended general or academic high schools in 1987: 1,397,359 students, or 60 percent of the total, attended general or academic high schools, as compared with 840,265 students in vocational secondary schools. Vocational schools specialized in a number of fields: primarily agriculture, fishery, commerce, trades, merchant marine, engineering, and the arts.[citation needed]

Competitive entrance examinations at the middle-school level were abolished in 1968. Although as of the late 1980s, students still had to pass noncompetitive qualifying examinations, they were assigned to secondary institutions by lottery, or else by location within the boundary of the school district. Secondary schools, formerly ranked according to the quality of their students, have been equalized, with a portion of good, mediocre, and poor students being assigned to each one. The reform, however, did not equalize secondary schools completely. In Seoul, students who performed well in qualifying examinations were allowed to attend better quality schools in a "common" district, while other students attended schools in one of five geographical districts. The reforms applied equally to public and private schools whose enrollments were strictly controlled by the Ministry of Education.

Unlike United States, where the grade of a student is commonly incremented until 12th grade as the student progresses through primary and secondary education system, in South Korea, the grade of a student is reset as the student progresses through elementary, middle and high school. To differentiate the grades between students, one would often state the grade based on the level of education he/she is in. For example, a student in a first year of middle school (equivalent to 7th grade in the United States) would be referred to as "First grade in Middle School (중학교 1학년)".

Middle schools are called 중학교 in Korean (中學校, jung hakgyo), which literally means middle school. High schools are called 고등학교 in Korean (高等學校, godeung hakgyo), literally meaning "high-level school."

'''Middle School'''

Middle schools in South Korea consist of three grades. Most students enter at age 12 and finish at age 15 (western years). These three grades correspond roughly to grades 7-9 in the North American system and 2nd to 4th form in the British system.

Middle school in South Korea marks a considerable shift from elementary school, with students expected to take studies and school much more seriously. At most middle schools regulation uniforms and haircuts are enforced fairly strictly, and some aspects of students' lives are highly controlled. Like in elementary school, students spend most of the day in the same homeroom classroom with the same classmates; however, students have different teachers for each subject. Teachers move around from classroom to classroom, and few teachers apart from those who teach special subjects have their own rooms to which students come. Homeroom teachers (담임선생님 dam im seonsangnim) play a very important role in students' lives, and have considerably more authority over and responsibility for their students' than their American counterparts.

Most middle school students take six lessons a day, and in addition to this usually have an early morning block that precedes regular lessons and a seventh lesson specialising in an extra subject to finish the day. Unlike with high school, middle school curricula do not vary much from school to school. Maths, English, Korean, and science form the core subjects, with students also receiving instruction in art, PE, history, Hanja (Chinese characters), ethics, home economics, and computers. What subjects students study and in what amount may vary from year to year. All regular lessons are 45 minutes long. Before school, students have an extra block, 30-or-more minutes long, that may be used for self-study, watching Educational Broadcast System (EBS) broadcasts, or for personal or class administration. As of 2008, students attend school from Monday to Friday, and have a half-day every 1st, 3rd, and 5th (calendar permitting) Saturday of the month. Saturday lessons usually include Club Activity (CA) lessons, where students may participate in extra-curricular activities.

In the late 1960s the government abolished entrance examinations for middle school students, replacing it with a system whereby elementary school students within the same district are selected for middle schools by a lottery system. This has the effect of equalising the quality of students from school to school, though schools in areas where students come from more privileged backgrounds still tend to outperform schools in poorer areas. Until recently most middle schools have been same-sex, though in the past decade most new middle schools have been mixed, and some previously same-sex schools have converted to mixed as well.

As with elementary schools, students pass from grade to grade regardless of knowledge or academic achievement, the result being that classes often have students of vastly differing abilities learning the same subject material together. In the final year of middle school examination scores become very important for the top students hoping to gain entrance into the top high schools, and for those in the middle hoping to get into an academic rather a technical or vocation high school. Otherwise, examinations and marks only matter in so far as pleasing parents and teachers (or avoiding their wrath). There are some standardised examinations for certain subjects, and teachers of academic subjects are expected to follow approved textbooks, but generally middle school teachers have more flexibility over curricula and methods than teachers at high school.

Many middle school students also attend after-school academies, known as hagwon, and some receive extra instruction from private tutors. The core subjects, especially the cumulative subjects of English and maths, receive the most stress. Some hagwon specialise in just one subject, and others offer all core subjects, constituting a second round of schooling every day for their pupils. Indeed, some parents place more stress on their children's hagwon studies than their public school studies. Additionally, many students attend academies for things such as martial arts or music. The result of all this is that many middle school students, like their high school counterparts, return from a day of schooling well after dark or even around midnight.

'''High school'''

High schools in South Korea teach students from first grade (age 17) to third grade (age 19), and students commonly graduate at age 19. High schools in Korea can be divided into specialty tracks that accord with a student's interest and career path. For example, there are science (Science high school), foreign language and art specialty high schools to which students can attend with prior entrance examinations, which are generally highly competitive. Other type of high schools include public high schools and private high schools, both with or without entrance examinations. These high schools do not report to specialize in a field, but are more focused on sending their students to college. For students who do not wish a college education, vocational schools specializing in fields such as technology, agriculture or finance are available, in which the students are employeed right after graduation. On noting the schedule of many high school students, it is not abnormal for them to arrive home from school at midnight, after intensive "self-study" sessions supported by the school. The curriculum is often noted as rigorous, with as many as 11 or so subjects and some students choose to attend private academies called 학원 (學院, pronounced hagwons) to boost their academic performance. Core subjects include Korean, English and Math, with adequate emphasis on social and physical science subjects. It is critical to note that the type and level of subjects may differ from school to school, depending on the degree of selectivity and specialization of the school.

High school is not strictly mandatory, unlike middle school education in Korea. However, according to a 2005 study of OECD member countries, some 97% of South Korea's young adults do complete high school. This was the highest percentage recorded in any country.

== Further and Higher education ==

''There is a very long article on this topic at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_South_Korea#Post-secondary_education =- very hard to summarise and much of it off-topic for the purposes of Re.ViCa. Work will continue on trying to find a better source document.''

=== Universities in South Korea ===

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_South_Korea

===Polytechnics in South Korea ===

Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_South_Korea

=== Colleges in South Korea ===

== Education reform ==

=== Schools ===

=== Post-secondary ===

For a start see http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/Arley33-12772-Sheena-Yeom-Higher-Education-Reform-South-Korea-New-University-Regional-Innovation-NURI-Entertainment-ppt-powerpoint/

==== The Bologna Process ====

See ''The Impact of the Bologna Process beyond Europe, Part II: Asia-Pacific'' at http://www.wes.org/ewenr/07sept/feature.htm

== Administration and finance ==

=== Schools ===

=== Post-secondary ===

== Quality assurance, inspection and accreditation ==

=== Schools ===



=== Post-secondary ===





== Information society ==
A very up-to-date and reach blog is [http://www.koreainformationsociety.com/Korea's Information Society], authored by Prof. James F. Larson.

the [http://www.kisdi.re.kr/kisdi/jsp/fp/eng/main.jspKorea Information Society Development Institute KISDI] and the [http://eng.nia.or.kr/special_content/eng/National Information Society Agency NIA] are governmental organizations supporting the development of information society in the country and the formulation of IT policy.

the NIA publishes report on informatization in the countries and several research papers and publications can be found in its website illustrating the state of development of the information society in different sectors. These diverse reports can be found at http://eng.nia.or.kr/special_content/eng/

Source [http://eng.nia.or.kr/special_content/eng/Digital Society Development of Korea 2011]

Following to the global momentum of informatization of the 80s, Korea also established the ‘Act on Expansion of Dissemination and Promotion of Utilization of Information System’ and began to computerize major government functions such as administration, finance, and national security.
From the 1990s onwards, Korea completely overhauled its informatization implementation structure and related laws shifting its focus from basic computerization to a global knowledge and information powerhouse in the 21st century. To achieve this new status, the Informatization Promotion Fund was created to ensure a stable funding mechanism. Priority was given to building a high-speed communication network, which formed the fundamental infrastructure of informatization. At the same time, e-Government projects were also aggressively pursued as a strategic tool to enhance the overall capacity of the government.
In addition, the government was very active in its efforts to deal with the negative effects of informatization including cyber attacks in form of hacking and computer viruses, as well as the growing digital divide.
As a result, Korea has become a well recognized global IT powerhouse and ranked first in 2010 UN Global e-Government Survey.

== ICT in education initiatives ==

The Korean school system is mainly directed by government rules and regulations, and organized according to nation-wide standards and curricula. Many educational policies and strategies are implemented with the top-down approach. ICT use in education is no exception.

A new movement for the adaptation of technology in education was initiated in 1980s. The efforts to utilize ICT in the Korean educational system were embodied in the initiative called the ‘Plan for the renovation of education 5.31’proposed by the Education Renovation Committee in 1995. The Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has developed a five-year master plan for ICT use in education. It began in 2010 and is now in the fourth stage. The aims and visions of the fourth stage of ICT use in education are to strengthen the future competitiveness of education, science and technology, and to cope with rapid changes in the economy and society, and in science, technology and education worldwide.

Recently, the ministry has announced an advanced plan for 'Smart Education.' It includes the development and dissemination of digital textbooks and online evaluation systems, building an open environment for the public and facilitating the safe use of educational materials. Professional development will be enhanced by Smart education, and an educational infrastructure will be created with cloud computing.

=== Virtual initiatives in schools ===




====Telepresence robot learning programme - English as foreign language====
In 2010 the government ran a pilot equipping classrooms with telepresence robots so that English teachers located in the Philippines could teach pupils in South Korean elementary schools the English language. Among the robots is EngKey, developed by the [http://www.kist.re.kr/en/iv/sy.jsp Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST)]. The robot is controlled by teachers abroad who can communicate using embedded microphones and speakers. The Engkey ‘robot’ features a small display with a woman’s face which mimics the facial expression of the teacher, who has cameras in his/her room.

[http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/22/south.korea.robot.teacher Another version of the Engkey] does not connect students to a teacher but uses voice recognition technology to help students practice their English pronunciation and dialogue.

Elementary schools involved in the pilot were located in Masan and Daegu, as mentioned in the news articles below:
*"Get to know Engkey and Kibot! South Korea’s Most Famous Education Robots", Amy Jung, Advanced Technology Korea, 22 July 2011, http://www.advancedtechnologykorea.com/6372, 20 April 2012
*"Robot teachers invade South Korean classrooms", Susannah Palk, CNN, 22 October 2010, http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/22/south.korea.robot.teachers, 20 April 2012
*"South Korea’s Robot Teachers To Test Telepresence Tools in the New Year", Aaron Saenz, Singularity Hub, 3 January 2011, http://singularityhub.com/2011/01/03/south-korea%E2%80%99s-robot-teachers-to-test-telepresence-tools-in-the-new-year/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SingularityHub+%28Singularity+Hub%29, 20 April 2012

====EDUNET====

[http://www.edunet4u.net EDUNET] is an educational information service which aims to improve the quality of education at all K-12 levels, focusing on the distribution and utilization of educational materials and resources. It is the largest educational portal system established by government since the early stages of ICT use in education in 1996. Teachers have access to information and resources related to school education, and students can access a diverse range of educational materials for learning in and outside of schools. EDUNET also provides national standards, educational models and guidelines for ICT use in education, and supports regional learning centers and individual schools for expanding the use of ICT in teaching and learning.

