Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/272

and Chinese; the English language; history and geography; mathematics, physics, chemistry, and natural history—each section including instruction on allied subjects.

Candidates for admission are selected by examination from among the graduates of ordinary normal schools and secondary schools. The students’ expenses are supplied by the respective schools, and in return for this help it is obligatory on the students to devote their services to educational work for seven years from the date of their graduation.

Connected with the higher normal schools there are a secondary school and a primary school, in order to give students practical training in the art of teaching.

In 1903 there were 807 students, 140 graduates, and 88 instructors, the expenses amounting to £58,844. The higher normal school at Hiroshima was opened in 1902.

The higher normal school for females trains students who wish to become teachers of the female departments of ordinary normal schools and girls’ high schools. It is supported by the national Treasury, there is only one institution of this kind in Japan.

The scheme of the school is divided into a literature course, a science course, and an art course; the period of study extends over four years. In each course the students are required to include kindred subjects. In addition a post-graduate course and a special course are arranged. The students are selected from among the candidates graduating from the female departments of ordinary normal schools or girls’ high schools. Students’ expenses are paid by the school, and in return it is obligatory on the students to give their services to the educational work for five years from the date of their graduation. Attached to the main school are a girls’ high school, a primary school, and a kindergarten, where practical training is given in the art of teaching.

In 1903 there were 361 students, 100 graduates, 52 instructors, the expenses amounting to £9,782.

The object of higher schools is to give preparatory instruction to young men wishing to enter the Imperial Universities. There are eight higher schools, all being maintained by the State. This school, it may be said, is exclusively peculiar to the educational system of Japan, as there is no equivalent either in Europe or America. Under the present circumstances, the use of the Japanese language alone is not yet sufficient for the purpose of University education without the accompaniment of foreign languages, some courses having to be conducted in French, some in German, text-books in Japanese not existing—a fact explaining the raison d’être of the higher school. So much emphasis is laid on the foreign languages in the