This article investigates the vocational supplementary course at Chiba Middle School from its establishment to its discontinuation.
Concerned with an overwhelming number of middle school graduates aspiring to matriculate into higher schools, the Ministry of Education decided to introduce vocational education to middle school supplementary courses and to amend the “Enforcement Regulation of the Imperial Ordinance Relating to Middle Schools.” In order to adhere to these new regulation, Chiba Middle School established a vocational supplementary course on agriculture.
The vocational supplementary course of Chiba Middle School was established in September 1909, running for only seven months. The course was originally designed to start in April and last for one academic year, but in the second year of operation, it was fixed to start once more in September. Ultimately, however, the course was discontinued in 1913.
The vocational supplementary course failed to attract graduates of middle schools. Chiba Middle School actually employed one full-time instructor and invited several prefectural officers as part-time instructors, but made no more effort to maintain the course. The failed experiment in vocational education in the end reveal that middle school supplementary courses were considered by students as preparation for higher school entrance examinations.
Despite its limited efforts, Chiba Middle School remarked that the discontinuation of the vocational supplementary course was regrettable. This attitude indicates the contradictory situation that secondary schools continued to face for decades, in that middle schools ideally offered both preparatory education and vocational education, but found that schools could not avoid concentrating on preparatory education.

抄録全体を表示