First, the whole country attaches importance to early childhood education.
In Japan, people have a deep understanding of the role of preschool education. "The richest wealth left for children is not money but education" has become the counterpart of many parents. Many women give up their jobs as soon as they get married and begin to make careful preparations for the coming children. They have entered short-term universities and mother training classes to learn how to carry out family education for young children. All sectors of society also attach great importance to training the next generation. Many factories are open to kindergartens and set up special reception days. For example, in the bread factory, let children visit the simple process of making bread and explain the simple truth. Land is the scarcest in Japan, but in order to minimize the risk factor of kindergartens, they try to build bungalows for kindergartens.
After World War II, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan issued >:. From 1954 to 1972, the revitalization plan of early childhood education was put forward twice. It can be seen that the Ministry of Education has a sufficient understanding of the role of early childhood education and attaches great importance to it as an important part of the education system.
Why does Japan attach so much importance to early childhood education from top to bottom? There are two main reasons for this: First, it is impacted by the rapid development of science and technology. Japan is a country with extremely poor natural resources, and its development depends on science and technology. Therefore, we attach great importance to education. The relationship between science and technology and education is particularly close in Japan. Every step of scientific and technological progress has a great impact on education. The influence of three characteristics of the third scientific and technological revolution on early childhood education is an important reason why Japan attaches importance to early childhood education. The second is the promotion of the research results of early intellectual development. Since 1960s, Fu Mi, a university professor, has made research on talent colleges, which has promoted people's attention to early childhood education. In addition, Japan has not only strengthened the research of early childhood intelligence development in universities and research institutes, but also carried out scientific research in kindergartens. The scientific research results of early childhood education also make parents and society more aware of the great role of early education, so they pay more attention to the development of early childhood education.
Second, the development speed of kindergartens is among the best in the world.
The rapid development of kindergartens is a remarkable feature of early childhood education in Japan. In 1960s, the enrollment rate of children aged 3-6 was 26. 9%, to 1976, the enrollment rate of children aged 2-6 reached 63. 5%, it can be said that it has more than doubled. By 198 1 year, the admission rate of children aged 4-5 will reach 100%. Japanese kindergartens were founded half a century later than Britain and the United States, but their development speed exceeded them. Why is the admission rate rising so fast? Apart from the great attention of the whole country, the most important reason is the rapid development of Japan's economy. Economic development not only provides a material basis for the development of early childhood education, but also puts forward higher requirements for early childhood education.
From the internal analysis of education, there are two other reasons. First, they think that after the transition of kindergarten, children can smoothly enter the society from their families and gain the ability to adapt to the changes of social life in the collective earlier. Secondly, they realize that if children don't receive social education early, their learning ability will be obviously worse than that of children who receive kindergarten education after school.
Third, pay attention to the cultivation and improvement of preschool teachers.
In Japan, kindergarten teachers are regarded as the first mentor in life and an important intellectual enlightener. Therefore, the Ministry of Education attaches great importance to the cultivation and improvement of kindergarten teachers. As early as 1949, the "Education Staff Licensing Law" was promulgated and its implementation required extensive knowledge and rich professional knowledge. Teachers are only qualified to take up their posts after completing the credits prescribed by the university and passing the rigorous examination. At present, there are 300 universities and short-term universities in Japan with pre-school education majors. After graduation, students will be awarded letters of appointment. Certificates are divided into two levels. The first-class certificate is awarded to ordinary university graduates (with bachelor's degree), and the second-class certificate is awarded to those who have studied in the university for two years and obtained 62 credits. In addition, there are temporary certificates issued to qualified high school graduates who apply for kindergarten educators. They can only be auxiliary educators. After a period of practice and obtaining the required credits, those who pass the examination can obtain a formal certificate. According to the statistics of 1977, 96.5% of educators hold Grade 5 and Grade 2 certificates, and only 3.5% hold temporary certificates. In recent years, the level of teachers has been further improved, and the proportion of graduates from four-year universities has increased year by year. Because the Ministry of Education has added a four-year preschool teacher training course, which has enriched the educational content.
