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In Japan, the so-called single-track 6-3-3-4 school system was adopted under post-World War educational reform. Under this new system, 9-year compulsory education has been established, equality of educational opportunity has been greatly promoted, and school education has spread to a degree comparable with other advanced countries. At the same time, however, contemporary school education in Japan is confronted with the problem of how the educational contents and methods should be improved consistent with its quantitative expansion.

In upper secondary education, the percentage of lower secondary school graduates going on to upper secondary schools has grown rapidly to over 90% on a national average in recent years. Accordingly, the improvement of upper secondary school education in response to students' varied abilities, aptitudes and activities has become a major problem.

In higher education, various reforms, such as flexible development of university education, improvement of the graduate school system, etc. have been implemented to meet the growth in the number of those receiving higher education and the demand for improvement of educational and research structures. Also under way are such new projects as the creation of Tsukuba University under a new concept, reform of established universities and so forth.

The scale of pre-school education is being enlarged under the growing demand for education and nursing of infants, but, in view of the still inadequate regional development of kindergartens and day nurseries, it has become a major task to expand those facilities in line with their appropriate functions.

Chart 2-1. Distribution Diagram of Schools- International Comparison -

In addition, the system of special training schools as a new educational institution was inaugurated in January, 1976. It is designed to certify as special training schools the types of miscellaneous schools with specified scales and standards, thereby encouraging the enrichment of their educational functions.

Special training schools are aimed at having students foster the abilities essential to their vocation and for everyday life or to raise their cultural level. In these schools, three types of courses are instituted in line with difference in entrance requirements, namely, the upper secondary courses (to which lower secondary school graduates and the equivalent are admitted), advanced courses (to which upper secondary school graduates and the equivalent are admitted) and general courses (for which no particular requirements for admission are defined). Of these, both upper secondary courses and advanced courses are expected to play an important role as a part of post-compulsory secondary education and higher education.

Next, the principal moves for reform or re-examination of school systems in selected countries are to be observed.

The United States

While the period of compulsory education differs from state to state, as of 1972, it was outlined as shown in the following table.

There are several types of elementary and secondary school systems, such as the 8-4 system, 6-6 system, 6-3-3 system, etc. The system used varies from region to region. Under the middle school system, which has recently been popularized, the grade level of a junior high school is brought down one or two to the sixth-eighth grade (changing to the 5-3-4 system) or to the fifth-eighth grades (the 4-4-4 system) so as to eliminate the educational shortcomings of a junior high school. The principal aim is to smooth the transition from elementary education to secondary education in full consideration of the process of pupils' growth, to make education more effective by improving educational content and introducing innovative educational methods (team teaching, non-graded system, independent study, etc.), and the like.

In the field of higher education also, various sorts of new approaches are being tried. The University of Mid-America, which initiated its programs in 1975, is designed to open the door of university education to those people who did not receive a traditional university education, through the use of newspapers, radio and TV programs, films, counselling, etc. Measures for the expansion of two-year community colleges have also been taken in recent years. Unlike the traditional junior college, the community college, in response to the various demands of regional communities and industry, features extensive programs in general education, various types of vocational and technical education, preparatory education for advancement to four-year universities, continuing education for adults. etc., accepts a wide range of applicants to provide them with higher education free of charge or at low tuition, and so on.

Pre-school education is carried out by kindergartens and day nurseries. With a view to promoting equal opportunity of education, a policy of compensatory education such as the Head Start Program for children in unfavorable economic and cultural circumstances (designed to help enable the children with serious educational handicaps to be at the same starting line as ordinary children when entering elementary schools), was implemented across the country in 1965 under encouragement by the Federal Government.

England & Wales

The period of compulsory education, which had been set at 10 years (for children from 5 to 14 years of age) since 1947, was extended to 11 years (for children from 5 to 15 years of age) in 1973.

Primary education continues usually for six years, consisting of two years in infant schools and four years in junior schools. In addition in compliance with the purport of Plowden Report of 1967, such steps have been taken in recent years as turning infant schools into three to four-year first schools and introducing three to four-year middle schools as a transitional course to secondary schools. In secondary education, three types of conventional secondary schools, namely, grammar schools, technical schools and modern schools, have been replaced by comprehensive schools since the l960s in an increasing number of areas. Comprehensive schools are designed to admit pupils in each area irrespective of their ability and aptitude, thus providing them with varied types of secondary education, instead of screening the qualified entrants through eleven-plus examinations, as practised before. As of 1974, comprehensive schools accounted for 45% of all secondary schools in terms of the number of schools and about 60% in terms of the enrollment.

In higher education, England & Wales was a pioneer in the expansion of its university system in the l960s with the creation of seven "new universities" and the upgrading of ten colleges of advanced technology to the status of universities. Since the late l960s, reorganization of higher educational institutions has been under way, such as creation of 30 polytechnics, merger of colleges of education, polytechnics and institutions of further education, and so forth. Moreover, other steps for the diversification of higher education have also been vigorously taken, such as creation of the system of Diploma of Higher Education, obtainable after finishing two-year courses, development of sandwich-formula education, in which education in educational institutions and practical training at industrial worksites are repeated alternately at a defined interval, initiation of Open University (begun in January, 1971), and the like.

