Ways of Increasing the Girls' Attendance in Primary School in the Meiji Era, Japan

The purpose of this paper is to examine ways for diffusing girls education in developing countries from the Japanese experience. While the importance of girls education has been widely recognized in the world today, a number of developing countries are still suffering from a low-attendance of girls at primary schools. The Main factors causing this problem are generally considered as follows. 1. Many girls have to do a lot of domestic chores; including baby-sitting, housekeeping, farming and others. Their parents expect them to do this kind of work at home. 2. Many girls and their parents believe that school curriculum is irrelevant to their daily lives. 3. School fees and related costs are too high to be afford. 4. They tend to think that education does not benefit girls. 5. Schools are located far from their homes to for regular attendance. Japan also had the same problem in 1872 when modern education started and successfully overcame them throughout the Meiji era. Educational reforms were effective and increased the girls' attendance at school. All the reforms were carried out in each prefecture. Focusing on these reforms at Kumamoto Prefecture, school activities and the communities' involvement were analyzed in relation to girls education based on related articles of newspapers and journals. In the analysis, it was found that “Komori-gakkyu"(baby-sitting class), which was organized on voluntary basis by teachers and community people within school premises, was remarkably effective in improving girls' participation in primary schooling