（2）The Implementation of the Compulsory Youth School System

Vocational supplementary schools and youth training centers were combined as youth schools in 1935 to provide a unified educational program for all working youths as stated in Chapter 4. In practice, however, less than half of the working youths (boys only) enrolled in the youth schools. When it was discovered from the tests administered to military conscripts that the working youths who had no more than an ordinary elementary education performed poorly on aptitude tests, the government thought of making youth school attendance compulsory for boys. The government drafted some preliminary policies and asked the 1937 Education Council to consider this matter. In July, 1938, the Council submitted its recommendations supporting the government's plan to strengthen youth schools and authorized the proposed guidelines for the implementation of compulsory youth school education for boys. The Council further recommended that youth schools should develop their unique characteristics and that the government should attempt in the future to establish a compulsory youth school system for girls.

Attendance at youth schools became compulsory for boys with the 1939 Youth School Order promulgated on April 26, 1939, and put in force on that day. In 1939 and in 1940, the first year class and the second year class of the general course each entered and next, year by year grades of the five-year regular course were added. Eventually about 80% of the post-elementary school age working boys were enrolled in these part-time educational institutions. The youth schools thus made an impressive contribution to the expansion of educational opportunities for working youths.

Table 5-1. Actual Conditions within the Youth Schools