Teacher shortages in difficult stations persist despite 3,225 Teacher appointments: CTU
View(s):Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) Gen.Sec. Joseph Stalin this week charged that 3,225 teacher appointments given recently has not solved the teacher shortages in schools in difficult stations. Mr Stalin said the placement of the new teachers was not in keeping with the shortage of teachers in schools. He said that schools in the North, East, North Central Province and in the plantation sectors, where there are several vacancies, have not been filled, with popular schools getting the appointments instead. He said Royal College Colombo has an excess of teachers and yet were granted 19 new appointments.
“Alternatively, Anuradhapura with a shortage of 1,700 teachers got only 155 new appointments,” he said. “This is wrong and will prolong the shortage of teachers in difficult areas,” he said. He said that, although there is supposed to be a shortage of teachers in schools islandwide, in popular schools, every 20 students have a teacher. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education (MoE) said that, among the new recruits, 1,158 English/Sinhala teachers and 308 Tamil teachers were sent to national schools, while 1,759 teachers were sent to Provincial schools, making up a total of 3,225.
Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, at the award of the teacher appointments, pledged that a Cabinet paper will be presented soon with regard to balancing the teacher shortage in schools, while arrangements are being made to recruit new teachers as required. “Additionally, 1,500 extra trainee teachers have been admitted to the National College of Education for the diploma course, this year,” he said. - CC