To attract more talent to teach classes, the education ministry will exempt graduate students from repaying student loans when they become teachers.
Students who are employed as full-time teachers in state, public and private schools after completing a teacher education program in graduate school will be excused from paying back their student loans.
The loans were taken out from the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) while the students were enrolled in graduate school.
Officials will immediately work out details as they plan to apply the exemption to teachers employed in the academic year starting from April.
Members of a committee tasked by the Central Council for Education (an advisory organization to the education minister) with training teachers had been considering ways on exempting students from repaying loans after becoming teachers in elementary, junior and senior high schools and other institutions.
They compiled a report summarizing their discussions on March 19.
Based on their opinions, the ministry will make use of an existing repayment exemption for graduate students with outstanding achievements for those employed as teachers in the 2024 academic year.
For that reason, student loans taken out when they were undergraduates will be excluded from the program.
In addition to those who finish graduate schools of teacher education, the ministry also intends to cover those who complete other graduate programs if they have experiences in education-related practical training and meet other conditions.
According to the ministry, the number of teachers employed full time in state, public and private schools in the academic year starting in April 2023 after completing graduate programs for teacher education was 753.
The exemption is expected to cover well over 1,000 a year when those from other graduate programs are included.
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether the new program will be applicable to those who were employed as full-time teachers after graduating from two- and four-year colleges and obtaining a teaching license.
That is because they make up a large portion of full-time teachers employed in the 2023 academic year, with 14,794 accepted by public schools alone. The ministry needs to take into consideration the balance with other professions.
Previously, a loan repayment exemption was offered to undergraduate and graduate students who became teachers.
But the program was abolished by the end of the 2004 academic year.
(This story was written by Ryuichi Hisanaga and Chika Yamamoto.)
