Teacher shortage to be eliminated

Stanley SENEVIRATNE- Kurunegala North Group Corr.

The dearth of English Medium teachers for Advanced Level classes in National Schools will be solved by appointing over 1,500 English trained teachers in January. Education Minister Bandula Gunewardane said.

Minister Gunewardane told the media that about 500 teachers were absorbed to Advanced Level classes at all National Schools as an initial step last week.

The Minister said he received many complaints from school authorities and parents of A-L students regarding the shortage of English teachers for main subjects including science, Mathematics, Commerce. Accounting, Biology, Chemistry and Political Science.

Minister Gunewardane said no one will complain about the dearth of teachers, since all schools have been provided with adequate teachers to teach subjects in English, Sinhala and Tamil mediums. He said nearly 225,000 teachers are in the service for over 4.2 million students in the country.

He said Ministry has focused special attention on the development of pre-school education islandwide.