First Joseon Education Ordinance

The Government-General issued the first Joseon Education Ordinance to raise "loyal and good subjects", setting four-year common schools and allowing only low-level education centred on Japanese and vocational training.

Issued in August 1911, the ordinance defined the aim of education as raising "loyal and good subjects" of the emperor and, on the pretext of fitting "the times and the level of the people", allowed Koreans only low-level schooling. Common schools for Koreans ran four years, shorter than the six-year primary schools for Japanese; there were higher common, vocational and professional schools but no university. Japanese was taught as the "national language", Korean was folded in with classical Chinese and reduced, and vocational subjects such as farming and commerce were stressed.

The Private School Regulations of the same year (revised 1915) controlled the founding and curricula of private schools, the centres of national education, and the Seodang Regulations (1918) policed even reformed village schools, so the number of private schools fell sharply. After the March First Movement, the second ordinance (1922) extended common schools to six years.