An education ministry panel recommended Thursday that the number of government-run teachers' universities and education departments at other schools should be cut in half.

At least one teachers' university or department has been established in each prefecture in principle, but they should be united and take in more students per department to make them more efficient and to improve the quality of education, according to the advisory panel's final report.

One of the reasons for the proposal is the declining number of students at the institutes resulting from Japan's aging population and the decrease in the number of teaching jobs, according to the report.

It says that if student numbers continue to decline, such universities and departments will lose their vitality.

The report also says that advances in transportation as well as information and communication technology mean there is less need to train teachers in all prefectures.

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry plans to compile in fiscal 2002 a detailed restructuring plan to govern the merger of universities and departments.

Merging the institutes would be achieved in fiscal 2003 at the earliest.

Opposition is expected to arise over concerns that regional education will suffer in prefectures that no longer have the state-run departments, as they will lose the core of teacher-training functions and educational research.

According to the report, the restructuring envisages evenly spreading the courses throughout the country by unifying two to three neighboring universities or departments.

The current student capacity -- about 10,000 at 48 departments -- will be maintained. In prefectures that no longer will have the universities, departments will be established. or other measures will be taken, it says.

Courses that are not geared at obtaining a teaching license will be incorporated into other departments, according to the report.