著者

大島 宏

出版者

教育史学会

雑誌

日本の教育史学 (ISSN:03868982)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.47, pp.109-128, 2004

---

The purpose of this study is to define the process of the institutionalization of an open door policy for higher schools (Koto-gakko) to allow girls to attend. In Japan, higher schools had been only for boys until 1947. In the early stages of preparation for "A New General Plan of Female Education Reform", the Ministry of Education had planned to open the door of higher schools to girls. In the plan, girl's special colleges (Joshi-senmon-gakko), higher courses (Koto-ka) and special courses (Senko-ka) of higher girl's schools (Koto-jogakko) would be changed into "girl's higher schools (Joshi-koto-gakko)". However, a difficulty arose in changing girl's special colleges into "girl's higher schools". Also, it became possible for girls to receive a higher school level education through other means. Because of this, in 1946, the Ministry of Education denied the urgent need of an open door policy for higher schools, refusing to qualify girls for entry into higher schools. The revision of the Constitution made it necessary to allow girls to qualify for entry into higher schools. Therefore, the establishment of "higher schools for girls" was once more chosen as the way to open the door of higher schools to girls. However, the plan to reform the school system intended to abolish the higher schools. This made it difficult to carry out an open door policy for higher schools in this way. Eventually, opening the door of higher schools to girls was realized by transforming higher schools into coeducational institutions. The revision of the Constitution required a revision of the purpose (the first) and entrance qualification (the 12th) articles of the imperial ordinance regarding higher schools. However, only the purpose was revised, and entrance qualifications were not. This originates from having tried to deal with the issue of girls' entrance qualification as an exception to the rule.