b. The Upward Trend in the Attendance Rate

The attendance rate of school age children for compulsory educatton in 1887 was 45.0% (60.3% for boys, 28.3% for girls), and due to the economic conditions in the latter half of the second decade (1882-1886) of the Meiji era, the school attendance rate recorded its very lowest level through the period after 1880, as stated earlier. Moreover, the 1886 Elementary School Order, which made tuition the main source of funds for elementary education, was a major factor in limiting school attendance. Nevertheless after that the school attendance rate gradually rose, and especially in the period from the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) until the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) the trend was very sharply upward. From 1895 when attendance rate was 6l.2% (76.7% for boys, 43.9% for girls), it advanced by 1905 to 95.6% (97.7% for boys and 93.3% for girls). This remarkable 34.4% increase in the space of ten years can be attributed to several factors. One was the improvement in the people's living standard which came with the advance of industry from just before the Sino-Japanese War. Related to the improvement in economic conditions was a heightened regard for education. Moreover, in 1900, the system of funding elementary school education from the National Treasury was realized, tuition was abolished, and regulations concerning compulsory attendance were strictly spelled out in the 1900 Elementary School Order.

While during the period of low attendance rates for compulsory education there was a sharp difference between attendance rates for boys and girls as well as large differences in rates according to region, these differences gradually decreased as the overall attendance rate improved. For example, the girls' attendance rate was 34.0% points behind the boys' rate in 1890, but from 1896 and especially from 1900 the gap rapidly decreased. As is indicated in Table 3-2, in 1907 the overall attendance rate was 97.4% and even that for girls was 96.1%. In view of these high attendance rates, it was decided in 1907 to extend the period of compulsory education to six years from 1908.