====Cyber home learning system====

The Cyber home learning system (CHLS), launched in 2004, provides learners with free online services offering learning content, adaptive supports to complement learners' capabilities by cyber teachers and tutors, and private learning spaces on cyberspace. The major purpose of the project is to pursue better performance within public school systems and equity of educational opportunities. Basically, CHLS offers supplemental materials and activities related to school work.
Students can voluntarily access the system through the Internet at home and be involved in additional learning opportunities with teachers' and tutors' guidance. Students who want to study in CHLS must register on a separate web site operated by regional educational institutes. Educational contents delivered through CHLS cover core subject matter in the 4th ~ 6th grades of elementary school, the 7th ~9th grades of middle school and the 10th grade of high school.

====Digital textbooks====

The development of [http://www.dtbook.kr/renew/sub/index.jsp digital textbooks] in Korea has been carried out through governmental initiative since 2007. Digital textbooks provide learners with various resources and tools beyond the limitations of paper-based textbooks and the classroom-based learning environment, and also assist teachers to obtain high-quality resources to improve their teaching. A digital textbook is defined as an electronic textbook that includes the existing paper-based textbooks and activity booklets, integrating them with multimedia and interactive contents such as video-clips, animation, virtual reality, and online interaction. It allows learners and teachers to access unlimited resources and promotes advanced learning.

This project is in the pilot stage of research and the investigation of cases. So far, digital textbooks have been developed for language, social studies, science and mathematics in elementary schools, and language and science in middle schools. Pilot studies for the utilization of digital textbooks have been conducted in over 100 schools. The initial versions of the digital textbooks were used on a learning platform and application programs operated in a Windows OS environment. Since 2009 the platform and applications have been upgraded and revised to use digital textbooks without the limitation of operating systems and digital devices.

====Digital library system====

A [http://dls.edunet.net/ digital library system] (DLS) was developed for improving the capacity of school libraries in 2001 and extended under the School Libraries Support Project in 2009. DLS is a standardized information system for school libraries installed at the municipal educational office level. It aims to provide individual schools with educational resource management services and enhance students' reading and writing abilities. Librarians in schools upload and share various resources, and open their services to users beyond the schools. Currently, 95.8% of schools are registered in the service and over 8 million students in the K-12 levels have access to the service.

====EBS Internet services====

The [http://www.ebsi.co.kr EBS Internet services] (EBS) was launched by the Korea Educational Broadcasting System (KEBS) in 2004. The major purpose of this service is to promote the quality of public educational services and reduce the citizens' economic burden of private education. This service provides online lectures for high school students preparing for a national entrance exam for higher education. It offers the students high quality learning materials and helps to reduce the educational gaps between regions and people of differing social status. In order to enhance the service in 2010, KEBS recruited outstanding teachers in design, development and delivery of online lectures. It also began to offer learners differentiated courses according to their level of proficiency, and to provide a mobile service using smart phones.

====NEIS====

The NEIS (National Education Information System) is an integrated management system of educational administration in schools, which was constructed as an online system in 2002. The areas covered by the NEIS include personnel management, student enrollment, school facilities and academic/administrative affairs. The NEIS reduces the administrative work-load in schools, establishes and implements educational policies in a fair and objective way, and facilitates education and academic research in schools.

====Distance education in teacher training on ICT use====

Distance education teacher training provides teachers with self-directed and learner-centered learning opportunities through cyberspace. Over 40% of teacher training was conducted as distance education in 2010. There are three types of training centers: 1) Metro/provincial distance education training centers supported by the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST), and operated by regional centers for teacher training, 2) distance training centers certified by the MEST, 3) distance training centers in special fields appointed by regional educational offices. Recently a support center was established for enhancing the quality of distance education teacher training and for supporting educational services in those centers that offer distance education.

====Air and Correspondence High school====

The [[Air and Correspondence High School]] (ACHS) was established in 1974. The primary purpose of ACHS is to provide secondary education to people who are under-privileged for economic or personal reasons. Since 2009, 40 ACHSs have been affiliated with public schools in Seoul and Pusan. The ACHS offers an effective learning program blended with Internet and offline classes (2 times per month), various learning tools and differentiated educational methods. The ACHS reflects a new paradigm for 21st century education.

=== Virtual initiatives in post-secondary education ===





==== Cyber-universities ====

For a list see http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i30/30a04101.htm.

A few of the more major ones are described below.

==== Ewha Womans University ====

[[Ewha Womans University]] (Ewha) is a private women's university in central Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the world's largest female educational institutions. Ewha was founded in 1886 by the American Methodist Episcopal missionary Mary F. Scranton. It has roughly 20,000 students.

Ewha hosts the [[International Cyber University]] ([[ICU]]), whose goal is to promote understanding and awareness of Korean culture and history via course materials places online (in English). Currently established courses are Korean Studies and Women Studies.

The Ewha Womans University web site is at http://www.ewha.ac.kr/english/

==== Hanyang Cyber University ====

The [[Hanyang Cyber University]] (HYCU) was established by the [http://www.hanyang.ac.kr/english/Research/indexD2.html Hanyang Institutes] in [[South Korea]], in March 2002. Based in Seoul, Hanyang Cyber University focusses on the practical fields and skills most in demand by the marketplace. It has expanded since 2002 from 5 to 15 departments.

Its vision is to train creative leaders through open, online education, and seeks to maintain excellence in education as a distance learning university.

The Hanyang Cyber University web site is at http://www.hanyangcyber.ac.kr/English/UnivInfo/UnivInfo01.asp

==== International Cyber University ====

Hosted by Ewha Womans University, South Korea, the [[International Cyber University]] mission is to promote understanding and awareness of Korean culture and history worldwide, via course materials placed online (in English). Currently established courses are in Korean Studies and Women Studies. See also Ewha Womans University.

The International Cyber University web site is at http://icu.ewha.ac.kr:8080/edutrack/Main.cmd?cmd=setMainForm&pMODE=I

Students of schools that have exchange programme arrangements with Ewha are offered access to ICU free of charge.

==== KERIS ====

[[KERIS]] ('''Korea Education & Research Information Service''') is a governmental organization under the South Korea Ministry of Education, Science and Technology that develops, proposes, and advises on current and future government policies and initiatives regarding education in South Korea.

Its current focus is on the development of ICT in educational systems in Korea and abroad and works closely with international organizations such as the World Bank and UNESCO to assist other nations in developing or improving their own ICT infrastructure and implementation.

In addition to policy, KERIS provides educators and the public with educational services such as the National Education Information Service(NEIS) - neis.go.kr, the Research Information Service System(RISS) - riss4u.net, the National Education Service System(EDUNET) - edunet.net, and Korea Open CourseWare(KOCW) - kocw.net.

Its web site is at http://english.keris.or.kr

==== Korea National Open University ====

The [[Korea National Open University]] ([[KNOU]]) is the national open university of Korea.

KNOU was founded in 1972 as a branch of Seoul National University. It began by offering a two-year junior college programme to 12,000 students and now has over 200,000 full-time, degree-seeking students for four-year university programs and some part-time students for non-degree, lifelong education programs. It also offers online postgraduate programs in several major areas.

The university has campuses in 12 major cites of South Korea including the capital, Seoul.

==== Korea Virtual Campus ====

The [[Korea Virtual Campus]] (KVC) consortium was founded in 1997 with 10 member universities. Participants have included the [[Korea National Open University]] ([[KNOU]]) and [[Ewha Womans University]] ([[Ewha]]). As of October 2008, it was difficult to judge the status of KVC via web searches in English.

The Korea Virtual Campus web site could not be located in October 2008; many roads lead to the Korea Cyber University web site, however (http://www.kcu.or.kr/english/sub_01_03.asp). It may be more useful to profile that institution.

==== Seoul Digital University ====

[[Seoul Digital University]] (SDU) opened in 2001, and is considered the "the first digital (E-learning) college in Korea". Based in Seoul, it recently boasted enrolment of 10,000 students from Korea and 23 other countries.

The Seoul Digital University web site is at http://en.sdu.ac.kr/

== Lessons learnt ==

=== General lessons ===

=== Notable practices ===



== References ==

[http://www.keris.or.kr/index.jsp2009 Whitepaper on ‘Adapting education on the information age’, MEST & KERIS.]

[http://www.kice.re.kr/ko/index.do2010 Whitepaper on ‘Adapting education on the information age’, MEST & KERIS.]

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Open University of China

2012-07-05T16:41:39Z

Daniela Proli:

{{SimilarName|[[Online University Consortium]] (OUC) in the [[US]] or [[Open University of Cyprus]] (OUC) in [[Cyprus]]?}}

The China Central Radio & TV University changed their name in 2009 in the [[Open University of China]] (OUC).

''China Central Radio & TV University'' (CCRTVU, or CRTVU, depending on source accessed) is a dedicated distance education institution in [[China]], which offers multi-media university courses through radio, TV, print, audio-visual materials and computer software. It is located in Beijing and is under the direct supervision of the State Education Commission. The CCRTVU together with 28 Provincial TV University (PRTVU) organisations was established on 6 February 1979, and the first nationwide transmission of the RTVU courses via China Central TV (CCTV) was on 8 February 1979.

At present this distance education system is made up of the CCRTVU, 44 (up from 28) PRTVUs, more than 690 branch schools at prefecture and city level, 1600 study centres at county level and 13,000 teaching classes. The system is run and operated at different levels, both central and local, on the basis of overall planning with the CCRTVU as its centre.

Its web site is at http://www.crtvu.edu.cn/English_crtvu/index_en.html

== Details ==
(sourced from [[Network-based distance education in Chinese universities]])

=== The Responsibilities of RTVUs at Different Levels ===

The CCRTVU acts in accordance with the needs of economic construction and social development. Its responsibilities are:
# to offer nationwide unified subjects in degree education, which involves formulation of corresponding curricula and course syllabi;
# to produce print, audio-visual materials and computer software; and
# to set up and prepare end-of-term examinations for these courses.

In addition, the CCRTVU is also responsible for the teaching management of the China TV Teachers College, the Central Radio & TV Specialized Secondary School and the China Liaoyuan Radio & TV School. The CCRTVU offers a wide variety of vocational training and continuing education courses at different levels in terms of "open entrance students" and "BA courses" also fall into the CCRTVU’s responsibil-ity. It is conducting evaluation on teaching to ensure teaching quality, training of teaching, technical and managerial staff, and development of distance education research and information. The CCRTVU provides supervision and teaching service for RTVUs (Radio and Television Universities) throughout the country. PRTVUs (the Provincial RTVUs) may offer subjects based on their local needs, formulate the corresponding curricula and course wares and produce print, audio-visual materials and computer software for their own courses. They operate and mark end-of-term exami-nations set by the CCRTVU for the centrally unified courses and set examinations for their own courses.

