EduCareer StaffBlog"Rinjin Blog" | "EduCareer"Supporting your career in English teaching in the Japanese school system

Teacher Licensing Reform in Japan

2010/06/04

Teacher licensing has recently come under fire in Japan and the government has been demanding more training for new teachers, as well as continuing education programs to ensure that teachers maintain a quality standard of teaching. At present, education students in Japan are only expected to complete between two weeks and one month of student teaching. Compared to the average of 4 months to 1 year education majors generally do in America and the UK, Japanese education majors get very little practical experience before being given their own classrooms upon graduation. One possible solution the government is proposing is to extend the training period for teachers from 4 years to 6...an idea met with a lot of criticism, as extending the years need to become a licensed teacher would increase the cost of teaching programs and cost and length could discourage potential teachers from enrolling .

Another aspect to the proposed reform is requiring continuing education for teachers in order to keep their licenses current. Currently many continuing education courses and seminars are offered, but they are not tied to promotion or licensing, and many teachers are disinclined to participate. This seems especially true in the English department- in my years teaching, when the opportunity for a seminar on native speakers or team teaching arose, either a) I would be the only one who went or b) if someone had to go it was forced on the teacher with the best English and team teaching skills, not the ones who could have benefited from the seminar. Particularly in rural areas I often hear complaints from NETs that the English teachers at their school aren't functional in the language- forced continuing education could help rectify this.

Recently the government seems quite keen on education reform- let's hope things don't stall out and the quality of education can continue to improve in Japan!

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