The Progress of Globalization and Educational Reforms in East Asia

Abstract

The symposium entitled "Social Changes in East Asia and Educational reforms: China, Korea, and Singapore" suggested that these countries are carrying out rather drastic educational reforms in the context of rapid social changes. The knowledge gained from the symposium also has important suggestions for Japanese educational reform. In addition, as a result of the discussions among the three panelists, common challenges in educational reforms in Asia emerged. These include, for example, the rise of the post-modern type meritocracy represented by learning ability and human power; the pursuit of excellence versus fairness and equality of education; the increase of poverty and deterioration of learning environments for children during economic recessions; and the improvement of teacher quality.