According to the regulations set by educational authorities and the CCRTVU, PRTVUs draw up detailed rules and regulations for teaching, teaching management, testing and registration.

They are also responsible for student enrolment, awarding degrees, issuing certifi-cates, training teaching staff, conducting research and promoting interchange of ex-perience in both teaching and management. They also provide supervision in teaching and student counselling for branch schools. Branch schools teaching activities in ac-cordance with curricula set by the CCRTVU and the PRTVUs, which involves sched-uling tutorials, organizing counselling, assessing assignments, and organizing examinations, laboratory work and field studies. They carry out all the rules and regu-lations for teaching, teaching management, testing and registration. They oversee formation of classes and teaching administration in study centres. They are responsi-ble for student counselling and may issue certificates. Study centres are responsible for recruiting tutors and teaching staff for non-degree courses, arranging every teach-ing stage and managing classes as well as student counselling.

=== Programmes ===

''The Transmission of the Courses and Programmes''

In the early years of its existence, the CCRTVU’s courses were transmitted for 33 teaching hours per week nationwide via the microwave network of the CCTV.

On 1 July 1986 China Educational TV (CETV) was founded and started to transmit the CCRTVU’s courses as well as three other channels to transmit programmes, mainly the CCRTVU’s courses.

At the moment, the total number of programmes transmitted via both CCTV and CETV per year amounts to about 9,000 teaching hours. Meanwhile local TV and radio stations also transmit some of the CCRTVU’s courses as well as local TVU’s courses.

''Courses and Examinations''

RTVUs offer mainly two-year or three-year specialized college degree courses, aim-ing at training applied professional personnel at the grass-roots level, who develop in an all-round way – morally, intellectually and physically – to meet the requirements of socialist construction.

In 1996, the RTVU system altogether offered 529 specialities from 55 disciplines covering nine fields. Since its founding, the CCRTVU has offered 350 courses in 59 specialities from 22 disciplines covering the six fields of natural science, engineering, humanities, economics and management, agriculture and medical science. The CCRTVU has produced more than 1,000 titles of audio-visual teaching materials, in-cluding learner’s guides and teaching guides as well as over 300 items of audio-visual teaching materials. All the curricula are devised through consultation with eminent specialists and professors. The university is always ready to offer new courses and subjects in line with the national and local needs of economic construction and social development.

RTVUs offer two- or three-year degree courses with a yearly credit system. The aca-demic year is divided into two terms, each with 18 teaching weeks. The credit is cal-culated in terms of teaching hours and one credit is awarded for every 18 hours. Including credits given for field study, a minimum number of credits required is 76. A RTVU student must obtain no less than 60% of his/her total credits through courses offered by the CCRTVU.

PRTVUs may set mid-term exams for some of the courses, but end-of-terms for uni-fied courses are set by the CCRTVU and held at the same time through the country. Passing the examination earns the corresponding credit. The student who has com-pleted the specified courses, obtained the total credits required and been assessed as morally qualified can be granted a certificate of graduation. Both the two-year and three-year degree courses are recognized as tertiary education by the government.
The pilot programme of “open entrance students” adopts the credit system, that is any credit gained within eight years will be valid. Once the student has obtained the total credits specified in the curriculum, qualified for practical experience or field study and moral assessment, he/she will be granted a certificate of graduation which is also recognized by the government.

''The Continuing Education Programme''

The CCRTVU offers a wide variety of vocational training and continuing education courses at different levels in terms of non-degree education.

Since 1986, the CCRTVU has cooperated with more than 40 institutions, including governmental departments, vocational organizations, academic bodies, universities and colleges and large enterprises to run some 60 projects in non-degree education, which has resulted in around four million trainees. In addition, PRTVUs have also offered non-degree education courses with a total number of over 30 million trainees. Two million secondary and primary school headmasters have received training through satellite TV teacher training programmes.

Since 1990, the China Liaoyuan Radio & TV School has developed skills-based practical courses for rural areas and up to now millions of farmers have viewed its programmes.

=== Learners ===

The target students of RTVU degree courses are Chinese citizens with secondary edu-cation qualification or the equivalent. The students have to pass the national entrance examinations set by the State Education Commission (SEdC) for either fresh school leavers or for adult higher education. They can study full-time, part-time or in their spare time. Students in continuing education and in other forms of non-degree education who want to extend their knowledge and to upgrade their professional skills are not required to take entrance examinations. They can obtain certificates on gradua-tion. Up to 1996, nearly 3 million students had been enrolled on degree courses with the RTVU system, from which over 2 million have graduated. The total number of undergraduates at present is 690,000 (including 150,000 "open entrance students" who are not required to take entrance examinations).

Over 600,000 secondary and primary school teachers have completed the satellite teacher training programmes and received diplomas or certificates at either tertiary level or secondary level. Furthermore, around 500,000 in-service adults have followed the courses offered by the Central Radio & TV Specialized Secondary School and received certificates. This category of students following courses at the moment numbers 400,000. The pilot programme of “BA courses” has 3,000 students.
At present, the number of all types of undergraduate within the RTVU system exceeds one million.

=== Projects ===

The CCRTVU is a member of the [[International Council for Open and Distance Education ]] and a member of the [[Asian Association of Open Universities]]. It has over the years built up and maintained good relations with other open and distance education institutions and international organizations (e.g. [[US]], [[UK]], [[Canada]], [[Australia]], [[Japan]], [[Thailand]], [[India]] as well as [[Hong Kong]] and [[Macao]]). Their contacts have provided a valuable forum for discussions and exchanges of ideas and have been of mutual benefit.

The British Council has cooperated with the CCRTVU since 1981 and has sent English language teaching experts to provide assistance in the production of both printed and audio-visual teaching material.

The Japanese government funded the programme to produce Japanese language courses covering trade, science and travelling subjects as a result of cooperation between the CCRTVU and Japan NHK International Inc. In 1995 the CCRTVU, the US-China Distance Education Development Foundation and the San Francisco State University College of Business cooperated to develop and offer three courses on Marketing, Finance and Accounting to RTVU students. After the students have completed the courses, they can obtain the course certificate jointly issued by the CCRTVU and San Francisco State University.

In 1996, the CCRTVU worked with Novell, USA in offering a Novell Network Administration Training Course to the public.

== References ==

# China Central Radio & TV University (CCRTVU) - People's Republic of China, at http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/skills/hrdr/init/chn_2.htm
# China Central Radio and TV University(I), at http://www.edu.cn/20010101/21803.shtml
# CCRTVU (A view from the [[eChina]] programme), at http://jcal.info/eChina/e-learning/history/CCRTVU/index.htm
# Links with [[US]], at http://confucius.msu.edu/partners.htm
# ODL Example: China Radio & TV Universities (CRTVU), from [[PANdora]] project, at http://www.pandora-asia.org/guidebook/PDEG6a-ed1.pdf
# Experiences and Perspectives of International Co-operation in China Open and Distance Education, at http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/cccc/papers/refereed/paper54/Paper54-1.htm
# Interpreting Quality Online Learning: Perspectives and Assumptions, at http://msuglobal.com/documents/uceachinaboston.pdf
# Satellite distance education in China, at http://satjournal.tcom.ohiou.edu/Issue11/wang.html

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> [[Programmes]]

[[Category:China]]
[[Category:Universities]]
[[Category:Open universities]]
[[Category:GELIs]]
[[Category:Virtual colleges]]

China

2012-07-05T16:37:03Z

Daniela Proli: /* The Open University of China */

There are major developments in e-learning in mainland China , and in view of increased interest in China from many European universities, a better understanding of Chinese approaches to pedagogy, technology and organisation would be helpful.

In contrast to the EU, some of the highest-ranking Chinese universities, such as [[Tsinghua University]], have impressive ''operational'' capability in e-learning and have developed their own learning environments.

== Partners and Experts in China==

None.

== China in a nutshell ==
(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Republic_of_China)

The People's Republic of China (simplified Chinese: 中华人民共和国; traditional Chinese: 中華人民共和國; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó), commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia with Beijing as its capital city. It is a single-party socialist republic comprising of:

* 22 provinces
* 5 autonomous regions
* 4 municipalities,
* 2 Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong and Macao)

[[Image:China.gif|right|thumb|400px|Source : http://www.cia.gov]]
The country is vast, stretching for 5000 km across the East Asian landmass, and has a diverse landscape. In the north, near China's borders with [[Mongolia]] and [[Russia]]'s Siberia, the Gobi Desert and forest steppes dominate the dry expanse while lush subtropical forests grow along its southern borders with [[Vietnam]], [[Laos]], and [[Myanmar]]. The terrain in the west is rugged and high altitude with the Himalayas and the Tian Shan mountain ranges forming China's natural borders with [[India]] and Central Asia. In contrast, China's eastern seaboard is low-lying and has a 14,500-km long coastline bounded on the southeast by the South China Sea and on the east by the East China Sea beyond which lies [[Korea]] and [[Japan]].

At 9.6 million km and with more than 1.3 billion people (a fifth of humanity), the People's Republic of China (PRC) is the third or fourth largest country by area and the most populous in the world.

The PRC is a major power holding a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and memberships in APEC, East Asia Summit, and Shanghai Cooperation Organization. China is a nuclear state as well as having the world's largest standing army and fourth largest defense budget. It is a fast-growing economic power having the world's fourth largest GDP in nominal terms or second largest in purchasing power and consuming as much as a third of the world's steel and over a half of its concrete. China is also the world's second largest exporter and the third largest importer. Since the introduction of market-based economic reforms in 1978, the poverty rate in China has gone down from 53% to 8% in 2001. However, China is now faced with a number of other economic problems including a rapidly ageing population, a widening rural-urban income gap, and rapid environmental degradation.

== Education in China ==

(sourced from http://www.index-china.com/index-english/education-s.htm)

China has adopted a nine-year compulsory schooling system, which means all children are required to attend school for at least nine years. Students have to complete both the primary school programme and the junior middle-school programme. Higher education is only for those students who have passed examinations of all levels. Student must pass the entrance examination for senior middle schools or middle-level technical schools. After two, three or four years, they have to go through national college entrance examination for admission to universities.

=== Pre-school Education ===

Children aged from 3 to 6 will attend kindergartens near their neighborhoods, where they learn the basics of the native language and subjects. They play games, dance, sing and act. Children are taught from the early year the values of Truth, Kindness and Beauty.

Chinese take children education very seriously since they know that a person's personality is mould in the early childhood.

=== Primary School Education ===

The primary school education requires six years. Pupils are required to take a variety of subjects such as the Chinese language, fundamental mathematics and moral education. They also take part in sports and extra-curriculum activities. Foreign languages such as English are optional courses in the senior year of the primary education

=== High School Education ===

High school education has two parts, 3-year junior high school program and senior high school.

From junior high school, students begin to learn a variety of science subjects such as chemistry, physics and biology and other subjects such as history, geography, and foreign languages. Physical education is enthusiastically encouraged.

Senior high school education is a continuation of junior high school. Students take up specific subjects in either science or humanity subjects. Many contests are organized annually in all levels to encourage their study. The "Olympic Series" are the most noticeable ones.

