An advisory panel to education minister Atsuko Toyama recommended Monday that schoolchildren be required to take part in community activities, and that this be part of a student's evaluation, ministry officials said.

In recommending the new policy to the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, the Central Education Council also said schools and their communities should be encouraged to compete against one another by disclosing their activities.

The panel's new direction, first revealed in its April interim report, will likely spur more debate among advocates who say community activities should remain voluntary.

In the recommendation, the education panel defines such work as "activities performed without the expectation of reward and useful to communities and society, including to those who perform such activities."

The panel further notes that community work should be performed "as part of a curriculum" at school, effectively requiring all students in primary and secondary schools to participate as part of classes or after-school activities.

However, the panel also leaves room for such activities as mountain-climbing and paper-making to be considered community work, which may confuse teachers and students.

To put these concepts into practice, the panel recommends that high schools and universities evaluate students' community work in their entrance examinations.

It also proposes creating a system to convert the work into a points system that students can use to get discounts for using public facilities.

The panel also suggests the ministry disclose the results of the volunteer activities performed at schools nationwide.

To encourage university-age students to engage in community work, the panel recommends that universities give credits to such students and allow them to take leave to devote themselves to such activities.

The recommendation also seeks support from governments and firms to favor job applicants with community work experience.