incentive

東京都が思い切った施策を打ち出しました。教員になろうとする学生にはすごいincentiveです。さて、これで英語教育にも大きな変化があるのかな...。（UG）

Tokyo education board to send English teachers to study abroad

The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education has decided to require third-year English teachers at public junior and senior high schools to go on three-month study-abroad programs starting next academic year, in an effort to boost English education ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

According to the education board, the system will send around 200 teachers a year on study-abroad programs to places including universities in English-speaking countries. They will receive certification for teaching English as a foreign language, and learn how to conduct class only in English and encourage active debate among students. Homestays for the teachers are also planned. The board is seeking around 600 million yen from the metropolitan government budget to cover the project's expenses.

There is no requirement that teachers have study-abroad experience to become English teachers at public schools, and no nationwide study-abroad program for them exists. Although the education board has a study abroad system for English teachers between 31 and 42 years old, it has only been sending around four teachers a year on that program.

However, a new curriculum fully enacted from April this year established that high school English classes were to be conducted primarily in English, with a shift from a focus on grammar to one on communication. This together with the decision in September to hold the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo added incentive for expanding the study-abroad system for teachers.

The board is also planning to boost the number of foreign assistant language teachers sent from the national Japan Exchange and Teaching Program to Tokyo public high schools from five to 200 by the 2015 academic year, covering all public high schools in Tokyo.

An official at the education board's instructional division said, "We hope that children who learn English from native speakers and teachers with study-abroad experience will actively volunteer during the Olympics."

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20131125p2a00m0na007000c.html