In order to gather talents in the field of preschool education, Japan has greatly increased the salary of preschool teachers. A reward system shall be implemented for students who voluntarily teach. Kindergarten teachers are respected by all walks of life. Its salary is about 20% higher than that of civil servants in general countries. Therefore, there are many people applying for preschool education, and it is possible for players to select better talents to enrich the teaching staff.
Fourth, pay attention to children's family education and social education.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan attaches importance to coordinating the education of children in kindergartens, families and society. They strive to improve their parents' education level, mainly through two channels: one is school education, that is, home economics courses are offered to girls from middle schools, and short-term universities offer home economics departments. The second is to train parents as an important part of social education and lifelong education, such as "mother class" and "parent class". There are two kinds of classes, one is for parents of young children, and the other is for people who are going to be parents. Their learning contents are generally infant psychology, physical hygiene, family education and so on. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology regularly publishes family education information every year and sends it to all prefectures and counties, providing young couples with information on educating young children and imparting knowledge and methods of scientific parenting. This kind of education is carried out by correspondence, lecture tour and TV broadcasting, and the state subsidizes it. Japan also attaches importance to the comprehensive study of family education. In addition to cooperating with families, we also actively cooperate with society. According to the Child Welfare Law, "Children Guidance Centers" have been set up in cities, prefectures, counties or designated cities throughout the country to provide guidance on children's health and education. In addition, many children's parks, playgrounds, Children's Home, children's halls and other facilities have been established throughout the country for children to play and learn. Television, radio, books, newspapers and so on all have the territory of early childhood education.
Five, pay attention to legislation and implement scientific management.
Paying attention to the legislation of early childhood education and taking the law as the basis is an important reason why Japan's early childhood education has quickly reached the advanced level in the world. There are many legislations on early childhood education in Japan, such as the Early Childhood Education Law and the Early Childhood Education Law. 、gt； 、gt； 、gt； 、gt； Wait a minute. These laws and regulations not only protect the rights and interests of children and their education, but also make the work of kindergartens and nurseries have laws to follow and rules to follow.
In short, Japan's early childhood education is very distinctive, and there are many experiences that reflect the laws of early childhood education, but it is not perfect. What is commendable is that they have a clear understanding of the existing problems and strive to improve them in the third educational reform.
The current problems in preschool education in Japan are:
1, uneven development in different regions.
2. It is difficult to maintain contact and unify the curriculum between kindergartens and nurseries, because the former is under the jurisdiction of the education department and the latter is under the management of the health and welfare department.
3. Nurseries accept children from a few months to five years old after birth, and kindergartens accept children from three to five years old, resulting in children from three to five years old not getting the same education, and the quality of education cannot be guaranteed.
4. Some private parks accept more than 40 children per class, and the quality of education cannot be guaranteed.
5. Private kindergartens account for 70% of the total number of kindergartens, and their fees are 2% of those of public kindergartens. 5 times, which leads to the burden on parents of young children.
6. The salaries of teachers in state kindergartens, public kindergartens and nurseries are relatively high, resulting in a shortage of qualified teachers in private kindergartens.
7. Rapid urbanization has narrowed the safe area for children's play activities and aggravated the environmental pollution harmful to children's health.
Faced with various problems, the Ministry of Education proposed to focus on solving the following major problems:
1, study measures to promote the balanced development of preschool education and family education.
2. Reasonably coordinate the roles of kindergartens and nurseries.
3. In view of the large number of private kindergartens and the heavy burden on parents, it is suggested to reduce the number of private or self-owned kindergartens and change these kindergartens into joint kindergartens.
4. Kindergarten curriculum reform should be based on the basic research of preschool education.
5. Study the necessity and possibility of extending compulsory education to preschool education.