The purpose is for them in preparation for the national college entrance examination. Examinations are designed separately for science and arts students

A detailed description of Chinese education system covering school and Higher Education can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China

For Higher Education see next.

== Schools in China ==

China has over 200 million elementary and high school students, who, together with pre-school children, account for one sixth of the total population. For this reason the Central Government has prioritized basic education as a key field of infrastructure construction and educational development.

In recent years, senior high school education has developed steadily. In 2004 enrollment was 8.215 million, 2.3 times that of 1988. Gross national enrollment in senior high schools has reached 43.8 percent, still lower than that of other developed countries.

The government has created a special fund to improve conditions in China's elementary and high schools, for new construction, expansion and the re-building of run-down structures. Per-capita educational expenditure for elementary and high school students has grown greatly, teaching and research equipment, books and documents being updated and renewed every year.

Government's aim for the development of China's basic education system is to approach or attain the level of moderately developed countries by 2010.

"Key schools," shut down during the Cultural Revolution, reappeared in the late 1970s and, in the early 1980s, became an integral part of the effort to revive the lapsed education system. Because educational resources were scarce, selected ("key") institutions - usually those with records of past educational accomplishment - were given priority in the assignment of teachers, equipment, and funds. They also were allowed to recruit the best students for special training to compete for admission to top schools at the next level. Key schools constituted only a small percentage of all regular senior middle schools and funneled the best students into the best secondary schools, largely on the basis of entrance scores. In 1980 the greatest resources were allocated to the key schools that would produce the greatest number of college entrants. In 1986 the Shanghai Educational Bureau abolished the key junior-middle-school system to ensure "an overall level of education." Despite the effort to abolish the "Key Schools" system, the practice still exists today under other names, and education inequality is still being widely criticized by some government officials and scholars.

== Further and Higher education ==

Higher education in China is to train specialists for all the sectors of the country's development. Universities, colleges and institutes offer four- or five-year undergraduate programs as well as special two-or three-year programs. Students who have completed a first degree may apply to enter graduate schools.

University admission is operated on a centralized enrolment system, in which admissions committees at the provincial level are under the Ministry of Education. Admission is granted on the basis of academic, physical and moral qualifications. Special allowances are made for minority nationality and overseas Chinese candidates

The nationwide examinations are held in the first ten days of July. Candidate can take the examination in either one of the two categories, humanities or sciences/engineering. They apply for the institutions and departments they wish to enter in order of preference. Enrolment is determined by the examination results. Brief investigation into their social behavior and moral character is conducted before students are admitted. In some faculties, specific physical requirements must be met.

China currently provides free university education. Students do not have to pay tuition fee and are provided with free on-campus dormitories. Grants or subsidies will be given to students whose families have financial difficulties. The dormitory, which forms an important part of university life, is run by the students themselves through the students' union under the China Students' Federation, to which all enrolled students belong.

The education system is under reform. The number of paid students increases dramatically in recent years. The trend may continue and the government may eventually adopt a pay system instead.

=== Universities in China ===
(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_education_in_China)

Higher education in China is continuously growing, changing and developing. There are over 2,000 universities and colleges, with more than six million enrollments in total. China has set up a degree system, including Bachelors, Masters and Doctoral degrees that are open to foreign students. The country offers non-degree programmes as well.

According to the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, the government authority on all matters pertaining to education and language, higher education in China has played a significant part in economic growth, scientific progress and social development in the country "by bringing up large scale of advanced talents and experts for the construction of socialist modernization."

New trends in Chinese higher education are attracting the attention of educators around the world. Since China began to develop a Western-oriented university model at the end of nineteenth century, Chinese higher education has continued to evolve. Since the late 1980s, however, tremendous economic development in China has stimulated reforms in higher education that have resulted in remarkable changes.

In 2002, there were slightly over 2000 higher education institutions in PRC. Close to 1400 were regular higher education institutions (HEIs). A little more than 600 were higher education institutions for adults. Combined enrollment in 2002 was 11,256,800. Of this close to 40 percent were new recruits. Total graduate student enrolment was 501,000.[6]

In 2005, there were about 4,000 Chinese institutions. Student enrollment increased to 15 million, with rapid growth that is expected to peak in 2008. However, the higher education system does not meet the needs of 85 percent of the college-aged population.

==== Leading universities in China ====

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_education_in_China)

It is probably wise to restrict any examples for Re.ViCa to universities in this list

# Anhui University
# Anhui University of Science and Technology
# Beijing Film Academy
# [[Beijing Foreign Studies University]]
# Beijing Forestry University
# Beijing Institute of Technology
# Beijing Jiaotong University
# Beijing Language and Culture University
# [[Beijing Normal University]]
# Beijing Sport University
# Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
# Beijing University of Chemical Technology
# Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
# Beijing University of Technology
# Capital University of Medical Sciences
# Central South University
# Chang'an University
# Chengdu University of Technology
# China Agricultural University
# China Medical University
# China University of Geosciences
# China University of Mining and Technology
# China University of Political Science and Law
# Chongqing University
# Communication University of China
# Dalian University of Technology
# Donghua University
# East China Normal University
# East China University of Science and Technology
# Fudan University
# Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University
# Fujian Normal University
# Fuzhou University
# Guangdong University of Technology
# Guangxi University
# Harbin Institute of Technology
# Hebei Normal University
# Hebei University
# Hebei University of Technology
# Hefei University of Technology
# Heilongjiang University
# Henan University
# Hohai University
# Hunan Normal University
# Hunan University
# Jiangsu University
# Jilin University
# Jinan University
# Kunming University of Science and Technology
# Lanzhou University
# Nanchang University
# Nanjing Forestry University
# Nanjing Normal University
# Nanjing University
# Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
# Nanjing University of Science & Technology
# Nanjing University of Technology
# Nankai University
# Northeast Normal University
# Northeastern University
# Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University
# Northwest University
# Northwestern Polytechnical University
# Ocean University of China
# Peking University
# Qingdao University
# Renmin University of China
# Shaanxi Normal University
# Shandong Agricultural University
# Shandong Normal University
# Shandong University
# Shandong University of Science and Technology
# Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade
# Shanghai Jiao Tong University
# Shanghai Second Medical University
# Shanxi University
# Sichuan University
# Soochow University
# South China Agricultural University
# South China Normal University
# South China University of Technology
# Southeast University
# Southwest China Normal University
# Southwest Jiaotong University
# Sun Yat-sen University
# Taiyuan University of Technology
# The Central Academy of Drama
# The University of Science and Technology Beijing
# Tianjin University
# Tongji University
# [[Tsinghua University]]
# University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
# University of Petroleum
# University of Science and Technology of China
# Wuhan University
# Wuhan University of Technology
# Xiamen University
# Xi'an Jiaotong University
# Xiangtan University
# Xidian University
# Yangzhou University
# Yanshan University
# Yunnan University
# Zhejiang University
# Zhengzhou University
# Zhongnan University of Economics and Law

===Polytechnics in China===

There are many such institutions

=== Colleges in China===



== Education reform ==

=== Schools ===

The reform of Chinese Education system starte in 1985 when the National Conference on Education recognized five fundamental areas for reform intended to produce (i) "more able people"; (ii) to make the localities responsible for developing "basic education" and systematically implement a nine-year compulsory education program; (iii) to improve secondary education develop vocational and technical education; (iv) to reform and the graduate-assignment system of institutions of higher education and to expand their management and decision-making powers; (v) and to give administrators the necessary encouragement and authority to ensure smooth progress in educational reform.

The National Conference on Education paved the way for reorganization of the Ministry of Education, which occurred in June 1985.

The Ministry of Education, with its expanded administrative scope and power, was responsible for formulating guiding principles for education, establishing regulations, planning the progress of educational projects, coordinating the educational programs of different departments, and standardization educational reforms. Simplification of administration and delegation of authority were made the bases for improving the education system. This devolution of management to the autonomous regions, provinces, and special municipalities meant local governments had more decision-making power and were able to develop basic education. State-owned enterprises, mass organizations, and individuals were encouraged to pool funds to accomplish education reform. Local authorities used state appropriations and a percentage of local reserve financial resources (basically township financial revenues) to finance educational projects.

The Law on Nine-Year Compulsory Education (中华人民共和国义务教育法), which took effect on July 1, 1986, established requirements and deadlines for attaining universal education tailored to local conditions and guaranteed school-age children the right to receive at least nine years of education (six year primary education and three years secondary education).

In 1993, China’s Ministry of Education (MoE) published the “Outline for Education Reform and Development“ in which it announced to increase its annual budget to 4% of GDP by 2000. A glance at The National Bureau of Statistics‘ yearbook of 2001 reveals that China missed this ambitious target by about 30%.
Evidently not satisfied with the overall development of the education sector, China’s leaders sat down once more in 2009 to draft the new [https://www.aei.gov.au/news/newsarchive/2010/documents/china_education_reform_pdf.pdf National Outline for Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020)] proposing to raise the 2012 educational budgetary bars to 4% of GDP, again.

Guiding theme of China’s education reform 2010 to 2020 is to build the foundation for a learning society by modernising the current educational system in its entirety. Main goal for a modernised Chinese education system is to be able to surrender globally competitive human resources to the working world. Education reform will be carried out on all levels of education, namely, pre-school, compulsory, high school, vocational, higher, continuing, minority, and special education. The education reform program will be thoroughly overhauling the way education is delivered, examined and administered in China – across all educational levels.

Measures named in the final revision of the education reform paper revolve around cultivating existing and training new teachers, guaranteed funding over the whole term of education reform, the informatisation of the educational system, enforcing education management according to current law, and conducting pilots to test areas of education reform that require fundamental changes. The agenda also stresses the role international educators play during the reform process: not only does China want to further stipulate existing cooperation on higher education level, but it plans to pilot jointly-run schools across educational levels.

