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▼ Japan To Waive Graduate Scholarship Loan Repayments For Teachers
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Japan's education ministry will fully exempt teachers at elementary, junior high and senior high schools from repaying scholarship loans they took out during their graduate studies.
The policy will apply to those who pass the recruitment examinations in the current fiscal year ending in March 2025.
Both teachers employed at public and private schools will be eligible for the exemption.
"We aim to improve the quality of educational guidance and enhance the status (of teachers) as highly skilled professionals," said education minister Masahito Moriyama.
The ministry also hopes that the new plan will contribute to more teacher applicants and help address the worsening shortages of teaching staff.
But a senior official from a local government's board of education expressed skepticism about the measure.
"It's strange to argue that employing more teachers with higher educational backgrounds will necessarily lead to better-quality teaching," the official said.
A highly placed official of the education ministry countered by emphasizing the importance of higher education for teachers to realize the "proactive, interactive and in-depth learning" outlined in the school curriculum guidelines.
Under the guidelines, teachers are encouraged to help students not only acquire knowledge, but also use it to identify challenges independently and think about them proactively.
To foster such abilities in students, "we need to secure researcher-like capacities, similar to those of university teachers who provide guidance for research groups," the ministry official said.
The share of graduates with a master's or higher degree among successful applicants for public school teaching positions in the nation has been declining over the past 10 years at elementary, junior high and senior high school levels.
The proportion also remains lower than in other countries.
The ministry plans to focus on securing teachers who have completed graduate school, partly because many graduates of undergraduate mathematics and science courses have pursued advanced degrees in recent years.
Given financial constraints, the government discussed limiting the scholarship loan repayment exemption to those who have completed teacher-training graduate courses, which have a high proportion of graduates entering the teaching profession.
In the end, however, the government placed importance on "securing a variety of specialist human resources," as stated by education minister Moriyama.
It decided to grant exemptions to graduates from other graduate courses if they have been involved in a certain level of teaching practice in elementary, junior high or senior high schools during their graduate school years.
Within the government and ruling political parties, some suggested that university graduates should also be fully exempted from repaying scholarship loans if they work as teachers for a set period of time.
Such forgiveness, however, would require a law revision and likely involve difficult talks with the Finance Ministry to secure financial resources.
Therefore, the education ministry has positioned the proposed broader exemption as a future challenge.
Some are concerned that there may be public disapproval of introducing a system to waive scholarship loan repayments only for teachers, especially when labor shortages are becoming serious in many other essential professions that support social infrastructure, such as health care, nursing care and distribution.
"If we claim that education is special, solely on the basis of the logic of the education community, it will be difficult to gain the understanding of society as a whole," a middle-ranking official from the education ministry said.
In addition, the number of teachers needed is expected to decrease in the coming years due to the low birthrate.
Another senior education ministry official emphasized the importance of redoubling efforts to secure teachers who have completed graduate school.
"It's crucial, of course, to secure a sufficient number of teachers, but improving the quality of teachers is equally important for the education of the children who will define the future of Japan," the official said.
The policy will apply to those who pass the recruitment examinations in the current fiscal year ending in March 2025.
Both teachers employed at public and private schools will be eligible for the exemption.
"We aim to improve the quality of educational guidance and enhance the status (of teachers) as highly skilled professionals," said education minister Masahito Moriyama.
The ministry also hopes that the new plan will contribute to more teacher applicants and help address the worsening shortages of teaching staff.
But a senior official from a local government's board of education expressed skepticism about the measure.
"It's strange to argue that employing more teachers with higher educational backgrounds will necessarily lead to better-quality teaching," the official said.
A highly placed official of the education ministry countered by emphasizing the importance of higher education for teachers to realize the "proactive, interactive and in-depth learning" outlined in the school curriculum guidelines.
Under the guidelines, teachers are encouraged to help students not only acquire knowledge, but also use it to identify challenges independently and think about them proactively.
To foster such abilities in students, "we need to secure researcher-like capacities, similar to those of university teachers who provide guidance for research groups," the ministry official said.
The share of graduates with a master's or higher degree among successful applicants for public school teaching positions in the nation has been declining over the past 10 years at elementary, junior high and senior high school levels.
The proportion also remains lower than in other countries.
The ministry plans to focus on securing teachers who have completed graduate school, partly because many graduates of undergraduate mathematics and science courses have pursued advanced degrees in recent years.
Given financial constraints, the government discussed limiting the scholarship loan repayment exemption to those who have completed teacher-training graduate courses, which have a high proportion of graduates entering the teaching profession.
In the end, however, the government placed importance on "securing a variety of specialist human resources," as stated by education minister Moriyama.
It decided to grant exemptions to graduates from other graduate courses if they have been involved in a certain level of teaching practice in elementary, junior high or senior high schools during their graduate school years.
Within the government and ruling political parties, some suggested that university graduates should also be fully exempted from repaying scholarship loans if they work as teachers for a set period of time.
Such forgiveness, however, would require a law revision and likely involve difficult talks with the Finance Ministry to secure financial resources.
Therefore, the education ministry has positioned the proposed broader exemption as a future challenge.
Some are concerned that there may be public disapproval of introducing a system to waive scholarship loan repayments only for teachers, especially when labor shortages are becoming serious in many other essential professions that support social infrastructure, such as health care, nursing care and distribution.
"If we claim that education is special, solely on the basis of the logic of the education community, it will be difficult to gain the understanding of society as a whole," a middle-ranking official from the education ministry said.
In addition, the number of teachers needed is expected to decrease in the coming years due to the low birthrate.
Another senior education ministry official emphasized the importance of redoubling efforts to secure teachers who have completed graduate school.
"It's crucial, of course, to secure a sufficient number of teachers, but improving the quality of teachers is equally important for the education of the children who will define the future of Japan," the official said.
- May 29, 2024
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