Teacher shortage despite 1 for 17 students national average
View(s):Schools are facing a shortage of teachers, partly caused by the flawed placement of them, a leading Education trade union claimed this week.
‘There is a shortage of teachers in the country that needs to be addressed immediately by the authorities,” Ceylon Teachers Union General Secretary Joseph Stalin told the Education Times.
He said that, even though there is one teacher for 17 students in the country, the placement is highly flawed.
“There are many schools in rural areas such as Mullaitivu, Ampara, Maha-Oya and Vavuniya North and east that are in grave need of teachers, but the Education Ministry is not paying any heed to this,” he said.
Mr Stalin said that the Ministry recruited many teachers, but did this ignorant of what kind of teachers and which areas they are in need of.
“There was a recruitment of 2,665 school teachers, of them, 1,625 were put to national schools. Why the authorities didn’t send them to areas where innocent students are waiting for a teacher to teach them,” he said.
Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena reacting to the Teachers union said the ministry has recruited some 60,000 graduates for teaching since 2005, and last week, they were able to take in 1,100 graduates from the Polonnaruwa district.
“There are an excess of teachers, but teachers for subjects such as Science, Mathematics and English are less. We hope to look into this issue,” the minister said.
He said that, this year, the ministry is focusing on transferring teachers, especially teachers from schools in urban areas, because there are more teachers there than in rural areas.
This year, the ministry is going to transfer teachers who are in National schools for over ten years, he said.
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