RetireJapan

Hi
We are debating to send my daughter to Public or private Elementary Japanese school from next year.
The private is not exactly cheap, seems on average from about 1 Million per year on average for the basic fee. Also prep training would be needed which costs about 45,000 Yen per month so that she could pass the private school entrance exam...
The advantage I see of private is smaller class sizes, more attention from the teacher, and less exposure to being bullied.

From what I gather Junior High Private is a bit more popular that Elementary private, so people generally will use public for Elementary and then private from Junior high. Just wondering what others are doing?
Thanks

Very much depends on the specific schools, teachers, and even that year of students.

From personal experience I don't think private schools are necessarily better at dealing with bullying.

My daughters went to public elementary and JHS, then two public and one private for high school. My oldest granddaughter did public elementary and is starting private JHS tomorrow

There was just a discussion about this over on reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comm ... on_system/

Not necessarily that thread, but the consensus in my reading on this (and my opinion) seems to be that elementary (primary) here is pretty good, if not excellent. Junior high can be, too, and of course for high school there will be testing. Of course, local conditions can vary--look at the demographics of the primary and junior high districts that you're in, and ask around about the relative quality of those schools.

Just my 2 cents of what we did.
The public elementary and junior high school in my neighborhood was pretty "high level" so we sent my 2 girls there. Never had a problem with bullying. We went the cram school route for both for about 2 years in order to pass and get into a public high school. They both entered a high school with an IB (International Baccalaureate) program which was also very affordable being a public school. Now they are both in England in university which (as an American) is costing me a small fortune.
I guess it just depends on where you want to spend your hard earned money.
Good luck!

In my case, my son went to the local public junior high school. It was not a great school, but our priority was for him to go where most of his friends from elementary school were going and where we felt he would be happiest, rather than what was educationally best for him. When I was his age, I went to a different secondary school from my friends from primary school, and it was miserable. My son had the best time at junior high and loved every moment of it.
I was nervous about it,because having taught in a junior high I know that the class dynamics are crucial. If there are more than 5 disruptors in a class, then the whole class dynamic shifts and it becomes a problem class and difficult if not impossible to teach. It was a case of fingers crossed.
He went to Juku from the second year of jh and then got into a good public high school and then a public university.

Our experience was that public schools in Japan are excellent, especially through elementary school.

Our daughter is in public elementary school right now, moving onto 6th grade tomorrow. She has been doing juku (cram school) for the past year, and will continue it for the following year, to prepare for the junior high-school entrance exams.

Her public elementary school has had some issues during her 5th grade, where her teacher resigned because of stress. My daughter's class is apparently quite unruly, with a few disruptors making things difficult for the teacher. There were a couple of "temporary" teachers who filled-in after the main teacher resigned. This is just a story specific to what my daughter has gone through.

The cram school... cram school... I feel bad for my daughter every time she steps out the door to do more hours and hours of class... I remember when I was a kid her age and all we did was ride bikes and climb trees. Different time, different culture, I know... but I can't help but feel for her and the other children... so much pressure at such a young age.

But that's how things roll here. Daughter went to a dozen different private junior high-schools to pick her top-5 to shoot for and she is excited to try for them. Good for her. Put the work in and go get it. But I wonder if the sacrifice a young child makes is worth it, in the end.

Our neighbor has a child a year younger than our daughter. The parents put their child into a private elementary school which has a "lineage" of junior-high and high-schools where no exams are needed, if the child starts at the elementary school stage. The child had to take an entrance exam for the elementary school and passed. After that, the child doesn't need to worry about taking any more entrance exams until university.

The wife and I were wondering if this would have been a better choice for our daughter. In our estimation, the later the exams are, the harder they become, which means the pressure is even greater. We missed the opportunity to send our daughter to one of those "lineage" private elementary schools.

C'est la vie.

TokyoWart wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 2:14 am Our experience was that public schools in Japan are excellent, especially through elementary school.

We had very positive experiences for our two at elementary school in Japan. Over that time, they were also able to go to the UK for primary school for one year and a British international school in Poland for one year. The Japanese state elementary school comes top by a country mile.

Thanks! All for the comments, appreciate it.
I guess for public it very much depends on the location of the school and who enters the same year my daughter would enter.

Also I heard from a friend who works at a public school that if there is an episode of bullying in the public school the parents are introduced to each other so that they can work it out, the school does not mediate. Whereas for private the actual school will mediate to resolve it.

concerned wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 11:08 am ...
I guess for public it very much depends on the location of the school and who enters the same year my daughter would enter.

I think that would be true of any school, public or private.

Also I heard from a friend who works at a public school that if there is an episode of bullying in the public school the parents are introduced to each other so that they can work it out, the school does not mediate. Whereas for private the actual school will mediate to resolve it.

I would not rely on that kind of generalization.