Reform on all educational levels
'''Pre-schools'''
* Guarantee universal access to pre-school education
* Make pre-school education integral part of urban and rural planning
* Encourage social participation and public-private-partnership
* Focus on development of rural pre-school education
'''Compulsory education'''
* Consolidate and enhance the level of nine-year compulsory education
* Migrant children’s education to be managed by the city governments and to be operated by full-time public schools ensuring equal access to compulsory education; improve the quality of compulsory education
* Reduce students’ academic burdens
'''High Schools'''
* Increase number of high school students
* Improve quality of high school education: conduct curriculum reform; promote research-based study, community service and social practice; develop education quality evaluation system; establish student development guidance system
* Diversify high school education: specialised courses
'''Vocational education'''
* Establish modern vocational education system which can adapt to economic changes and restructuring demands
* Quality improvements take priority
* Industry to provide guidance on how to operate schools
* Accelerate the development of vocational education in rural areas
* Improve vocational education: introduction of free secondary vocational education system; improve financial assistance to poor students
'''Higher education'''
* Accelerate the development of internationally renowned colleges and universities with a number of universities at or near the world-class level (programs 985 and 211)
* Improve quality of teaching
* Raise level of scientific research
* Further develop higher education for graduates to become more diversified; increase support for higher education * in Central and Western regions; encourage the eastern regions to take the lead in the development of higher education
'''Continuing education'''
* Accelerate the development of continuing education and establish learning society
* Establish institutional mechanisms for continuing education
* Build a flexible and open system of lifelong education: Schools, research institutions, enterprises equally to participate; community educational institutions and network building; promote distance learning; promote communication among all levels of education
'''Minority education'''
* Improve level of education for minorities and in ethnic areas; Both central and local government to increase investment
* Promote bilingual education: local language and Chinese language
* Other provinces to support minorities and ethnic areas
'''Special education'''
* Improve overall quality of disabled students; Governments at all levels to include development of special education into economic and social development plan
* Improve special education system
* Improve safeguard mechanisms: the state government to develop basic educational standards for special education schools; local governments to improve standard for each student; increase investment; improve cultivation of teachers teaching disabled students; increase support for poor students; gradually implement free higher school education for disabled students

Thoroughly overhauling the way education is delivered, examined and administered
'''General education system'''
* Integrated development; everyone can become a talent; diversified talents; lifelong learning; systematic training
* Combine learning and thinking; Unify knowledge and practice; teach according to individuals’ needs
* Reform of education quality evaluation and personnel evaluation systems focusing on performance including character, knowledge, ability and other factors
'''Examination and enrolment systems'''
* Diversify admission systems
* Improve secondary school enrolment and examination system
* Improve higher education examination and enrolment system: introduce entrance examination according to level and broad field of education
* Improve examination information disclosure; strengthen government and community supervision
'''Building a modern school system'''
* Separation of government and schools: Establish self-management, democratic supervision and social participation
* Expand schools’ autonomy
* Improve modern university system: deans of colleges and universities to take overall responsibility; strengthen regulations; expand social cooperation; introduce academic program evaluation system
* Improve management system of primary and secondary schools: headmasters to take overall responsibility; expand schools’ autonomy; establish Parent Council
* Encourage cooperation between secondary vocational schools and enterprises
'''Setting up new schools'''
* Government to encourage industry to collaborate with public schools
* Support private education: clean up discriminating policies to improve the perception of private schools in public; public finance to provide support
* Government to supervise private schools
'''Operating existing schools'''
* Enforce segregation of duties
* Improve planning activities of provincial governments to develop policies suitable for different educational levels
* Reduce unnecessary administrative intervention from governments and move toward providing guidance to and supervision of public education
* Foster external education services to improve professional level of education
'''Education system internationalisation'''
* Strengthen international exchange and cooperation
* Introduce high-quality educational resources: Attract international schools, educational and research institutions and enterprises
* Mutual recognition of credits and degrees; exchange of teachers and students; Chinese schools to open overseas schools; improve scholarship mechanism; increase number of foreign students; strengthen cooperation with UNESCO and other international organisations
'''Measures assuring successful and smooth implementation of education reform'''
* Cultivation of Teachers'
* Guaranteed funding
'''* Education informatisation'''
** Complete construction of digital education system covering both urban and rural areas
** Strengthen development and application of high-quality education resources; strengthen online teaching resources; strengthen application of information technology
** Establish a National Education Management Information System
* Enforce education according to the law

'''Piloting reform activities'''
* Quality Education Pilot
* Compulsory education reform pilot
* Pilot of Vocational Education Model reform
* Pilot for building life-long education system
* Pilot of teaching graduates toward innovation
* Pilot for examination and enrollment system reform
* Modern university reform pilot
* Pilot for reforming the financing of education in rural areas

Sourced from http://www.chinaeducationblog.com/chinese-education-policy/2010-06-14/china-defines-road-map-for-becoming-a-learning-society-by-2020/

=== Post-secondary ===

=== Higher Education ===
(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_education_in_China)

Since 1998, 10 universities have been targeted by the Chinese government to become “world-class” - including Peking and Tsinghua Universities. To achieve that goal, the government promised to increase the educational allocation in the national budget by 1 percent a year for each of the five years following 1998. When Chinese president Jiang Zemin attended the hundredth anniversary ceremony at Beijing University in 1998 and the ninetieth anniversary ceremony at Tsinghua University in 2001, he emphasized this ambitious goal of advancing several of China's higher education institutions into the top tier of universities worldwide in the next several decades. In the meantime, China has received educational aid from UNESCO and many other international organizations and sources, including the World Bank, which recently loaned China $14.7 billion for educational development.

Only 30 percent of faculty hold postgraduate degrees. This is a consequence of the lack of an academic degree system in China until the 1980s. Recently, internationally-trained scholars have entered the faculty with the goals of both improving quality and strengthening ties to other institutions around the world. The state recognizes the need for more home-grown professors.

In Spring 2007 China will conduct a national evaluation of its universities. The results of this evaluation will be used to support the next major planned policy initiative. The last substantial national evaluation of universities was in 1994. This evaluation resulted in the 'massification' of higher ecucation as well as a renewed emphasis on elite institutions.[



== Administration and finance ==

=== Schools ===

Sourced from http://www.edu.cn/20041125/3122180.shtml

China has set up an education system with government as the major investor and social partners as co-investors. In current stage, local government is playing a key role in compulsory education, while central and provincial government are dominant in higher education. In occupational and adult education, social partners including industrial organizations, businesses and public institutions are playing a more and more important role.

Ministry of Education of PRC is the supreme education administration body in China, which is responsible for carrying out related laws, regulations, guidelines and policies of the central government; planning development of education sector; integrating and coordinating educational initiatives and programs nationwide; maneuvering and guiding education reform countrywide.

Since 1978, Chinese government has promulgated such codes as Degree Statute of the People's Republic of China, Law of Compulsory Education of the People's Republic of China, Law of Teachers of the People's Republic of China, Law of Protection over Juveniles of the People's Republic of China, Education Law of the People's Republic of China, Statute for Teacher's Eligibility and Law of Higher education of the People's Republic of China, and released more than ten sets of education administration regulations. The Ministry of Education, within its jurisdiction, has issued more than 200 sets of administrative rules and regulations, significantly facilitating development of education of different natures.

With regard to education budget, financial allocation is still the major source, while multiple fund channels have been opened up. At present, fund needed by schools directly controlled by the central government comes from the central financial pool; schools controlled by local governments are supported by local finance; schools sponsored by township and villageship governments and by public institutions are mainly financed by the sponsor institutions and subsidized by local governments; funds needed by schools operated by social partners and celebrities are raised by the sponsors themselves (including collecting tuition from students and soliciting contributions). In addition to these sources, the central government is advocating work-study programs, aiming at improving the education conditions through premium services.

China's educational fund has been increased on yearly basis since 1978. Total educational input in 1998 reached RMB294.906 billion, amongst, 203.245 billion from the revenue pool, of which, 156.559 billion from budget allocation in a strict sense.

=== Post-secondary ===

=== Higher Education ===

There are many private universities in China.

== Quality assurance ==

=== Schools ===

=== Post-secondary ===

=== Higher Education ===

== Information society ==



In May 2006, Chinese Government released a comprehensive document titled “The Development Strategies for the National Information Society 2006—2020”, aimed at laying a solid foundation for an information society by 2020

The goals for informatization development within 2020 are: providing information infrastructure nationwide; strengthening capacities of independent innovation of information technology; optimizing the information industry structure; improving information security; making effective progress on building more information-oriented national economy and society; establishing the new type of industrialization model; building a perfect national policy and system for the informatization process; enhancing the capability of applying the information technology among the public.

In the Strategy, nine key aspects are emphasized: promoting informatization of the national economy; popularizing e-government; establishing advanced Internet culture; pushing ahead social informatization; popularizing information infrastructure; exploiting information resources more efficiently; improving information industry competition; building national information security system; improving people's ability in using information technology and cultivating more talents in information technology.

=== China's HEIs in the information society ===

==== Towards the information society ====

====Information society strategy ====

The [[NREN]] for China is [[CERNET]], China Education and Research Network - see http://www.edu.cn/english_1369/index.shtml

==== Support for OER ====

In China, materials from 750 courses have been made available by 222 university members of the China Open Resources for Education (CORE) consortium - see http://www.core.org.cn/cn/jpkc/index_en.html

== ICT in education initiatives ==

According to the 2011 report [http://iite.unesco.org/pics/publications/en/files/3214700.pdf Open Education Resources in the People's Republic of Chine], three phases can be identified in China's educational information development

* from mid 1980s to early 1990s, defined as "the early stage, mainly computer education, the use of single computer-aided tools and traditional educational tools for teaching"

* from early 1990s to 2000, referred to as "the initial stage of development, mainly hardware infrastructure and information technology education, construction of the [http://www.edu.cn/HomePage/english/index.shtml China Education and Research Network (CERNET)] and popularizing a wide range of information technology in primary and secondary school, promoting universal application of information technology

* the period after 2000, defined as "the stage of rapid development, during which the variety of Governments' educational information programmes enabled fast introduction of ICT in education.

The report provides a summary of main strategies and action in the field of ICT in education in China, including

'''New Century Network Curriculum Project''' is intended to produce 300 basic network courses in two years and set up a courseware library. These courses are for the pilot work in several institutions and universities, also for the professional inter-school exchange programmes within the network and the mutual recognition of credits. Poorer areas and higher education institutions in the west of the country can benefit from the courses and the wealth of advanced teaching methods and teaching resources.

The '''spread of information technology education in primary and secondary school''', the primary and secondary school curriculum guide for information technology (trial): requires the spread of information technology education in primary and secondary schools (including secondary vocational and technical schools) in 5-10 years after 2001.

The '''implementation of the Primary and Secondary School Link Project Notice''': Ensuring 90% of the independent primary and secondary schools can use the Internet, teachers and students can share resources online and improve the primary education quality in 5-10 years, so that all the teachers can generally receive the education aimed at improving the quality and capacity.

'''Western Modern Distance Education Project''': To level out imbalances of the provision of educational information. Five thousand sets of satellite receiving equipment for modern distance education were donated to the primary and secondary schools in remote mountain areas in provinces to the west of China. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education also provided five thousand sets of distance education satellite receiving equipment sets to primary and secondary schools in twelve western provinces.

'''Western University campus computer network construction project''': To address the problem of the lag of the development of information technology education in western China behind the level of campus network construction in the east, a total 900 million Yuan was invested in the construction of fibre optic backbone campus computer network, campus network centre, open network rooms, multimedia network classroom, the capital city metro and non-capital city of high-speed access engineering, network management and operation of systems, teaching, research, management systems and network security system.

'''Education Information X five-year development plan (outline)''': emphasis on “educational information, educational resources building is the core,” and “strengthening education and resources information system platform environment… integration of quality educational resources, sharing of resources and improving teaching quality.”

'''Vision of the Ministry of Education on promoting informatization of teachers education''': pointing out that “encourage and support through a variety of ways and means to enhance the development of teacher education information resources. Actively integrate various information resources of teacher education, strengthen the regional combination of advantages to ensure sharing of various information resources. “

'''Vision on promoting informatization of teachers education''': “In order to meet the requirements to the development of the information society, using information to promote the modernization of education, the development of teacher education and informatization of the teacher education is an urgent and important task.”

