Education cornerstone in estate sector development - President

Rasika Somarathna

COLOMBO: Education would be the cornerstone in uplifting the living standards of the estate community, which would incorporate new attitudes and standards in socio-economic spheres in the estate sector, contributing immensely to the country’s development process, President Mahinda Rajapaksa stated yesterday in a message sent to the ceremony to award teaching appointments to estate sector schools at Temple Trees.

Quoting from the President’s message, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake said in the Mahinda Chinthana, the President had promised to appoint 3,000 new Tamil medium teachers to uplift the standards of education in this sector and the Government had been able go beyond this figure giving appointments to 3779.

A batch of 307 teachers out of 3,779 received their appointments yesterday and the rest are scheduled to get their appointment letters tomorrow in Hatton and Kandy. The appointments would be effective from May 3.

The President in his message said he was very impressed with the level of education in the Jaffna peninsula, when he visited the area when Alfred Duraiappa was the Mayor. Such high standards did not prevail in the estate sector and urged that there should not exist two standards for people who spoke the same language.

A special attention should be given to uplift the education of females in these areas which is comparatively low. The new teachers should dedicate themselves to eradicate these anomalies, the President said in his message.

Education Minister Susil Premajayantha said that the appointments were delayed due to various reasons. “We have to ensure equity in education to prepare students to face the challenges of employment, and life in society,” Premajayantha said.

The Education Minister added that in addition his Ministry was preparing to recruit 2800 teachers from colleges of education, another 6000 from graduates and 4700 volunteer teachers to address the shortage of teachers in schools islandwide.

The event was attended by Ministers Arumugam Thondaman, A.H.M.Fowzie, Deputy Ministers Muththu Sivalingam, M.Sachiththanandan and relevant officials along with the relatives of the newly recruited teachers.