Qualification of a good teacher

"Democratic Party of Japan submitted the counter plan for Revision ofSchoolteachers' Licensing System" Asahi Newspaper Feb.8

There were a number of misconducts of school teachers reported in newspapers these days. Some teachers at elementary schools and juniorhigh schools participated themselves in some bullying at their class rooms. There is a formidable teacher who took pornographic photographof students in his class. Those are a number of such unbelievable news and there might exist many more such vicious teachers at school these days.

Many confusions at school today come basically from lack of ethics education at home according to my opinion. But it is also true that lack of ethics of children derives from the lack of training andteaching at school. Schools are not managed enough in that respect dueto lack of leadership of principal and lack of capacity of teacherin that regards at class rooms.

I agree with the idea of the Ministry of Education and Science that education boards of each cities will review the qualification of schoolteachers every ten years. Every teachers will be sent to training centerto refresh their motivation and skills as school teachers. I think thatthose process are very necessary to refresh their mind and skills.

I also agree with the counterproposal proposed by Democratic Party of Japanto take longer years to train school teachers from four years to six yearsjust like the license of medical doctors. They are trained for four years concerning basic skills as teachers and for another two years as intern toget trained at actual classrooms. That is really an good idea which shouldbe considered to be included to revise the law.

Cultivating good school teachers is one of the most important subject to improve a number of problems at school today. This is an issue whichshould be discussed by suprapartisan groups at the diet.

Qualification of good teacher are not only skills and knowledge aboutteaching subjects but also fundamental quality as human being. The lattermay be more important as a matter of fact as a qualification for a goodteacher.

The qualification may not be checked just by paper test. The qualificationmay be checked by principals and vice principals during their internship period at school. Some group interviews may be necessary at the final stage ofthe selection examination.

Since the training period gets longer just like medical doctors, their remuneration should be much higher compared with the present one althoughwhether or not that is considered in the revision of the law.

The most important thing to make any new teacher training system work is to create a general atmosphere in our society that school teachers are respected much more by students at school and by people at communities.

2007/2/10

Tadashi HAYASE