Graduates to get teaching appointments

Lakshmi de Silva

The problem of nearly 1,250 graduates of the Aesthetic Faculty, who had held a protest fast demanding employment would be solved by giving them teaching appointments in the provinces in 2010 State Revenue Minister and Deputy Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said at a press conference at the Finance Ministry yesterday.

He said there were a number of problems regarding unemployed graduates but it was President Mahinda Rajapaksa who took up the challenge and provided employment for more than 48,000 graduates.

It was the SLFP led governments from the 1970 government of Premier Sirimavo Bandaranaike that offered employment to graduates. He said he would meet Education Minister Susil Premajayanth at Parliament on Thursday to finalise the arrangements on the appointment of the Aesthetic Faculty graduates and the matter had been discussed even before.

Convenor of the Aesthetics graduates association P.A.S.Mutukumarana who was also associated with the Minister at the press conference said unlike graduates of the other faculties aesthetics graduates were special since they had to face a practical problem to enter the university and some of them had to wait for five years to gain entrance after qualifying to enter the university and to follow the course for another five years.

When they passed out some of them had to wait without employment for another four years. It had become a problem since some of them were above the average age of gaining employment.