A parliamentary advisory committee has turned its attention to filling teacher vacancies and fixing structural problems in Sri Lanka’s education sector, including the transfer process that moves teachers between schools.
The Ministerial Advisory Committee on Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education met in Parliament under the chairmanship of Prime Minister and Minister of Education Dr. Harini Amarasuriya.
Members discussed raising the quality of school education, filling teacher vacancies, streamlining the teacher transfer process, and improving facilities at schools in difficult areas, both NewsFirst and Hiru News reported.
Science and maths posts prioritised
The committee gave particular attention to speeding up the new recruitment process to reduce shortages in science and mathematics — subjects where vacancies have been hardest to fill — and to identifying the areas where the need for teachers is greatest.
NewsFirst reported that members singled out schools in the Northern and Eastern provinces among those facing shortages that require specific attention. The committee also took up the question of raising the professional standing of the teaching service.
Neither report gave a figure for the current number of vacancies, a timeline for the recruitment process, or details of what changes to the transfer system are being considered.
Background
Teacher recruitment has been a recurring pressure point for the government. More than 163,000 graduates sat an island-wide recruitment examination in May, ending a three-year hiatus caused by litigation, and the Prime Minister met graduates from the stalled 2018/19 and 2019/20 cohorts later that month. In June, the Department of Management Services approved an intake that would bring more than 31,000 teachers into the service this year.
The committee’s remit also covers vocational education, where the government said on Monday it intends to fold NVQ training into school curricula and make it a full Advanced Level stream by 2031.
