Over 3,500 teacher trainees to be admitted

Nethali STRUYS

The Education Ministry is planning to admit 3,500 new teacher trainees to the Colleges of Education next year, an Education Ministry spokesman told the Daily News.

The Education Ministry says over 62,500 have applied for admission to the National Colleges of Education next year. Education College Chief Commissioner Tissa Hewavitharane says that out of them 3,500 will be selected for teacher training.

The competitive examination in relation to recruiting teacher trainees for English and Information Technology subjects is to be held in October. Applicants will be selected for Buddhism and physical education courses through interviews giving priority to their skills in the relevant fields.

For the rest of the courses, applicants will be selected based on their Z-score at the GCE Advanced Level examinations. The majority of the candidates will be selected for primary teacher training.

National Colleges of Education recruits Advanced Level qualified students for teacher training and they are appointed to schools country wide after a two-year college education and one-year internship in schools.