Following Taikyo-senpu (propagation of the Great Teaching of Shinto) in 1867, the newly established Meiji Government was enthusiastic about the training of Shinto priests, establishing a dormitory for the trainees under the Shinto Jimukyoku (the Secretariat of Shinto), but the Kyodoshoku-sei (a system of national enlightenment on Shinto through government-assigned preceptors) had to be discontinued as the voices calling for the separation of religion and politics and the freedom of religion prevailed.
1867年（明治元年）に大教宣布が発布され、1876年（明治9年）に神道事務局に生徒寮を設置して神職の養成に力を注いだ明治新政府であったが、政教分離・信教の自由論が世の中に広まり、教導職制が廃止された。