The Ministry of Education says approval has been granted to recruit graduates holding Bachelor of Education degrees into the teaching service, with the appointments made to provincial schools at provincial council level and interviews to be held before the end of this year.
The Ministry said instructions have been issued to conduct the relevant interviews before the end of 2026, NewsFirst reported at 1.49 p.m. on Saturday. Recruitment will be carried out against existing vacancies in provincial schools.
Private university graduates are included, with conditions
The most consequential element of the announcement is that graduates holding Education degrees from private universities will also be eligible — a category that has historically sat outside state teacher recruitment.
Eligibility is conditional. According to the Ministry, an applicant must have:
- completed a four-year degree programme;
- obtained the degree through a non-online mode of study; and
- completed 10 weeks of teaching practice at a government-recognised school.
The three conditions function as a filter rather than an opening: they exclude shorter programmes, distance and online qualifications, and degrees carrying no supervised classroom component.
Where this sits against the recruitment already under way
This is a provincial-level recruitment, and it is not obviously the same exercise as the national one already in progress.
Earlier this month the Ministry published the first-phase interview shortlists for 23,006 Sri Lanka Teachers’ Service vacancies, a Grade 3-I (a) recruitment filling Sinhala, Tamil and English medium posts in both national and provincial schools, selected through a written examination held on 24 May 2026. Those interviews are scheduled for November — which is also “before the end of this year.”
Saturday’s announcement describes a different route: recruitment at provincial council level, against provincial vacancies, with eligibility set by degree characteristics rather than by an examination result.
Not reported
NewsFirst does not say whether this B.Ed intake is a separate stream from the 23,006-post recruitment or a component of it, and does not give a number of posts, a vacancy breakdown by province, or an application deadline.
It does not cite the gazette or Service Minute amendment under which the private-university eligibility has been granted, does not say which institutions qualify as recognised degree-awarding bodies, and does not state whether a minimum credit requirement applies alongside the four-year and 10-week conditions.
No other verified newsroom had filed on this specific approval at the time of writing.
Source: Education degree holders to be recruited to provincial schools — NewsFirst, October 24.
