5 Reforms in the Teacher Training System

The situation which existed in Japan following World War 1 called for an expansion of the educational system and, in order to meet this demand, reorganization of the teacher training program was begun. The question of how best to face this problem had been brought up to the Special Council for Education and in response to it a report was drawn up in July, 1918, by this Council. This report concerned itself with the specifics of normal school training as well as with the broad general system of teacher training. Due to the financial considerations involved, there was no possibility of immediate implementation. This aspect of the problem was later presented to the Educational and Cultural Policy Council for study in December, 1924. Based on the Council's recommendations, a revision of the 1907 Normal School Regulations was issued in April in the following year. The first track of the regular course was at that time changed to a five-year curriculum and the preparatory course was done away with, in addition to offering a one-year specialized course. The second track of the regular course was offered to boy graduates of the middle school for one year and to girl graduates of the girls' high school for one or two years. Girl students were required to take law & economics, which had earlier been solely a part of the regular subjects for boy students, and English was made mandatory for boy students.

The question of the revision of the 1897 Normal Education Order came up before the Educational and Cultural Policy Council in December, 1926, and immediately thereafter, a report of the Council was presented to the Prime Minister in that same month but due to the Cabinet reshuffle of April, 1927, little was accomplished other than the decision in March, 1930, to award a bachelor's degree to graduates of the specialized courses of Tokyo and Hiroshima Higher Normal Schools.

In January, 1931, a revision of the 1907 Normal School Regulations was issued, which came into force in April of that year. It dealt in the main with the determination of the length of the course for the second track, which was set at two years, and with structural reorganization. As for the latter it was made possible to establish institutions with either of the two tracks in special cases. Thus the second track was set up as a training facility equal to the first track, for teachers of elementary schools. Not long thereafter, normal schools consisting solely of the second track were inaugurated.

Despite the expansion of middle level school students, no reforms were realized in the system of the higher normal schools or the women's higher normal schools. Thus, it can be said that there was negligible change in the system for training middle level school teachers.

The total number of male and female students enrolled in the two higher normal schools and two women's higher normal schools amounted to 1,676 in 1916, 2,176 in 1921, 2,719 in 1926 and 2,749 in 1931. The increase was insignificant and fell far short of responding to the demand of the times for middle level school teachers. Thus the supply of middle level school teachers had of necessity to depend upon provisional teacher training centers as well as on the system of teacher certification. From 1914 until 1922 the sole provisional teacher training center was the Sixth Provisional Teacher Training Center at Tokyo Women's Higher Normal School but from 1922 the number of the institutions increased along the lines set down in the July, 1918 report of the Special Council for Education, which was instrumental in the spread of middle level education and reflected the trend toward measures for supplying more middle level school teachers. When a revision of the 1902 Provisional Teacher Training Center Regulations was issued in April, 1922, a ministry of education announcement (monbusho kokuji) was also issued at the same time and four new schools were established as authorized in the announcement; a year later the number of such institutions rose to eleven and in 1926, three new schools were set up. In 1927 and in 1929 one new school each was added so that by 1929 the total number of schools peaked at sixteen while the maximum of students enrolled was 1,621 in the 1928 school year. These same students eventually filled positions in a large number of middle level schools.

The tendency reversed, however, by 1930, and three years thereafter all of these institutions were closed with the exception of the Sixth Provisional Teacher Training Center. To meet the need for teachers, a large number of graduates of universities and specialized schools were certified without a special examination and taught as before primarily in middle level schools.

On October 30, 1920, the Vocational Supplementary School Teacher Training Center Order was promulgated, which came into force on April 1, 1921, and governed the new training centers for teachers of vocational supplementary schools. Following the Order, in December, 1920, Regulations for the Enforcement of the Vocational Supplementary School Teacher Training Center Order were issued, which came into force at the same time as the Order, and such centers were set up in prefectures and cities throughout the country. The length of the course was fixed at between one and two years and admission was granted to graduates of vocational schools (excepting those graduates of some shorter courses of these schools who were required additional experience of two years in business), normal schools, middle schools, girls' high schools and to those licensed to full teachers of elementary schools.

For the training of the youth school teachers, the 'Youth School Teacher Training Center Order was promulgated on April 1, 1935, at the same time as the establishment of the youth schools, and put in force on that day, in order to authorize the prefectures and the cities to establish youth school teacher training centers. The Youth School Teacher Training Center Regulations were also issued and put in force at the same time.