Japan - 3 Answers
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1 :
officially 5 days, but many japanese kids go to school on saturday and sunday to join clubs or to study for tests. they also have to go just on the morning of weekdays, but they go to "school-after-school" to prepare for the tests ... they don't have a real life to explore, and, well, they usually can't with too much concrete everywhere ... and schools are closing!!! because of population problems!!
2 :
In Japan they go to school Monday to Saturday.
3 :
The official answer is 5 days a week Monday to Friday. When I first came to Japan, it was sort 5.5 days (half a day) on Saturday, but a few years ago the government reduced it to 5. However, the reality is that many Japanese kids are at their schools all of the time. They are there after school during the week for club sports or other activities and many of them are also their on Saturdays as well for more activities. Elementary school kids up to grade 3 usually aren't allowed to participate in club activities so they go home right away after school, unless there is some special activity going on like a rehearsal for some kind of school event. Then they might stay a little longer. Grades 4-6 usually stay to about 5pm and then they are told to go home. Same also holds true for junior high school students as well. They are usually sent home around 5pm though some may hang around a little longer. Some high school students basically come and go as they please. If they are on some kind of sports team or in some club they may stay past 6 if they have some tournament of big time event coming up. Many high school kids end up going straight from their regular schools to "cram school" (private special intensive instruction) for some more intensive studying and instruction. I would guess that the majority of Japanese kids from elementary school 3rd or 4th grade on up are probably attending some kind of "cram school" for special instruction or exam preparation. Some parents even start their kids earlier than that. There has been alot of calls the past couple of years from PTAs or Educational think tanks around Japan for a return to the 6-day school week. So, far the government has resisted that pressure but it is increasing. It seems that alot of people are associating the decline in the academic ability of Japanese students as a whole with the switch to a 5-day school week and the insitution of a more liberal (less rote-learning based) curicullum. There's probably something to what they are saying, but, personally, I think alot of Japanese parents like to view schools as a "daycare center" and teachers as "baby sitters" or "surrogate parents" who are supposed to be raising their kids. If the kids have to go to school on Saturdays then the parents will have one less day to look after them.
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