Sammary
Our topic of discussion is rankings in WEF competitiveness. WEF is World Economic Forum. It is the annual forum of economists. They rank countries by competitiveness, which is national productivity level and the survey on items such as infrastructure, education, labor market and financial services business. In the year, 2014-2015, Japan was ranked 6th, but in the year,2015-2016, our country is ranked 8th. Both years, Switzerland is 1st and Singapore is 2nd. In addition, Netherlands and Sweeden are ranked up in these two years.
Opinion
In my opinion, the reason why Japan slips to 8th is education.
First, reason is the environment of education. Nowadays, people can’t enter their children in kindergarten. Children can’t accept enough elementary education and parents aren’t compatible jobs and nursing. In addition, in high schools and universities, people have to pay expensive fee. In other countries, this fee is almost all free. People can study without caring the money.
Second reason is the system of education especially English. Japanese English education is very passive. Teachers teach students grammar typically but don’t teach communication and discussion skills. That’s why Japanese people are weak in the world.
I think Japanese government should change the environment and system of education.