大阪府立枚方高等学校

Gazing up at Osaka Prefectural Hirakata High School, can you imagine the hopes and dreams that have walked these halls since 1963? Hirakata High School was the first prefectural high school in Hirakata City. It was built on farmland, approximately 3.6 hectares, just 500 meters south of the city hall. The school started with General and Home Economics departments. The Home Economics course itself has a fascinating backstory. It was a continuation of the Osaka Prefectural Yodogawa High School Katano Branch, which was established in 1951. This explains why Hirakata High School initially included a Home Economics program. That program was discontinued in 1975. Today, Hirakata High School boasts General and International Culture departments. Before 2021, the International Culture Department was known as the International Education Department. Students in these departments can choose a second foreign language from Korean, Chinese, Spanish, and French. They also participate in English conversation classes and presentations. Interestingly, these specialized language courses and English programs are taught by native speakers using a CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) system. Hirakata High School’s establishment was a direct response to the rising demand for high school education in the 1960s. The original eight-school expansion plan by the Prefectural Board of Education didn’t include Hirakata, furthering the local desire for their own institution. The school quickly became popular. Approximately half of the public high school applicants in Hirakata, about 320 students, chose Hirakata High School as their first choice in its opening year. During the baby boom in 1986, a branch school, Haruhime School, was established in the eastern part of Hirakata. This branch later became independent in 1995, now known as Osaka Prefectural Hirakata Haruhime High School. Osaka Prefectural Hirakata High School continues its legacy as a vital educational institution, adapting and evolving with the times while holding onto the original hopes and dreams that filled its halls in 1963.