The Kawaijuku cram school chain plans to create a joint junior high and high school that emphasizes English-language education with the aim of sending students to top foreign universities, Kawaijuku officials said Thursday.
Kawaijuku Educational Institution will operate the new school jointly with Tokyo Gakuen High School. Kawaijuku entered a business tie-up last September to financially support the struggling private school.
The new school will start admitting students in April 2017, setting the number in each grade at around 80.
Teachers will be recruited from foreign schools, Kawaijuku officials said. English will be taught intensively in the first and second years of the six-year school to help students get into leading foreign universities, they said.
The students will also qualify to take entrance exams for Japanese universities, the officials said.
Tokyo Gakuen High School was established in 1889 as Japan's first private high school for business education. Under the accord with Kawaijuku, it will be reorganized into the combined junior high and high school.
Tokyo Gakuen High School formed the partnership with Kawaijuku after suffering financial woes due to the general decline in the student population and a disappointing record in sending graduates to universities.