JAPANTIMES
 
The Central Council for Education has advised education minister Hakubun Shimomura to add moral education to the official curriculum of elementary and junior high schools, as urged by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
 
The panel also recommended to Shimomura on Tuesday that the ministry introduce government-authorized textbooks and student evaluation statements for the enhanced moral education courses.
 
In response, the education ministry will revise its curriculum guidance by March and set guidelines for moral education textbooks and standards for their authorization by next summer, ministry officials said.
 
Government-authorized moral education textbooks won’t be available for another three years, so the enhanced courses will start in the 2018 academic year, they said.
 
The panel said the curriculum guidance should specify key words such as honesty and justice to make moral education easier to understand and textbooks should be balanced and diverse.
 
The panel also said the education ministry should consider creating an exclusive teacher’s license for moral education and improving the curriculum for training teachers on this subject.