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Requirements for obtaining teachers' certificates in Japan are set by the Regulations of the Educational Personnel Certification Law (Menkyoho Shiko Kisoku). This document outlines the minimum requirements for certification by which every accredited institution must abide. In order to become qualified teachers, individuals must first enter higher educational institutions accredited by Monbusho and take the courses necessary for obtaining teachers' certificates. After completion of schooling, the students or the institutions request prefectural boards of education to issue the certificates. This request may be made before taking the qualifying examinations prepared and administered by each prefecture or designated city or may be made at the time of graduation.
Once students pass the examination, they are granted a temporary qualification contingent upon graduation. Though the certificates are issued by the prefectural boards of education where the individuals have completed their education, individuals are allowed to take the examinations elsewhere. Those who pass the examination are qualified to teach in that particular prefecture. If a teacher moves to another prefecture, he or she must pass the examination in that prefecture to become a qualified teacher there.
Certification and qualification are required of all teachers (including nurse teachers) in kindergartens, elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools, and special schools for students with disabilities, but not in colleges, technical colleges (kosen), and other special training schools. Besides the regular appointments of teachers, emergency, temporary, and extraordinary hiring takes place in response to educational necessity. To make it possible to hire non-certificate holders, special types of certificates are granted by boards of education.
Individuals who enter teacher education programs receive necessary credits toward certification from higher educational institutions that are accredited by Monbusho, while the certificates are granted by prefectural boards of education. This is the most common way to receive the certificates (Shinbori 1986).
As of 1990, about 76 percent of all junior colleges, 4-year colleges, graduate schools, and designated teacher education institutions were accredited by Monbusho to offer courses in teacher education. Credits toward teacher certification can be obtained only at these accredited institutions.
Qualified teachers may upgrade their level of certification while they are teaching by attending lectures in accredited institutions or by enrolling in correspondence courses. Those who pass the Educational Personnel Examinations (Kyoiku Shokuin Kentei) are granted upgraded certificates or certificates for teaching other subjects.
The Educational Personnel Certification Law, #4 (Kyoin Shokuin Menkyoho Dai 4 Jo) lists three types of teacher's certificates: regular, extraordinary (newly added in 1989), and temporary.
Regular certificates. Regular certificates are ranked by level of education. First Class Regular Certificates are granted to individuals with bachelor's degrees; Second Class Regular Certificates are granted to junior college graduates. Recently, a Special Training Certificate was added, to be granted to those who hold master's degrees or the equivalent. The goal of establishing the new rank of regular certificates was to facilitate the influx of highly specialized and knowledgeable individuals into the teaching profession. For example, although elementary school teachers are responsible for teaching all subjects, individuals who are certified for teaching certain subjects at junior high school-such as music, art, physical education, or home economics-are also eligible to teach their specialized subjects in elementary schools. Junior high and high school teachers specialize in teaching particular subjects and thus hold certificates in specialized areas.
Extraordinary certificates. Extraordinary certificates are granted to highly knowledgeable and skilled individuals who already hold a bachelor's degree or the equivalent and have passed the Educational Personnel Examination. This certificate was established in 1989 so that individuals without certificates and with no teacher training from higher educational institutions could be invited to teach in their specialized areas, such as nursing and the martial arts.
Temporary certificates. Temporary certificates are granted only when schools cannot find or hire qualified holders of regular teacher certificates. Temporary certificates are granted to assistant teachers for specific types of schools, such as for junior high school teaching, and for assistant nurse teachers. Temporary assistant teacher certificates for kindergartens, elementary schools, and junior high schools are granted to those who have graduated from high school, or the equivalent, and have passed the Educational Personnel Examination. The temporary certificate for high school teaching is granted to those who have received 2 years or more of college education (62 credits) or the equivalent, and have also passed the examination.
In order to receive teacher certificates, students must earn required credits from accredited higher educational institutions in teaching, in subjects related to teaching (e.g., educational psychology), and, for those seeking certification in special education, in subjects related to that arena.
Student teaching, also known as practical training or field experience (kyoiku jisshu), is an important part of the teacher education curriculum. Students are required to visit schools in order to practice and learn in real settings. Host schools accommodate certain numbers of student teachers under the supervision of mentor teachers. The mentor teachers are responsible for guiding, instructing, and providing feedback to student teachers. Evaluations are made for each student teacher and are reflected in the course grade.
To receive certification to teach elementary school, four credits of practical training are required. Students visit elementary schools that are connected to the university they are attending or their home schools for 4 weeks. There, they take turns teaching in the classrooms, while other students and host schoolteachers observe the class and later give feedback.
To receive certification for junior high or high school, two credits of practical training are required. For some special subjects, such as music and art for junior high, and mathematics, science, music, art, and technology for high school teaching, one credit of practical training is considered sufficient. An extra course in the student's specialized subject would constitute the other credit.
Concerns have been growing about the effectiveness of short-term practice training and the difficulties in finding host schools that can accommodate and train increasing numbers of student teachers. In the past, students sometimes had to ask schools in their hometown to permit them to do their practice training there because their universities did not have sufficient space in their affiliated host schools. Also, the increased number of students has meant fewer opportunities for them actually to teach in the classroom.
