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Introduction of 10-year renewal to teaching licenses will destabilize teachers' status

The education ministry seeks to tighten its control over school teachers by applying to all teachers, including 1.1 million in-service teachers, a new system to renew teacher's licenses every ten years.

Education minister Kosaka Kenji on July 11 received a report recommending the introduction of the system from the Central Education Council, an advisory panel to the minister. The ministry plans to submit a bill to revise the teacher's license law in the next ordinary Diet session.

Stressing the need to renew teaching licenses on the grounds that teachers are required to maintain up-to-date qualifications, the report proposed that teachers should take a training course of at least 30 hours and obtain the certificate of completion. Otherwise, their licenses should be taken away, according to the report.

Tokyo University associate professor Katsuno Masaaki, an expert on education, said, "If introduced, teachers' status will become unstable and the negative effects will be greater than the benefits. This move shares the same goal of strengthening administrative control over teachers and classrooms with the adverse revision of the Fundamental Law of Education."

Vice President of the All Japan Teachers and Staff Union (Zenkyo) Yamaguchi Takashi on the same day said, "It is very serious that the panel proposed to dismiss the in-service teachers if their licenses become invalidated."

Yamaguchi went on to say, "In light of the move to adversely revise the Fundamental Law of Education, the government's intension is obvious. The government will set national goals to foster human resources needed for a 'war-capable country,' and it will deprive teachers who disagree of their licenses and will press ahead with education in accordance with the intention of the state power."

He added, "Zenkyo will spare no efforts to prevent the panel's report from being put into practice."
- Akahata, July 12, 2006