Principals, teachers issues will be speedily resolved

Education Minister Dr. Susil Premajayantha said that arrangements have been made to provide internet facilities to 1,000 schools at a cost of one billion rupees at one million rupees per each school.

The Minister also says that this programme will begin next year under the moves to digitize education. 

The minister said this at a press conference held at the Education Ministry yesterday (15).

The Minister also mentioned that this programme will be implemented in collaboration with Sri Lanka Telecom. The educational administration reform program is being implemented simultaneously. Accordingly the existing 100 education zones in the nine provinces will be converted into 120 zones.

The Minister noted that due to this, the administrative problems of the principals and teachers will be solved more easily, and the mapping of new zones has been completed by now.

He added that school development boards will be formed in each region and a school development board will be formed in place of the existing divisional offices. Accordingly, the Minister mentioned that 550 School Development Boards will be established instead of the existing 312 Divisional Offices.He said that the primary responsibility of the School Development Board is school supervision. Also, he said that at least 1,200 cluster schools will be created under the 550 school development boards. Around 6 to 10 schools will operate in a school cluster, and one or more of them will become leading schools. The Minister pointed out that this is done by sharing resources between the respective schools. The Minister said that 86 out of 100 existing zonal offices have computer resource centres, 14 more are planned to be modernized, and all 100 computer centres will be completed in the first quarter of next year.

The Minister who further commented said that due to an interim order, the appointment of Principals to the Grade 3 strata was delayed.

“The case was settled on December 12.Thus, we will have the opportunity to fill 5,800 Principal vacancies by the first school term of next year from the people who have appeared and passed the Principal exams,” he said.

“Twenty-two thousand out of fifty-three thousand graduates recruited as development officers have been placed in schools. These people have not been placed through formal training. As well as this group, underserved graduates and anyone with a recognized degree who has completed the age as per the Teachers’ Service Constitution can join the teaching service,” he further said.

Instead of the exams at the provincial level, arrangements are being made to conduct a nationwide exam for recruitments. When recruiting at the provincial level, only those who have been in the respective province for three years can apply. If that programme is applied, the vacancies in remote areas will never be filled. Due to conducting exams across the country, it is possible to join the service of a school in any area of your choice. Also, the districts that are unable to fill the shortage of teachers can make relevant appointments from the districts where there are more graduates. Cabinet approval has been obtained for this.

Moves are under way to conduct this exam quickly and give the results to the provincial level. Interviews are held at the zonal level and appointments are made. Also, it can be balanced the shortage of teachers to a considerable extent by the time the first school term of 2023 begins by giving appointments to the group that has completed the exams in the faculties of science. About 6,000 pass-outs from Colleges of Education and 26,000 graduates will be appointed and therefore around 35,000 people will be able to get teacher appointments, he added.