（3）The University Regulations and the Middle and Elementary School Regulations

The University Regulations and the Middle and Elementary School Regulations (Chushogaku Kisoku), both drafted by the University, were submitted on March 20, 1870, to the Grand Council for approval. As the Grand Council had suspended the issuance, these Regulations never came into force. Nevertheless, the Grand Council, at the same time, expected that these Regulations could be copied down by prefectural and fief governments and supply a model for their respective educational reforms. Thus, these Regulations, as the first indication of an integrated plan, exerted a considerable influence upon the educational policies of many prefectures and fiefs at that time.

The Middle and Elementary School Regulations provided that these would be schools for entrance into the university rather than institutions for the general populace. Thus, they differed in spirit from the regulations developed later by the government. Admission to the elementary schools was set at the age of eight to be completed at fifteen. The curriculum was made up mainly of general subjects: reading, calligraphy, arithmetic, foreign languages and geography. Students were to enter middle schools from the elementary schools at the age of sixteen and continue there for seven years. The middle schools were to offer specialized curricula similar to those of the university and serve as mechanism for selecting able students for the university. These Regulations constituted the first attempt at a national school plan based on Western models.