Now that's, Interesting!!! - TOI - 03/01/2008

Indian edu is new fad in Japan

Japan, renowned for its technology, is suffering a sudden crisis of confidence these days about its ability to compete with its emerging Asian rivals, China and India. But even in this fad-obsessed nation, one result was never expected—a growing craze for Indian education.
The rising insecurity about the nation’s schools, which nottoo-long-ago churned out international toppers, is increasingly driving many in Japan to look for lessons from India, the country they see as the world’s ascendant education superpower.
Bookstores are filled with titles like Extreme Indian Arithmetic Drills and The Unknown Secrets of the Indians. Newspapers carry reports of Indian children memorizing multiplication tables far beyond nine times nine, the standard for young elementary students in Japan. And Japan’s few Indian international schools are reporting a surge in applications from Japanese families.
At the Little Angels English Academy & International Kindergarten, the textbooks are from India, most of the teachers are South Asian and classroom posters depict animals out of Indian tales. The kindergarten students even colour maps of India in the green and saffron of its flag. This, when Little Angels is located in a Tokyo suburb where only one of its 45 students is Indian. Viewing another Asian country as a model in education, or almost anything else, would have been unheard of just a few years ago, say education experts and historians. Much of Japan has long looked down on the rest of Asia, priding itself on being the region’s most advanced nation. Indeed, Japan has dominated the continent for more than a century, first as an imperial power and more recently as the first Asian economy to achieve Western levels of economic development. NYT NEWS SERVICE Education: India’s doing what Japan once did
The Japanese are increasingly turning to the Indian eduction system for their children. In the last few years, Japan has been increasingly gripped by the fear of being overshadowed by India and China, which are rapidly gaining in economic weight and sophistication. The government here has tried to preserve Japan’s technological lead and strengthen its military. But grudgingly, Japan is starting to respect its neighbours.
Last month, a national cry of alarm greeted the announcement by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development that in a survey of math skills, Japan had fallen from first place in 2000 to 10th place and from second to sixth spot in science.
While China has stirred more concern here as a political and economic challenger, India has emerged as the country to beat in a more benign rivalry over education. In part, this reflect’s China’s image in Japan as a cheap manufacturer and technological imitator. But India’s success in software development, internet businesses and knowledgeintensive industries in all of which Japan has failed to make inroads has set off more than a tinge of envy.
Most annoying for many Japanese is that the aspects of Indian education they now praise are similar to those that once made Japan famous for its work ethic and discipline—learning more at an earlier age, an emphasis on memorisation and cramming and a focus on the basics, especially in math and science.
India’s more demanding education standards are apparent at the Little Angels Kindergarten and are its main selling point. Its two-year-old pupils are taught to count to 20, three-year-olds are introduced to computers, and fiveyear-olds learn to multiply, solve math word problems and write one-page essays in English, tasks most Japanese schools do not teach until at least second grade.
Japan’s interest in learning from Indian education is a lot like America’s interest in learning from Japanese education. As with many new things here, the interest in Indian-style education has quickly become a fad.
Indian education is a frequent topic in forums like talk shows. Popular books claim to reveal the Indian secrets for multiplying and dividing multiple-digit numbers. Even Japan’s conservative education ministry has begun discussing Indian methods. Eager parents try to send their children to Japan’s roughly half-a-dozen Indian schools, hoping for an edge on the competitive college entrance exams. In Tokyo, the two largest Indian schools, which teach kindergarten through junior high mainly to Indian expatriates, have received a sudden increase in inquiries from Japanese parents starting last year. NYT NEWS SERVICE

TAKING A LEAF OUT OF INDIA’S TEXTBOOK: Japanese children in an Indian kindergarten school