'''National Teachers Education Network Alliance Programme:''' the following steps shall be taken to strengthen teacher training systems: satellite television and computer Internet “tri-network” for communication between different geographical areas, full use of modern means of distance education to break space-time barrier, encouraging teachers to share high-quality educational resources, largescale continuing education for teachers, especially in rural areas.

'''Action Plan for Invigorating Education (2003-2007)''': including the implementation of the “Modern Distance Education Programme” and “education system development.” The plan foresees construction of public educational information service system, hardware design, software sharing service platform for online education; speeding up CERNET and China Education satellite broadband transmission network (CEBsat) upgrading and expansion projects, participation in the next generation Internet and the Grid (ChinaGrid) projects; strengthening resource integration, regional networking and management for the sake of establishment of a national education information application support platform.

'''National Long-Term Educational Reform and Development Plan (2010-2020):''' Chapter 19 dealing with “accelerating the process of educational informatization” emphasizes the importance of the following measures: “Speed up infrastructure construction, include the education informatization into the national information-development strategy, construct the educational information network ahead.
By 2020, all levels of digital education service systems shall be available in urban and rural basic schools, promoting the educational content, teaching methods and methods of modernization.”

Source [http://iite.unesco.org/pics/publications/en/files/3214700.pdf Open Education Resources in the People's Republic of Chine]

=== Virtual initiatives in schools ===



==== Distance Education Project for Rural Schools (DEPRS) ====

The Distance Education Project for Western Rural Middle and Elementary Schools was implemented by the Chinese government between 2003 and 2007 to improve quality of basic education in rural areas of China, especially in poorer western provinces.

Despite several effort to universalise basic education in the country, rural areas - especially in the west - suffer significant disparities in access to quality education, due to shortage of teachers and funding. The main goal of the project was to form a primary informationl enviroment that should facilitate the development of quality education in rural areas and helping eliminating the many divides between urban and rural areas.

The DEPRS was launched in 2003 and was based on three delivery modes in rural areas.

* '''CD/DVD-equipped teaching centres''': By playing instructional CDs on TV, these centres could deliver courses and learning material directly to the classes of rural schools. The CD and DVD contains lessons given by nationally recognised teachers who specialised in language, maths and other subjects.

* '''advanced satellite technology for televised broadcast''': this model contained the same material and equipment as the first model but also provides for advanced satellite technology for broadcasting, permitting to receive education programs produced by central and local televisions stations.

* '''Computer classroom with internet connection''': this model contained provisions for computer rooms equipped with high-speed internet and multimedia classroom. In addition to playing DVDs and showing television educational programs, this model allowed teachers and students to download online and web-based material.

To support both the second and the third model, the education channel of Chinese Central Television aired an eleven hours long program titled Air Classroom on a daily basis.

==== The Oxford Virtual School programme with China ====

The Oxford School has recently launched a virtual school exchange programme for which Chinese students in the new Oxford School in China will be able to attend at distance the Oxford courses and therefore being "exchange students" without travelling.

see http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2011/05/15/news/local_news/doc4dd075e28241b320944830.txt

=== Virtual initiatives in post-secondary education ===



==== [http://en.crtvu.edu.cn/ The Open University of China] ====

The Open University of China (formerly the China Central Radio and TV University) carries out distance educational activities using an integration of three netwroks, including satellite TV Network, computer network and people's network.

The China Central Radio and TV University (the CCRTVU) initiated its open education for the public in 1999. In 2007, this form of education passed the summative evaluation by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China and was considered as an independent educational form in the modern national education system and lifelong learning system.

The Open University of China (the OUC) offers 75 majors in 9 disciplines and 24 specialties including science, engineering, agricultural science, medicine, literature, law, economics, management, and education. By the fall of 2008, there were 3,090,000 active students in the CRTVUs, among whom 2,950,000 were students of junior colleges and undergraduate students, accounting for one tenth of the total enrollment in higher education around the country.

The primary role of the OUC is to provide opportunities of higher education for professionals in different industries and enterprises and other members of the society, to conduct non-degree education through on-the-job training and training for rural practical skills, providing educational services for people from all walks of life to update their own knowledge and to learn new skills, to plan overall and comprehensive usage of the CRTVUs educational resources from all over the country and to establish a distance education system of public services to provide support for distance education to colleges, universities, and other educational institutions.

The OUC consists of six academic faculties: Faculty of Arts & Law, Faculty of Economics & Management, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Teacher Education, Faculty of Foreign Languages, and Faculty of Agroforestry & Medicine. The OUC also has many schools addressing to specified groups of learners for degree programmes, such as Bayi School, Zongcan School, School for the Air Force, School of Tibet and School for the Disabled. Meanwhile, the OUC has a School of Continuing Education dedicated to non-degree education programmes, China TV College of Teacher Education, China Liaoyuan Radio & TV School, and Secondary Technical School of the OUC.

== Lessons learnt ==

=== General lessons ===

=== Notable practices ===



== References ==

See the China research pages at http://www.echinauk.org/cases/overarching/index.php which contain masses of relevant material.

[http://www.edu.cn/english_1369/index.shtml China Education and Research Network]

[http://www.unescobkk.org/education/ict/countries/country-information/china/ UNESCO Office in Bangkok: China]

[http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_2792/index.html Minitry of Education of the People's Republic of China]

[http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/590/1176 Shiling McQuaide (2009), Making Education Equitable in Rural China through Distance Learning]

[http://www.etc.edu.cn/yusq/lun_wen_fa_biao_files/JCA_174.PDF S. Q. Yu & Minjuan J. Wang (2006), Modern distance education project for the rural schools of China: recent development and problems]

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Epysteme

2012-07-05T16:34:06Z

Daniela Proli:

[http://www.epysteme.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25&Itemid=28virtualschool Episteme] is a virtual school offering support for homeschooling, from primary to secondary education for those who needs a qualification but cannot obtain it through attending school in presence. It is linked to US qualifications.

[[Category:Spain]]

[[Category:VISCED]]

[[Category:Virtual schools in Europe]]

Epysteme

2012-07-05T16:32:36Z

Daniela Proli: Created page with " [http://www.epysteme.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25&Itemid=28virtualschool Episteme] is a virtual school offering support for homeschooling, from primary to..."

Spain

2012-07-05T16:32:15Z

Daniela Proli: /* Episteme: Soluciones Educativas para el siglo XXI */

''by Daniela Proli, [[SCIENTER]]'' 
''original general and HE-related material by members of [[Re.ViCa]]''

For university-related material see also [[Spain from Re.ViCa]]

For entities in Spain see [[:Category:Spain]]

For the autonomous communities and cities of Spain see [[:Category:Autonomous communities and cities of Spain]]

== Experts situated in Spain ==

* [[Begonia Arenas]]

== Spain in a nutshell ==

[[Image:Spain-map.gif|left|400mp]]
Spain or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.

Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. With an area of 504,030 km², Spain is the second largest country in Western Europe after France.

After serving as a granary of the Roman Empire, much of Spain was later conquered by a Muslim people, the Moors. Christian kingdoms gradually rolled back Muslim rule, completing this Reconquista in 1492. Spain became the leading world power, with a global empire on a scale and world distribution that had never been approached by its predecessors and a legacy today of over 400 million Spanish-speakers worldwide.

Napoleon's invasion of Spain in the early 19th century triggered independence movements that tore the empire apart and left the country politically unstable. In the 20th century it suffered a devastating civil war and came under the rule of a dictatorship, leading to years of stagnation. Democracy was restored in 1978 and the country has subsequently experienced a cultural renaissance and steady economic growth. Spain is now a constitutional monarchy organised as a parliamentary democracy and has been a member of the European Union since 1986, and NATO since 1982.

== Education in Spain ==

''Mainly sourced from Eurydice''

The education system in Spain is organised into mainstream education and Enseñanzas de Régimen Especial (specialised education). Primary education (6 to 12) and compulsory secondary education (12 to 16) correspond to basic education, which consists of ten years of free and compulsory schooling for all pupils.
Mainstream education comprises:

'''Pre-primary education''' (Educación Infantil): it is the first stage in the education system and it is non-compulsory. It is divided into two stages: the first one, up to the age of 3, and the second, from 3 to 6 years of age

'''Primary education''' (Educación Primaria): it is the first compulsory stage of the system. It covers six years of instruction, divided into three two-year cycles. It is normally completed between the ages of 6 and 12.

'''Secondary education''' In the Spanish education system, secondary education is comprised of compulsory secondary and post-compulsory secondary. The former - Educación Secundaria Obligatoria (ESO) it is divided into four courses and it is ordinarily completed from the ages of 12 to 16, it covers four school years and must be completed after finishing primary education. Successful students are awarded a Secondary Education Certificate, which is necessary for entering further optional education as is Bachillerato for their University or Formacion Professional (Vocational Studies).

'''Post-compulsory secondary education''' includes two options: the two-year Bachillerato (form 16 to 18), and intermediate vocational training ciclos formativos, the duration of which varies between one and a half or two years.
Secondary education also includes artistic professional Music and Dance education, intermediate professional Sports and Plastic Arts and Design education, which belong to enseñanzas de régimen especial. This also covers language education. This provision, although not regarded as part of secondary education, belongs to Enseñanzas de Régimen Especial, which may be started at the age of 16 or 14 if the language to be studied is different from the one studied during ESO.
Enseñanzas de Régimen Especial are non-compulsory and structured into different levels and degrees leading to different qualifications and certificates.

The '''vocational training''' is also a common possibility after ESO or after the Spanish Baccalaureate. There are two different types of programs: Middle Grade Training Cycles (Ciclos Formativos de Grado Medio), which have the ESO diploma as a requirement, and Superior-level Training Cycles (Ciclos Formativos de grado Superior), which have the Spanish Baccalaureate as the principal requirement. After completion of the Superior-level Training Cycle, students are entitled to direct entrance to several related University degrees (source wikipedia)

'''University education''': Once students have finished their Bachillerato, they can take their University Entrance Exam (Pruebas de Acceso a la Universidad, popularly called Selectividad) which differs greatly from region to region.
University in Spain is organised into three cycles, namely Bachelor, Masters and Doctorate, with variable duration and a minimum required number of ECTS credits.

== Schools in Spain ==



== Further and Higher education ==

Higher education includes university studies as well as higher vocational education and training. Universities are the main institutions that provide university studies, while higher vocational education is usually linked to secondary schools and to special vocational institutions. Vocational education and training can be delivered in both public and private schools. The latter can be subsidized. This educational level can also be delivered through distance courses.

Over the past three decades, the number of students and universities has increased three-fold, attaining one of the highest rates of university education in Europe: 30% of women and 22% of men between 24 and 34 years of age have graduated from university. The process of decentralising the university system in physical terms has been accompanied by political and administrative decentralisation: powers have been handed over to the autonomous regions in the area of tertiary education. Moreover, in the last years university research has developed and research output indicators have increased dramatically. Another outstanding fact is the increase in the international mobility of academic staff and students.
In the last two decades, the number of universities in Spain has doubled. At present Spain has 50 public universities. Two are special universities focused on continuing education and summer courses. One is a distance learning institution. There are 23 private universities; one of them is a distance learning university. Seven of the private institutions belong to the Catholic Church.

