Exam to recruit 3,000 graduate teachers

Disna Mudalige

The examination to recruit 3,000 graduate teachers for the 1,000 secondary school development programme to fill vacancies for Information Technology, English, Science and Mathematics subjects will be held amidst the A-L examination this month, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said.

He said that a special leadership and teacher training programme will be held for these teachers and 1,000 selected Principals. He also said that 3,174 Aesthetic graduates were granted teaching appointments last week, and this was the largest recruitment for aesthetic subjects in Sri Lankan history.

He was speaking at a ceremony to open a computer laboratory worth Rs 1.1 million in Asoka Vidyalaya in Maradana yesterday. The ministry also handed over an electric piano and green boards to the school.

The minister observed that the selected 1,000 schools will be developed with special reference to IT, English and foreign languages, science and mathematics, sports and Aesthetics. He noted that IT will be taught in these schools from grade six from January next year.

He observed that not only material resources but also human resources must be developed for better IT education. He appreciated the winning of the first place in an international software contest by four Ananda Vidyalaya students.

The minister noted that his aim is to increase science stream student percentage in the A-L class to 40 percent by 2016. This is 22 percent at present.

Asoka Vidyalaya Principal Prasanna Upashantha also spoke.