EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM & PRACTICE IN JAPAN

18	“I Outline of Japanese School System”	Previous	Next	JAPANESE

	There are three types of comprehensive six-year-secondary school education. Each type permits exceptions in curricula development. Secondary schools were established as a new school system to facilitate unified education. In public schools, local entities may establish all schools except type C ( tie-up-type), because lower secondary schools are established by municipalities and upper secondary schools are established by prefectures. An exception occurs for designated cities that are allowed to establish both lower secondary schools and upper secondary schools. Due to large differences between the teacher system and the financial system, municipalities encounter numerous difficulties. Cooperation between schools established by municipalities and schools set up by prefectures, and between national schools and prefectural schools is permitted and encouraged in the tie-up-type. Cooperation and interaction between kindergartens and elementary schools, elementary schools and lower secondary schools, and upper secondary schools and universities has been promoted because of the necessity to ensure that students’ progress in learning proceeds as smoothly as possible.