Teacher shortage persists, development officer not a solution: CTU
View(s):National level teacher recruitment of graduate teachers cannot be carried out due to ongoing court cases, Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Training secretary Nalaka Kaluwewa said.
There are 30,000 teacher vacancies across the country.
Some schools have vacancies open, yet the vacancies cannot be filled as new recruitments are halted until the cases are concluded.
Ministry Education (Establishment) additional secretary Amal Edirisuriya explained that the case on the development officers is ongoing, and according to a court order 25,000 appointments had been halted until a final decision is reached.
He said the ministry is planning to recruit 5,000 teachers who are to pass out from National Schools of Education to fill some vacancies, while awaiting court decisions to make the 25,000 appointments.
However, Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) General Secretary Joseph Stalin pointed out the issue of development officer recruitment was a separate issue from teacher recruitment and should be considered as such. He pointed out that teacher
vacancies need to be filled with capable teachers.
The real issue the education system is facing, he said, is the vacancies of teachers for science, mathematics, English and information technology.
Properly trained teachers from national teacher training colleges needed to be appointed to fill the vacancies, he added.
Mr Stalin also pointed out that due to the vacancies, teacher transfers were also held back as there were no successors to appoint to schools when a teacher transfers to another school.
“Some teachers who are eligible to transfer are unable to go ahead with the transfers and are staying in the same school for 10 to 12 years, due to this issue,” he said.
Transfers within zones and between provinces are also held back due to the issue.
He added that teachers’ trade unions called on the government to fill the vacancies, and use a formal methodology for recruitment and placement of teachers.
Mr Stalin said they would discuss with the teachers, whose transfers are delayed, actions to be taken if the government fails to find solutions for the issue.
Former Education Minister Susil Premajayantha said that he tried to directly recruit teachers for the vacancies by having an exam, yet it was suspended due to an injunction obtained through courts.
Thereafter 16,000 teachers were taken to the service according to the court settlement. There are 16,000 development officers working at schools, yet they are not counted as teaching appointments as they are given development officer time tables.
“There are actually 14,000 vacancies left and 5,000 vacancies of that would be filled with the intake of teachers passing out from national colleges of educations,” he added.
The remaining 10,000 vacancies in mathematics, science, English and information technology, cannot be filled with arts subject graduates, he said. Therefore, the government should have an exam and recruit teachers who have subject-centric qualifications.
“Most of the development officers are having arts subject degrees, therefore, they are unsuited for subjects such as mathematics and science,” he said.
He said that during his tenure he was planning to combine all national colleges of education and create a university and award degrees instead of national teacher education diploma, and reduce the exam strain on teachers and resolve many issues of teachers.
(KW)
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