Japanese educators from elementary schools on Okinawa recently visited Kadena Air Base to receive a crash-course in a new method of teaching. In January, their American counterparts will visit their schools to learn how Japanese classrooms are run.

The community at this vast Army training center got its first look Tuesday at the long-awaited Defense Department elementary school now providing instruction to 400 students in preschool through fifth grade.

Students at Department of Defense Education Activity schools around the world started a new school year Monday as the COVID-19 pandemic faded into the scholastic background.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in construction is underway or planned to upgrade schools on overseas U.S. military bases in the Pacific, according to Department of Defense Education Activity officials.