school -the second essay asignment-

In Chapter3, White describes how Japanese junior-high and senior-high schools get more and more intense in terms of studying. In order to get in high-level universities, most of Japanese students go to cram schools and spend great amount of time studying. Not only their own parents, but also their teachers put great pressure on them.
As White claims in the book, if one wants to get in a high-level university, it is really important how he spends his high school days: he should concentrate on studying and start the preparation earlier. So, in order to spend the "best" high school days, he'd better be careful to decide which high school he goes. Levels, policies, curriculums differ very much depending on schools and it is said that in many cases, it is your high school that pushes you up to the university you want to go.

Therefore, these days, kids and their parents are very serious about choosing their high schools and competition between high schools is getting increasingly severe.
I think people used to prefer schools with a long history and sort of a "brand name"(popularlity, in other words) and those were the ones considered the best high schools.
However, the situaition is changing. What people care about most is the number of the students who get in high-level universities in the school. If their grads tend to have good grades, even new and unfamous schools can be the popular ones.
This competiton between high schools may have some advantages(for example, many schools started plan their curriculum seriously and creatively), but it is also true that it is complicating the whole "examination ordeal"(zyuken-sensou) thing.

Several weeks ago, the media revealed that some high schools in Japan didn't teach some subjects such as world history and geography, because they wanted to spend more time for other subjects which their students would need for the big examnination.
As a result, many seniror students had found out that they were short of credits to graduate high schools although there are only 4months left. (until the entrance exam, less than 3months)

I think one of the causes of this shocking news can be found in the comepetiton between high schools. These high schools concentrated on the track record so much that they even chose to ignore the government's policy.
If its students don't have good grades, less kids apply to the school and its management might go into a poor shape. For every high school, this cometition is a big issue and at least for now, it seems difficult to avoid.