Pre-school education is carried out at nursery schools and nursery classes attached to primary schools. Expansion chiefly of nursery classes is now under way with the aim providing all 3 and 4-year-old applicant children (estimated at 50% of 3-year-old children and 90% of 4-year-old children) with free aducation by 1981.

France

Primary and secondary education is composed of five-year primary school education and the subsequent four-year premier cycle de l'enseignement secondaire (first-cycle secondary education) and two to three-year second cycle de l'enseignement secondaire (second-cycle secondary education). The first-cycle education (compulsory secondary education) is currently undertaken as a transitional measure, under the common curriculum at three types of schools, namely, the lycee, college d'enseignement general (college of general education) and college d'enseignement secondaire (college of secondary education), but is to be unified into the college d'enseignement secondaire in the future. The second-cycle education (post-compulsory secondary education) is undertaken as long-term (three-year) education at the lycee and as a short-term (two-year) vocational and technical education at the college d'enseignement technique (college of technical education.) While long-term education at the lycee is divided into the general course, aimed to have students prepare for advancement to institutions of higher education, and vocational and technical courses, aimed at training middle-level technicians, reforms have been implemented since1970, such as diversifying educational contents, having students choose their respective fields of specialization after the second-year, providing studeunts finishing vocational and technical courses with the chance to go on to universities by creating baccalaureat de technicien and the like.

Higher education is carried out at universities, grandes ecoles and normal schools. The university system was drastically reformed in 1968 under the terms of the Loi d'Orientation de l'Enseignement Superieur. That is, in 1970, 23 conventional universities (with about 100 departments) were dismantled and regrouped into 57 new universities composed of unites, new educational and researclt units replacing departments. The Institut Universitaire de Technologie (I.U.T.) had already been created in 1966 as a new institution of higher education and attached to universities. The I.U.T. was instituted with the aim of meeting the growing demand for middle-level technicians and accomodating sharply increasing applicants for higher education; its graduates are qualified for enrollment in the third-year of the university.

Pre-school education is highly popularized, with 89% of 3 to 5-year-old children having received pre-school education as of 1972. It is a post-1975 target to concentrate on its spread in rural districts. Also, since 1975, some measures are being considered of allowing advanced gifted 5-year-old children to be enrolled in the second grade of primary schools, skipping the first grade.

Federal Republic of Germany

While a double-track school system of linking 4-year Grundschulen (primary schools) to three types of secondary schools (full-time) - Hauptschulen (second-level primary schools), Realschulen (intermediate schools) and Gymnasien (grammar schools) - is maintained, various steps are being taken to facilitate student transfer among these three types of secondary schools. A number of public reform plans, announced after 1970, call for gradual reorganization of Hauptschulen, Realschulen, and Gymnasien into comprehensive schools (Gesamtschulen). With considerable progress shown in experiments on comprehensive schools, some such schools have already been in operation in some districts.

In higher education, on the impetus of the recommendation, presented in 1960 by the Wissenschaftsrat (Science Council), to expand universities, expansion of the university system was implemented after the second half of the l960s by creating new universities (nine universities) and faculties, accompanied by simultaneous reforms of the administration and management as well as educational and research structures of universities, centering on new universities. Subsequently, steps were taken to upgrade the status of conventional teacher training institutions to teacher training colleges and change the status of Ingenieurschulen (engineering schools), Hohere Fachschulen (advanced technical schools), etc. to institutions of higher education. The Gesamthochschulen (comprehensive universities), in which several Universitaten (universities) and other institutions of higher education are linked with each other in each district of the state, have also been instituted. This form of universities is aimed at integrating the functions of each relevant institution of higher education and facilitating inter-departmental transferability of students, thereby further improving the managerial and educational activities of universities.

Kindergartens in the Federal Republic of Germany, having heretofore been placed under the jurisdiction of administrative agencies in charge of youth welfare, are not incorporated in the school system. However, the Deutscher Bildungsrat (German Education Council) proposed, in its recommendation of 1970, that kindergartens should be incroporated in the school system for their further expansion.

U.S.S.R.

As regards the school system, with the period of primary education reduced from the previous 4 years to 3 years in 1970, the previous 4-4-2 system was amended to a 3-5-2 system. The compulsory education period is set at 8 years (for 7 to 14-year-old children). In 1971, the goal of extending the compulsory education period to 10 years by 1975 was announced, but has not been attained as yet. While pupils finishing 8-year compulsory education can go on to either secondary schools (10 year school), vocational and technical schools or specialized secondary schools, most of them usually prefer to advance to the ninth grade of secondary school.

In higher education, emphasis had previously been placed on the creation of Technological Institutes in Factory and expansion of night-time and correspondence education with a view to strengthening the ties between higher education and production and enrichment of scientific and technological education. In recent years, however, the emphasis on night-time and correspondence education is waving from its quantitative expansion to its qualitative improvement which reflects the fact that the standards of students enrolled in night-time and correspondence courses are qualitatively lower than those enrolled in daytime courses and that they are receiving education irrelevant to their profession.

Pre-school education is given in kindergartens and nursery-kindergartens. Under the Pre-school Education Program formulated in 1962 (amended in 1972), emphasis is laid on the importance of the role played by early childhood's education.