There are 50 public and 23 private universities in Spain. They are distributed throughout the country but the cities with the highest number of universities are Madrid (13), Barcelona (8) and Valencia (4).

According to the legal form the typography of Spanish universities is the following one:
• Public University. - It grants university official and accredited titles. It is financed by the State.

• Private University. - It grants official and accredited titles. It is financed by the registered students themselves. It is ruled by its norms of organization and operation.

• University of the Church. - It grants official and accredited titles. It is financed by the registered students themselves and the Church. It is ruled by its norms of organization and operation.In addition to the official degrees, they grant ecclesiastical titles.

Madrid has the highest number of private universities located there. These universities are very interested in the admission of foreign students to a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs.

There are four different types of university establishments in Spain:
* university schools (escuelas universitarias), where ‘short-term’ three-year courses are offered;

* university colleges (colegios universitarios) where the first three years of study leading to a licenciado is completed;

* faculties (facultades) where long-term courses are offered in all academic disciplines (except technical courses) and

* higher technical schools of engineering and architecture (escuela superior de ingeniería y arquitectura) where long-term technical courses are completed.

The Spanish university system is rigidly structured and students must choose a fixed curriculum and aren’t permitted to change universities during their studies.

Undergraduate university studies are divided into different stages known as cycles. There are three types of programs:

* Single-cycle programs (or short-cycle studies): These studies do not continue to the second cycle and degrees awarded are the Diplomatura (Bachelor degree). These are normally three-year programs.

* Two-cycle studies with an intermediate diploma: The first cycle leads to the award of the Diplomatura (Bachelor), or Arquitectura Técnica and Ingeniería Técnica (Bachelor degree in Architecture or Engineering), and students have the option of continuing to the second cycle for the award of the degree of Licenciatura (Masters degree), or Arquitecto and Ingeniero (Architect and Engineer). These are five or six-year programs.

* Two-cycle studies without an intermediate diploma (or long-cycle studies): These studies are divided into two cycles but it is necessary to complete both to be eligible for the award of the Licenciatura(Masters Degree). These are four or five-year programs.

In addition to these official degrees or diplomas, each university offers a wide range of unofficial degrees (Maestrias) as well as graduate programs in a wide range of subjects that qualify for the award of the degree of Doctor (Ph.D.). The unofficial degrees are typically one or two years and usually require having attained an undergraduate or graduate degree and are widely recognized for their labour market value, as these qualifications are highly practical in scope and geared to specialized sectors of the different professions. Spanish universities' offer of doctoral degree programs typically require four years of study and research.

The universities cover the whole spectrum of official degrees offered in Spain with the official recognition of its Ministry of Education, as well as a wide variety of non-official degrees in a large number of professional fields.

=== Universities in Spain ===

=== Polytechnics in Spain ===


=== Colleges in Spain ===

Advanced vocational training studies constitute non-university post-secondary level of education. These studies can be provided either in compulsory secondary education and Bachillerato institutions, which are called secondary education institutes, the so-called national reference centres, or vocational training integrated institutions.

Access to advanced vocational training may be obtained in the following ways:
* Through direct access, for which it is necessary to hold the Bachiller certificate.
* Through an entrance examination when candidates do not hold the Bachiller certificate. The examination is regulated by the Autonomous Communities and its objective is to prove that the candidate’s maturity is appropriate to the objectives of Bachillerato and to assess his/her skills for the advanced ciclo formativo of the relevant professional field.
In the event that there are not sufficient places, admission will be prioritised according to the following criteria:
* Having followed any of the types of Bachillerato determined for each ciclo formativo.
* The academic record of the student, taking into account, firstly, the average mark and, secondly, having passed the Bachillerato subjects related to the ciclo formativo being applied for.

== Education reform ==

=== Schools ===
''Mainly sourced from Eurydice and European Schoolnet''

The latest law reform in the Spanish System is the Ley Orgánica de Educación (LOE), dating from 2006, and it builds on the previous law, named Ley Orgánica de Ordenación General del Sistema Educativo (LOGSE), from 1990. The LOGSE radically restructured the Spanish educational system prior to University education, as it raised the school-leaving age from 14 to 16, among other things. '''The LOE retains the system introduced by the LOGSE but tries to establish the legal framework for improving the quality of the system by addressing the new challenges facing Spanish society.''' In particular, it addresses the challenges of a more heterogeneous student population and more developed regional control in all autonomous communities, which by 2000 had all been given full responsibilities in education. It also strives to '''align the national educational objectives with those established by the European Union, which aims to achieve a leading position for Europe in our present international knowledge society'''.

The following points are priorities for education:

# A National Political Agreement on Education among all political parties to guarantee the legal stability of the system in the long run as well as across the territories of different Autonomous Communities.
# To lower the drop-out rates in the compulsory educational levels (pupils under the age of 16).
# To promote quality in education while preserving an inclusive system with a strong emphasis on economic aid to compensate for social inequalities.
# To promote vocational training through an increase in quality and social recognition and through flexible schemes that allow students to enter the system and transfer credits easily.
# '''To enhance the use of ICT in schools by means of the plan Escuela 2.0 http://www.ite.educacion.es/es/escuela-20) which is aimed at transforming the way we teach and learn.'''

The LOE and the royal decrees which develop it have being gradually implemented, starting in the academic year 2006/07 and finishing in 2009/10.

Within the LOE framework, it bears mentioning that the Ministry of Education and the Autonomous Communities approved in 2008 the 'Plan para Reducir el Abandono Escolar' (Plan for the reduction of early school leaving), aimed at reducing the still high early school leaving rates to half between school years 2008/09 and 2012/13. The following measures are among the ones approved by this plan:
* To increase the offer of places in initial vocational qualification programmes (PCPI)
* To increase the offer of intermediate vocational training, Plastic Arts and Design and Sports Education, in order to fully meet the demand of this education.
* To offer PCPI students who do not hold the Graduado en Educación Secundaria Obligatoria certificate the possibility of taking a personal aptitude test to access intermediate vocational training.
* Likewise, to offer intermediate vocational training graduates the possibility of enrolling in advanced vocational training.
* To promote reinforcement programmes, such as the reinforcement, guidance and support programmes, in order to increase the number of ESO graduates. Likewise, measures will be launched for young people between 16 and 22 years of age to take reinforcement and extra classes in order to obtain the Graduado en Educación Secundaria Obligatoria certificate in the minimum possible time.
* To extend and reinforce counselling departments, in order to give students advice on the decisions they have to make at post compulsory levels. Moreover, guidance and monitoring services will be promoted for young people who left the education system with no qualification.
* To develop teacher training programmes on techniques to make the most of pupils’ potential, as well as techniques for early diagnosing difficulties, educational attention and monitoring students at risk of early school leaving.
* To create support resources for teachers and other stuff involved in the educational attention of low achievers at risk of early school leaving.
* To promote measures that enable parents’ attendance at meetings with their children’s teachers.
* To create family support centres, or 'schools for parents', to promote a higher involvement and monitoring in children’s education, as well as the cooperation of the administrations with the parents’ associations.
* '''To promote new technologies in all spheres of the education system, especially for unqualified people under 25, in order to promote the offer of distance and part-attendance courses.'''
* To promote an education-work culture in which holding at least the Graduado en Educación Secundaria Obligatoria or an initial vocational qualification prevails for the access of young people to employment.

Some other new aspects which should be mentioned are the implementation of the ‘School 2.0 Programme’ and the ‘Social and Political Pact for Education’.
In September 2009, the Cabinet passed the ‘'''School 2.0 Programme’''', an educational innovation initiative aimed at implementing the digital classrooms of the 21st century. The plan envisages that, for the 2009/10 academic year, 392,000 students and 20,000 teachers in more than 14,400 fully digitalised classrooms in all Spain would have a laptop they can use to be better educated. This programme will be developed through agreements between the Autonomous Communities and the Ministry of Education. Its '''objective is the transformation, in the next four years, of the traditional classrooms of the 5th and 6th years of primary education and the 1st and 2nd years of secondary education into digital classrooms equipped with interactive whiteboards and wireless Internet connection, where teachers will have laptops and each student will also work with his/her own laptop'''.
The ‘School 2.0 Programme’ is based on the following principles:
* Digital classrooms. Equip students and educational institutions with ICT resources: laptops for both students and teachers and digital classrooms with standardized efficient equipments.
* Guarantee Internet connectivity and interconnectivity in the classroom regarding all equipments and facilitate Internet access from students’ homes during special hours.
* Ensure teacher training in technological, as well as in the methodological and social aspects of the integration of these resources into daily teaching practice.
* Involve students and their families in the acquisition, custody and use of these resources.

As regards the ‘'''Social and Political Pact for Education’''', from the beginning of the 2009/10 academic year, the Ministry of Education has held a series of conversations and meetings with the Autonomous Communities, the educational community, social and political groups, as well as the Sectorial Committee, with the main aim of providing the education system with stability regarding regulations. The Ministry of Education has drawn up a document with 104 specific proposals for action which constitutes the basis upon which work is to be continued. The following proposals should be mentioned:
* The Pact has a clear and determining horizon: 2015-20. It is not only a pact for 2020, but there must also be an explicit commitment on the immediate measures to be taken. There must be an annual proposal which includes the specific measures to be taken, so that they are also linked to a report and an economic commitment.
* The commitment to citizens that possible present and future changes on regulations which might be adopted regarding different questions which might be agreed will require a parliamentary majority of two thirds.
* An improvement in the funding of Spanish education
* The objective that all the population between 0 and 18 is receiving education.
* A greater flexibility in the education system. A greater permeability between the different educational levels, both vertically and horizontally. One of the key elements where this rigidity is to be eradicated is the last stage of compulsory education.

The preparation of specific measures for vocational training to constitute a comprehensive training and a key instrument in order to move towards a new sustainable economic model.

=== Post-secondary ===

== Administration and finance ==

=== Schools ===

''Mainly sourced from Eurydice''

Schools in Spain may be owned by an education administration or by a private party, either a person or a legal entity (mostly catholic organisations). Non-university publicly-funded schools provide the second cycle of Pre-primary education (3-6 years of age) and compulsory education free of charge. Private non-university schools may be financially independent or government dependent (''centros concertados'') and may offer any level of education. Publicly funded private schools are funded via educational agreements, which are signed with the education administration of the corresponding Autonomous Community. Schools may sign these agreements provided that the requirements laid down in the educational legislation are met.

