Education in Nakarado

Description

Trades are traditionally passed down from parent to child with exposure to the work as young as 6 years old. Typically, by 10 years old, children are given the right to seek out apprenticeships in other fields if they wish to move into another field or have another passion.
By 12 years old, children are identified by village elders as candidates for a more formalized education, being sent to the capital for a test. If they fail, they return to their apprenticeship and continue it till they are 16. If they are accepted to be taught, they are taught to fill some other role that would be valuable to the shogunate and are considered part of an unelected elite.
Once children turn 16, they are conscripted into the Corvee system for 3 months out of the year for the rest of their life, to contribute goods and services to the Shogunate at no charge. This is reduced to 2 months once 21, and 1 month once 24. This is done to help cultivate a wider range of skills and build up the child's personal network that they will depend upon, and accommodate typical life changes. There is some variance based on the age of some races.
If the child is part of the unelected elite, it is perceived that the education and station the receive, they owe all fealty to the Shogunate, thus never exempted from the Corvee system

Results

The system is "successful" in the style that it serves the interest of the Shogunate quite well. The people are relatively content with the education system offered as they do not feel compelled to have many worries about the world. One can say that the people embody the idea of "Ignorance is bliss".
The intellectual elite feels appreciative of the Shogun, where some go so far as to deem the Shogun a living God. A rich cult of personality exists around the Shogun, which has created an atmosphere of extreme conservativism, even in the face of unprecedented levels of defeat.
Desired Reforms The Oja wishes to bring education to the larger public, believing that a smarter population leads to a society that will more readily iterate to a stronger nation. In territories she has the cooperation of Daimyos, she has been working on some public literacy programs, wanting her subjects to be more readily able to pass information as needed and engage in contract law.

Type

Educational, Society