40,000 new teachers by 2019 for 13-Year Compulsory Education programme: MoE
View(s):The Ministry of Education (MoE) will recruit 40,000 teachers by 2019, to finalise the 13-Year Compulsory Education programme in State schools.
The MoE will call for applications to recruit 14,000 teachers to 1,800 schools this year, as part of Phase II of this programme, said MoE Additional Secretary (Planning), S.U. Wijeratne.
We started the pilot project in 49 National schools in 2017, and will extend it to 150 Provincial schools this year,” he said, adding it will be part of the second pilot project. Students who sat for the GCE Ordinary Level exam in December, will be part of this programme, and will start classes in March.
“The new teachers will teach 26 subjects including Vocational studies,” he said. “For the second pilot project, we have recruited 2,100 teachers from about 11,000 applicants,” Mr.Wijeratne added.
He further said that the Ministry will attempt to make it an island wide program by 2019. However there may be some difficulty on finding properly qualified teachers for all the new subjects. “We will be working with the vocational Training Ministry and will hire teachers and trainers from this institute,” he added. Mr.Wijeratne added they intend changing the curriculum so that students can learn more subjects.
“Of the 26 subjects that will be taught, there must be a minimum of 5 students for each subject in a class, and a minimum of 6 subjects must be taught in each school,” he said. Mr Wijeratne added that, the subjects selected will be made attractive to students to remain in school. It will also differ from area to area. For example, Tourism related studies will be taught in tourists areas,” he added.
He also said, There is a growing demand for Motor Mechanism, while we also want to diversify into areas such as Event Management, Landscaping etc., so they can find employment easily.