The number of students who receive teachers' certificates greatly exceeds the demand for teachers, and the percentage of certified individuals (fresh graduates) hired as teachers is small. Of 1991 college graduates (including those from junior colleges, graduate schools, and other designated teacher education institutions), 22.5 percent graduated with teacher certificates; yet, at graduation, 21.3 percent of these individuals had been hired as regular teachers (Shimizu, Akao, Arai, Ito, Sato, and Yaosaka 1993). This phenomenon can be partly explained by students' inclination to earn credits towards a teachers? certificate in order to broaden their job opportunities and partly by the overlap in the required curriculum for different types of certificates that allows students to receive multiple certificates by taking a few extra credits. For example, for those who have fulfilled requirements for high school teacher certificates, only two extra credits in moral education and 2 weeks of practical training are needed in order to receive a second certificate for junior high school teaching (Shinbori 1986). Consequently, the large number of students seeking multiple certificates has caused shortages in host school openings for student teachers. It has also been observed that persons who fail to find a job in industry often later decide to take the Teacher Qualification Examination, further increasing the number of certificate holders.
The increase in the number of credits required for certification is just one part of an effort to improve in-class teacher education and to reduce the number of nonserious certificate earners. Another tactic for improvement is the establishment of the extraordinary certificate, which enables noncertificate holders to enter the teaching profession and share their social experience and specialized knowledge with students. In addition, the content of the Teacher Qualification Examination has been modified to enable the examiners to evaluate aspects of the applicants' personality through interviews and personality tests, special-skills tests (swimming tests for elementary school teachers, listening comprehension and speaking tests for English teachers), and participation in special activities (volunteer experiences, club memberships).
At present, every prefecture requires interviews of some type (individual, group). The number of prefectures or cities that administer interviews as well as practical-skills tests has been increasing. As of 1992, 36 prefectures or cities held interviews with both of the examinations. A total of 47 prefectures and 11 designated cities in Japan have boards of education that are authorized to administer the examinations.
A change in the recruiting schedule has also taken place in order to attract and keep highly desirable individuals in the teaching profession. In 1982, for example, more than 60 percent of prefectures or cities made the final notification of appointment after January. By 1992, in contrast, more than half notified students of unofficial appointment by November (Monbusho 1992). With the old schedule system, by the time the appointment of teachers took place, most companies had offered jobs to the most qualified and desirable individuals. As a result, those who failed in their efforts to enter the corporate world often tried to enter the teaching profession.
The Teacher Qualification Examination usually consists of two parts, which are administered on two separate dates. The first part of the examination is administered in July, the second part in August or September. The first examination is regionally scheduled on the same day so that applicants cannot take examinations in multiple prefectures and thus must choose the most desirable location. In most cases, applicants are selected after each examination, and those who pass the first can take the second.
Following the guidelines issued by Monbusho, the format and content of the examinations are independently designed by each prefecture and some designated municipal boards of education.
The examinations typically include assessment of academic knowledge, a test for suitability to the teaching profession, essay tests, interviews, tests of practical skills (such as swimming), and a health examination. Examination scores in themselves do not determine who will pass and who will fail. Rather, the selection process is meant to consider the potential of prospective teachers from every aspect. Because test scores provide a quick and easy way to rank the applicants' abilities and because there are more qualified applicants than there are teaching positions available, the evaluators have sometimes given much more weight to test scores than to other qualitative assessments, such as interviews. What needs to be remembered is that the applicants have already fulfilled the certification requirements and they have supposedly received adequate training and mastered the knowledge necessary to enable them to serve as teachers.
Certified individuals who have passed the examination are now qualified to teach at schools in the prefectures where they took the examination. A list of these qualified teachers, valid for 1 year, is kept at the regional board of education, and teachers are appointed from the list according to the needs of schools in the prefecture. However, the list does not always meet the needs for qualified teachers in the prefecture. For example, if there is a serious shortage of elementary school teachers and a surplus at the junior high school level, the board of education may decide to offer a position at the elementary school level to someone qualified to teach at the junior high level. This can be done by granting the necessary temporary certificate for a 3-year period.
If qualified individuals do not receive appointments within the year, they will have to repeat the qualifying examination the next year. Therefore, a teacher may accept whatever job is available even though the status may be irregular or at a grade level for which that individual was not originally certified. If assistant teachers wish to continue their career at the elementary school level beyond the third year, they must fulfill the missing curriculum before the temporary certificate expires. Some teachers on the prefecture's list may not obtain a temporary position. Individuals who do not find either a regular or temporary appointment-shushoku ronin (job masterless samurai)-may end up spending the year preparing for the next year's examination since their qualification is good for only 1 year.
In 1991 new graduates accounted for 54.5 percent of elementary, 51.4 percent of junior high, and 42.6 percent of high school teaching appointments. Approximately half of the total appointments in 1991 consisted of individuals who were earlier graduates, such as previous shushoku ronin or temporary teachers.
Not only has the number of new graduates who get teaching positions right away been decreasing, but the competitive rate (the number of applicants taking the examinations compared with the number of teachers appointed) for the Teacher Qualification Examinations has also been decreasing. As of 1990, the figure was 3.7-the lowest rate in the last decade.
The decreased competitive rate can be partly explained by the decrease in the number of applicants. This phenomenon may be a response to the growing difficulty in entering the teaching profession. Competitive rates vary across the prefectures and cities. The rates are relatively higher in popular areas. Statistics show that, in 1991, the largest number of certified individuals who applied for the Teacher Qualification Examinations were in Tokyo (6,878), followed by Osaka (5,280), Aichi (4,537), Saitama (4,460), and Hokkaido (4,013) prefectures. The largest numbers of appointments for qualified individuals were in Hokkaido (1,820) and Saitama (1,130) (Shimizu et al. 1993).
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[Teacher Preparation and Teachers' Lives in Japan - Part 2]