This spring, the Fukuoka Board of Education suddenly informed the 120 "guest teachers" responsible for its elementary school English classes that they were no longer welcome.
According to a Fukuoka BOE spokesperson, with English becoming a required class in grades five and six throughout Japan by 2020, the city was switching to what it calls "native speaker" teachers (NTs) "for the purpose of enriching the classes and improving the teaching ability of teachers."
"Daniel," a 10-year veteran guest teacher (GT) at several Fukuoka elementary schools, says he didn't find out about losing his classes until about a month before the end of the academic year. Daniel didn't want his real name used because he still teaches a small number of classes in grades three and four.