Teacher Recruitment Tests Likely to Be Moved Up a Month

The Yomiuri Shimbun

1:00 JST, June 3, 2023

Amid the increasingly serious shortage of teachers, the education ministry will likely move up the start date of teacher recruitment tests next year to June 16, pushing most tests up by about a month. The tests are currently conducted separately by each municipality.

Under the present schedule, many teacher recruitment tests are held later than the recruitment tests of private companies, and this has led to human resources being captured by the private sector. In the future, the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry will also consider conducting unified teacher recruitment tests throughout the country.

Currently, most tests for teacher recruitment begin in July, and results are usually announced in September or October. This puts teacher recruitment behind hiring by private companies and government bodies.

For this reason, the ministry will likely ask local boards of education to set June 16 as the new date for the first-stage of teacher recruitment tests for the next fiscal year, and encourage them to move up the entire recruitment schedule.

The ministry also plans to provide unified test questions that can be used on the day to reduce the burden on boards of education.

And in addition to considering a plan to have the first-stage test taken in both the third and fourth years of university, the ministry will also consider to have the unified first-stage test taken on the same day throughout the country.