Move to reduce teacher shortage

Dharma Sri Abeyratne

The Ministry of Education has started subject wise teacher recruitment to reduce the teacher shortage in Government schools Ministry of Education sources told the Daily News.

Accordingly, the number of existing vacancies for a particular subject available in a school will be considered when teachers are appointed to a particular school to teach designated subjects. Distance from the teacher's living area to the school will also be considered.

Applications will therefore be called for from teachers living in close proximity to the school where vacancies exist.

The Education Ministry has appointed 28,500 graduate teachers to the teachers service from October 2005 to July 2008 under this program. Competitive tests were held for graduates to fill subjectwise deficiencies.

The Education Ministry has also appointed 1,200 graduate teachers to Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim schools in Trincomalee, Ampara and Batticaloa districts in 2008 while 2,606 Diploma holders from the colleges of education have also been appointed to these schools.