在学
ざいがく · zaigaku · JLPT N2 · noun
school
🏫 在 (at/be located) + 学 (study) = studying at school, i.e. enrolled
在学 = 在 'be at' + 学 'study'. Literally 'being at study', so it means you are currently enrolled in a school.
在 — earth 土 + phonetic 才
Originally a phono-semantic compound: 土 (earth) gives the meaning of a place or location, while 才 supplies the sound. It came to mean 'to be present/located at,' and now also serves as a grammatical marker for ongoing actions, like 'in the middle of doing.'
学 — hands 𦥑 + roof 冖 + child 子
Originally 學, depicting two hands manipulating something (often interpreted as counting rods or the 爻 trigram symbols) under a roof, with a child 子 below — a child learning under instruction. The simplified form 学 replaces the top with a stylized 龸. Core meaning has always been 'to study, learn'.