Certain professionals must pass state examinations to obtain licenses for their jobs. They include medical doctors, dentists, jurists, certified public accountants, architects, pharmacists and registered nurses, as well as primary, middle and high school teachers. Amid the severe employment situation, it is becoming harder for students to pass university entrance examinations for medical and law departments that provide education for aspiring licensed professionals.
The government-commissioned Education Resuscitation Council (ERC), created under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's initiatives, is discussing, among other things, periodic renewal of teaching licenses. My reaction to that is, why only teachers?
Courses of study taught at primary, middle and high schools do not change much over the years. As time goes on, their content tends to become easier rather than more difficult. Thus these teachers are among the rare professionals whose qualifications are most likely to remain valid even if their licenses were obtained many years earlier.
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