Meiji Era School Attendence

Below are two tables that reveal both the accomplishments and the limitations of Meiji educational reforms. Table 1 shows an impressive increase in the number of schools and the enrollment rates for both girls and boys, one that culminates in 1905 with near-universal enrollment rates. Table 2, however, reveals the fact that enrollment rates and attendance rates were not identical. In this particular elementary school, the average daily attendance rate dropped sharply at two times: in winter, when severe weather made commuting difficult, and in summer, when children were expected to perform agricultural work for the family. While this table shows statistics for only one village, similar patterns prevailed throughout rural Japan well into the 1920s and 1930s. These patterns suggest the difficulties that governments encounter when they attempt to implement compulsory schooling. Schooling involves a basic change in the patterns of childhood and the family economy. For most families, sending children to school all day for most of the year involved a significant loss of available labor for household tasks, as well as a change in the schedules and rhythms of family life. Even when parents began to send their children to school, they often did so only insofar as it conformed to those schedules and rhythms.

This source is a part of the Educational Reform in Japan (19th c.) teaching module.