The Manchurian Incident in 1931 escalated into the Sino-Japanese War of 1937, and national life became more and more militaristic. Education acquired an intensely nationalistic character. With the outbreak of war in the Pacific in 1941, the education system underwent emergency “reforms.” Elementary schools were renamed kokumingakkō, or national schools, under the National School Order issued in 1941. The order proclaimed the idea of a national polity or spirit peculiar to Japan; the content and the methods of education were revised to reflect this nationalism. Moreover, the period of compulsory education was officially extended to eight years, though it actually remained six years because of the worsening war situation.
Secondary education was similarly made “national.” In 1943 the Secondary School Order was issued in an attempt to unify all the secondary schools, but, because of the war, it also shortened secondary education to four years. In the same year the normal school was upgraded to the level of the professional schools. As the war worsened, students above the secondary schools were mobilized as temporary workers in military industries and agricultural communities in order to increase production, and a great number of students were sent to the battlefields. As a result, classes were virtually closed at schools higher than the secondary level toward the end of World War II. Education after World War II
On Aug. 14, 1945, Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration and surrendered unconditionally to the Allied powers. The overriding concern at the general headquarters (GHQ) of the Allied powers was the immediate abolition of militaristic education and ultranationalistic ideology. This was the theme of a directive issued by GHQ to the Japanese government in October 1945. In early 1946, GHQ invited the United States Education Mission to Japan, and it played a decisive role in creating a new educational system. The mission’s report recommended thorough and drastic reforms of education in Japan. The report was subsequently adopted in its entirety as the basic framework for a new democratic educational system. The Education Reform Committee, which was directly responsible to the prime minister, was established to make recommendations for the implementation of the new education. Based on these recommendations, the Japanese Diet passed a series of legislative acts that forged the foundation of postwar education.
The Fundamental Law of Education and the School Education Law, both enacted in 1947, and the Boards of Education Law of 1948 set the outlines of the new education. The prewar system was replaced by a democratic single-track system, in which school programs were integrated and simplified and the period of attendance was settled in six, three, three, and four years, respectively, for shōgakkō, or elementary schools; chūgakkō, or lower secondary schools; kōtōgakkō, or upper secondary schools; and daigaku, or universities. The period of compulsory attendance was extended to nine years, coeducation was introduced, and provisions were made for education for the physically handicapped and other special education.
The reform of the content of education proceeded to reduce the strong state control of former days and to encourage teachers’ initiative. State textbooks were abolished in favour of commercial ones, and schools were controlled locally by elective boards of education. Shūshin disappeared from the curricula and was replaced by new subjects, such as shakaika, or social studies, designed to prepare children for life in a democratic society. The educational reform also altered the character of the universities, which offered access to all citizens. The former institutions—universities, colleges, and normal schools—were reorganized into four-year universities and colleges. Teacher education was placed within the university system, and anyone who completed professional training was eligible for teacher certification. This reorganization had an immense impact upon the development of higher education.
The peace treaty of 1952 not only liberated Japan from the restraints of occupation but also allowed education there to be adjusted to intrinsic cultural and political orientations. Centralization of control increased with respect to administration, curriculum, textbooks, and teacher performance through a series of legislative and administrative measures in the 1950s. In addition, the political indoctrination of the leftist Japan Teachers’ Union was hindered, and moral education was reintroduced as a requirement at the elementary and lower secondary levels. On the whole, however, the postwar educational reforms were retained and advanced, and their subsequent elaboration helped match Japan’s rapid economic growth.
The postwar educational administration was organized into a three-tiered structure, with national, prefectural, and municipal components—all under the general supervision of the Ministry of Education, which also wielded a considerable measure of authority over curricular standards, textbooks, and school finance, among other functions. Through its central, advisory role, the Ministry of Education guided the development of egalitarian and efficient schooling in the postwar era.
The progressive curriculum, which emphasized child interest and was introduced from the United States immediately after the war, produced deteriorating student performance. Thus, during 1961–63 the Ministry of Education replaced that curriculum with a discipline-centred curriculum at the elementary and lower secondary levels in order to improve academic achievement, moral education, science and technical education, and vocational education. This curricular revision set the tone for later changes in the national curriculum. Each major curricular revision represented an educational response to a variety of social needs, above all economic.
The 1960s was a period of high growth for both the economy and education. The unprecedented economic growth was stimulated by an ambitious national plan to boost individual income, industry, and trade. Responding to the changing economic and industrial environment, enrollments in high schools and in colleges or universities increased, respectively, from 57.7 and 10.3 percent of the eligible students in 1960 to 91.9 and 37.8 percent in 1975. Ninety percent of this increase in university and college enrollments was absorbed into poorly financed private institutions, which contributed to the deterioration of higher education. Problems also arose at the upper secondary level, where education remained rigidly uniform even though students were increasingly diverse in abilities, aptitudes, and interests. The inability of the postwar educational system to meet either student requirements or the insatiable demands for secondary and postsecondary education became of critical concern, and in 1971 the Central Council for Education recommended reforming Japan’s education to eradicate these problems.
The Central Council initiated a sustained school reform debate that set the stage for the establishment, in 1984, of an advisory council on educational reform, which was directly responsible to the prime minister. The advisory council called for elimination of the uniformity and rigidity of education at all levels and for the enhancement of “individuality” through education. Its recommendations in 1987 included diversifying upper secondary education, improving moral education, encouraging greater local freedom and responsibility in developing curriculum, improving teacher training, and fostering diversity in higher education. Arata Naka Nobuo Shimahara South Asia Pre-independence period
Amid the rising nationalism of the latter part of the 19th century, Indians became more and more critical of the domination of Western learning as imposed by the British rulers and demanded, instead, more attention to Indian languages and culture. The Indian National Congress, several Muslim associations, and other groups raised their voices against the British system of education. British authorities were not, however, altogether blind to the needs of the country. When Baron Curzon of Kedleston arrived as viceroy in 1898, his determination to improve education was immediately translated into an order for a close survey of the entire field of education. It revealed: “Four out of five villages are without a school. Three boys out of four grow up without any education and only one girl out of forty attends any kind of school.” Education had advanced, but it had not penetrated the country as the British had earlier expected.