c. The Opening of Middle Schools

In September, 1872, at the time of the implementation of the Education System Order, the Southern College under the supervision of the Department of Education was transformed into the First Middle School of the First University District. Similarly Osaka Kaiseijo (which originally had been established in October, 1869, as Osaka School for Western Learning and in May, 1870, transferred under the jurisdiction of the University, and further, in November of that year renamed Osaka Kaiseijo) became the First Middle School of the Fourth University District (and later, in April, 1873, renamed the First Middle School of the Third University District as a result of the redivision of the university districts), Nagasaki Kounkan became the First Middle School of the Sixth University District and the First Tokyo School of Western Learning became the Second Middle School of the First University District. These schools were in turn changed to specialized schools or foreign language schools in 1873 and subsequently functioned as centers of higher learning or as preparatory institutions.

On the other hand, local public middle schools were founded in the important towns of the various prefectures and municipalities. Often the old fief schools were the base for these new middle schools, and in some instances the middle schools were established jointly with normal schools. By 1874 there were eleven local public middle schools and 31 schools by 1877. By 1879, 107 local public middle schools had been established with a total enrollement of 7,786.

Most of the private middle schools traced their origin to private schools for Western learning (yogakujuku) and private schools for Chinese studies (kangakujuku) that had been founded during the final years of the Shogunate. In 1874 there were 21 private middle schools and these increased to 358 by 1877. In 1879 a total of 32,243 students were enrolled at 677 private middle schools.

While there were many local public and private middle schools in existence during the early years of the Meiji era, most were small in scale and provided a limited curriculum. According to information published in the Middle School Prospectus of the Annual Report of the Department of Education for 1878, about 70% of the middle schools were staffed with a single instructor and about 10% had only two teachers each. Moreover the number of years of instruction available varied from two to six years. Despite their shortcomings, these schools provided vital learning opportunities for the ambitious youths of that era.

During the period of the Education System Order, there were many local public and private foreign language schools at the middle level. The heyday for these institutions was 1875. Thereafter many closed or changed over to regular middle schools. Since at that time middle level education for girls had not yet been systematized, there were many middle schools which admitted girls. Of course, apart from the middle schools there were various unofficial schools exclusively for girls.