2025 Volume 16 Issue 1 Pages 1_125-1_132
As of January 17, 2023, the Council for Research Related to Improving the Abilities of Health Teachers and Nutrition Teachers (established by the director of elementary and secondary education within the Central Council for Education) published its Summary of the Discussion organizing the issues faced by nutrition teachers (NTs). The report identified that NTs are unable to provide individual guidance to children who have food-related health problems and that they lack of awareness regarding their own roles. While these are harsh criticisms, it is an important reminder that there are tasks that only an NT can perform, and it can be seen as an opportunity to review the NT training systems at universities. Therefore, this paper examines the current status of the Education Personnel Certification Act and its enforcement regulations in order to provide some basic information for reforming these courses. The results reveal that the current legal framework does not provide university students with the abilities they need to offer individual guidance. They also suggest that sufficiently cultivating these abilities will require more curricula for Class-2 licenses and certification courses in school education boards that incorporate individual guidance as a requirement, and that we should elevate the basic qualifications of Class-1 licenses to registered dietitians.