In Spain, the education administration decentralized model distributes the education responsibilities among the State, the Autonomous Communities, local administrations and schools. The responsibilities corresponding to each of these levels are set out below:

{| class="prettytable" border="1" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0;"
|-
| colspan="2" |
<center>'''Distribution of responsibilities in Education (Non University education)'''</center>

|-
| style="padding: 4px;" |
'''Central government'''

|
General organization of the education system, minimum requirements for schools, minimum core curriculum, international cooperation in education, policies to encourage and coordinate research. The central government also organizes the general planning of education and regulation of academic and professional qualifications, core curricula guaranteeing the right and duty to know the Spanish language (notwithstanding the Autonomous Communities’ competence regarding the establishment of regulations to guarantee citizens’ rights to use and know their own languages), High Inspectorate (whose duty is to monitor the observance of minimum requirements for education set by the State for the entirety of the national territory), state-wide general diagnostic evaluations, policies on financial aids for studies, ownership and administration of public schools abroad, establishment of the legal basis for foreign schools in Spain, education statistics for State purposes, etc.

|-
| style="padding: 4px;" |
'''Autonomous Communities'''

|
Administrative responsibility within their territories; schools creation, authorization and management; development of State regulations regarding syllabuses and regulation of levels, branches, grades and specializations; guidance and support for pupils; staff management; educational inspection; supervision of textbooks and other materials; diagnostic assessment in schools within their territory; facilitating information exchange and the promotion of good educational or management practices; providing the necessary data to the State to elaborate national and international educational statistics; publishing data and indicators contributing to facilitate transparency, good educational management and educational research; negotiation and awarding of subsidies to private schools; administration of scholarships and aids; regulation of the relevant Autonomous Community’s School Council composition and functions, etc.

|-
| style="padding: 4px;" |
'''Local Administrations'''

|
Provision of sites for building public schools; maintenance and refurbishment of Pre-primary, Primary and special education schools; planning extra-curricular and supplementary activities, monitoring compulsory schooling; creation of School Councils within their municipality, representation at the Autonomous Communities’ School Councils and at the schools’ School Councils, etc.

|-
| style="padding: 4px;" |
'''Schools'''

|
Schools are autonomous in organizational, educational and financial matters, within the framework of current regulations, with the aim of achieving a better adequacy and use of the assigned resources, as well as the adjustment of the pedagogic action to pupils’ specific needs and to the characteristics of the school environment.

|}

=== Post-secondary ===

== Quality assurance ==

=== Schools ===

''Mainly sourced from Eurydice''

In Spain, the evaluation of the education system is viewed as an essential element in order to improve the quality of education, since it constitutes a valuable instrument for the monitoring and assessment of both the functioning and the results of the education system, as well as for the improvement of processes delivering these results. This is evidenced by the fact that the legal framework stresses the need to evaluate all the elements making up the education system: pupils' learning processes, educational results, curriculum, teachers' performance, teaching processes, the managerial function, the running of schools, educational inspection and education authorities themselves. The collection of objective data and their rigorous analysis facilitates the knowledge and appraisal of the achievements and deficiencies present in both the entire system and all its levels and elements. Thus, the necessary foundations are laid for an effective decision-making, which should have an effect on the process for the improvement of the education system.

The 2006 Ley Orgánica de Educación, LOE (Act on Education), devotes titles VI and VII to educational evaluation and inspection, respectively, and considers both to be key aspects to improve the education system. Thus, evaluation is an essential element to increase the education system’s transparency, which must be applied to all its areas, including inspection. In turn, with the aim of ensuring the compliance with regulations on education, the educational inspection takes part in the evaluation of the education system and its elements. Evaluation procedures of all areas and elements of the education system have been established, which has committed the relevant authorities and the different agents of the system to account for the current situation and its evolution. All these evaluation tasks are aimed at improving the quality of the education system.

The general evaluation of the education system at the non-university levels is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education, through the Institute of Evaluation (IE) (http://www.institutodeevaluacion.mec.es/).
This body, reporting to the State Secretariat for Education and Vocational Training, works in collaboration with the relevant evaluation institutions of the different Autonomous Communities. The latter are responsible for the evaluation of the education system within their respective territory.

As far as ICT use in school is concerned, there are periodic national and regional surveys that estimate how many teachers use ICTs and what they use them for. All schools entering pilot plans are closely monitored and they have detailed evaluation plans.

=== Post-secondary ===


== Information society ==

http://www.giswatch.org/reports/country/Spain

== ICT in education initiatives ==

=== Virtual initiatives in schools ===

''Mainly sourced from EUN''

All autonomous communities are fully responsible for the schools in their territory and that includes the promotion of ICT in schools. ICT policies vary in emphasis and depth among the seventeen Autonomous Communities and the two Autonomous Cities (Ceuta and Melilla), although all plans address the common challenges that the adoption of ICT in school entails within that range of variation. It is worth mentioning, for instance, that '''Extremadura has become known worldwide for its commitment to open software and its excellent rates of computers per pupil''', and that all communities have their own plan to promote connectivity and hardware deployment, although open software may not play such a relevant role. For instance, Aragon has pilot plans for introducing tablet PCs and Interactive White Boards, and Catalonia for introducing netbooks in schools.

The Spanish Ministry of Education still coordinates some initiatives at a national level in collaboration with the autonomous communities, like the National repository for digital resources (www.proyectoagrega.es), federating content from nodes in each Autonomous Community, and the project ESCUELA 2.0.

==== ESCUELA 2.0 ====

Escuela 2.0 is a nationwide ICT plan for school building on the developments already achieved in each region and going further, trying to generalize the access to hardware and digital content in school in order to pedagogically integrate ICT into school life.
The program had a budget of 200 million euros for the 2009-2010 academic year, co-funded in equal parts by the Central Government of Spain and the various Autonomous Regions (2010/2011??’).

'''The goal of the program is to transform the traditional fifth- and sixth-year Primary Education and first- and second-year Secondary Education classrooms into digital classrooms equipped with digital blackboards and wireless Internet connection, where the teacher will have a laptop computer and where each student will work with an ultra-mobile personal computer.'''

To that end, the Escuela 2.0 project is based on the following fundamental principles:
# '''Providing ICT resources''' to the students and the centres.
# Guaranteeing '''Internet connectivity in classrooms and homes.'''
# Ensuring the '''proper training for teaching staff'''.
# Generating and facilitating '''access to digital materials for teachers, students and families.'''

==== Proyecto Agrega====

The Agrega project (Agrega is the Spanish word for "add") is a federation of learning Digital repository which is to be used by 19 educational authorities in Spain. Each educational authority will have its own repository loaded with curricular learning objects created according to standards, and each single repository will be able to integrate and interoperate with other learning systems locally and worldwide. The Agrega project has a clear focus on integration and interoperability between Agrega learning repositories and the rest of the world. Moreover, it is open to collaborative evolution based on a generic GPL licensing. It is the first step towards providing a nation-wide access to content generated by the education community in a consistent and interoperable way. Curricular content for Agrega is being developed under Creative Commons licensing schemes, can be experimented directly from a web site, offline or by an LMS, and all the contents and application will be localised in Spanish, Euskera, Catalan, Valencian, Gallego and English.

==== RTE-Extremadura.org ====
http://www.unesco-ci.org/cgi-bin/portals/information-society/search.cgi?d=1&type=phrase&query=Spain

The Educational Technological Network represents the access of Extremadura (a region in Western Spain) School System (kindergarten, primary, secondary and high school) to the Information Society. This access includes the development of infrastructures (software, hardware and Intranet) and the establishment of an area where research, capacity building and innovation will be promoted in the domain of ICT. This will guarantee to all the citizens of the region the use of information resources and the access to opportunities.

==== Catalan Blog project "Escoles en Xarxa" ====

The idea of the Catalan project "Escoles en Xarxa" ([http://escolesenxarxa.vilaweb.com Schools on the Net]), originates from an initiative of a secondary school in Barcelona willing to establish a blog for their news service. Adapting journalism practices in high schools from printed newsletters to the web and then to blogs has been a logical evolution and a constant demand from Catalan schools. The project received support by the Catalan Department of education in charge of the coordination of ICT educational projects with two goals in mind. Firstly, to create a community based on the Catalan language in secondary schools, and secondly to spread social values using ICT. Fifty three schools are now connected to the project in the Catalan speaking Community (Andorra, Balearic Islands, French Eastern Pyrenees, Catalonia and Valencia). Escoles en Xarxa permitted the establishment of a community and network to promote a minority language.

==== Use of learning platform in teaching/learning ====

Moodle is widely used for online teacher training, but only a limited number of schools have also adopted it for their own purposes. Most Autonomous Communities provide their teachers with a virtual learning environment to upload and share resources with their pupils; they are hosted centrally, not at school, and often happen to be custom-made by software companies. They have been the most successful solutions for VLE since they are centrally administered and in this way schools do not have to devote resources (people and machines) to maintaining them. There is also regional support for schools in order to have a school portal and intranet; in those cases central servers host the school web sites, which the school manages through a pre-installed content management system. Sometimes, an open software solution like Joomla! is used, as in the case of the community of Castilla la Mancha.

==== [[Epysteme]] ====

[[Epysteme]] is a virtual school offering support for homeschooling, from primary to secondary education for those who needs a qualification but cannot obtain it through attending school in presence. It is linked to US qualifications.

==== Escuela Virtual de Padres ====

The [http://www.web-familias.com/ Virtual school of Fathers] is a Spanish web portal for parents, aimed at supporting them in their role through useful documents and spaces for dialogue around the issues of children education and related problems. The portal include a specific session called “Escuela Virtual”, where materials can be downloaded and a forum is available.

=== Virtual initiatives in post-secondary education ===



== Lessons learnt ==

=== General lessons ===

=== Notable practices ===



== References ==

*[http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/eurybase/structures/041_ES_EN.pdf Eurydice, Structures of Education and Training Systems in Europe, Spain 2009/10 Edition]
*[http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/eurybase/national_summary_sheets/047_ES_EN.pdf Eurydice, National system overviews on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms, 2010 Edition]
*[http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/eurybase/eurybase_full_reports/ES_EN.pdf Eurydice, Organisation of the education system in Spain, 2009/2010 ]
*[http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/eurybase/eurybase_full_reports/ES_EN.pdf Eurybase, The Information Database on Education Systems in Europe: The Education System in Spain, 2009/10]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Spain Wikipedia, Education in Spain]
*[http://cms.eun.org/shared/data/pdf/cr_spain_2009_arleady_proofread_2_columns.pdf EUN, Country report on ICT in Education, Spain 2009/2010]
*[http://www.educa2.madrid.org/c/document_library/get_file?p_l_id=419778&folderId=439834&name=DLFE-21416.pdf UNESCO Observatory on the Information Society]

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[[Category:Spain|Spain]] [[Category:Countries_in_merged_template]] [[Category:VISCED]] [[Category:Europe]] [[Category:European_Union]] [[Category:OECD]] [[Category:Spanish-speaking_countries|Spanish-speaking_countries]] [[Category:Country_reports]] [[Category:Countries_with_Programmes]]

Escuela Virtual de Padres

2012-07-05T16:23:02Z

Daniela Proli:

The [http://www.web-familias.com/ Escuela Virtual de Padres], Virtual School of Fathers, is a Spanish web portal for parents, aimed at supporting them in their role through useful documents and spaces for dialogue around the issues of children education and related problems. The portal include a specific session called “Escuela Virtual”, where materials can be downloaded and a forum is available.

[[Category:Spain]]

[[Category:VISCED]]

[[Category:Virtual schools in Europe]]

Escuela Virtual de Padres

2012-07-05T16:22:43Z

Daniela Proli: