3,148 Schools have less than 10 teachers: Central Bank Report

The Central Bank (CB), in its Annual Report for 2017 released this week, highlighted both, positive and negative factors in the Education system, noting that, despite several achievements in the Education sector during the last year, there were 3,148 schools with less than 10 teachers. Thereby highlighting a possible shortage in the teaching cadre, in a considerable number of schools.

It noted that the government has taken various measures, including the implementation of the '13 years of Guaranteed Education' policy, to improve school participation rates and align the General Education sector with labour market requirements for skills as well as aspirations of students.

Under the ‘13 years of Guaranteed Education’ policy, a new Vocational subject stream has been introduced after the GCE Ordinary Level exam, in selected schools. This new stream aims to enhance the Vocational and Technical skills of students, for increased career and Higher Education prospects, irrespective of the students’ performance at the O/L exam, it said.

The Vocational stream will be operational in schools on a staggered basis, under 3 Stages of a pilot project. Stage I of the project commenced in October 2017 in 42 selected schools.

The National Institute of Education (NIE) developed curricula for 9 Generic subjects and 26 Vocational subjects for the new stream, while training 522 teachers under this programme, it said.

Stage II of the pilot project is planned to commence in May 2018. In this regard, 150 schools, with at least 1 school in each Education zone, have been selected. Stage III of the project will expand up to 500 Provincial and National schools in 2019, and 1,000 in 2020.

The Report pointed out that free school uniforms and school shoes programmes were carried out benefiting 4.3 million students and 650,000 students, respectively. The mid-day meal programme funded by the World Food Programme, was implemented in the Northern Province (NP), benefiting 159,792 students in 957 schools.

The Govt continued to improve the quality of General Education, while reducing disparities across schools. During 2017, 537 teachers passed out from Teacher Training (TT) Colleges, while around 3,000 are currently being trained at these Colleges.

It said that, in addition, the Ministry of Education (MoE) conducted numerous TT programmes to improve the teaching quality in General Education, particularly in relation to STEM Education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics subjects), English, other foreign languages and Aesthetic subjects. Several training programmes were conducted during the year, targeting teachers of Plantation sector schools and Tamil medium schools in the Northern, Eastern, North Western and North Central Provinces.

Meanwhile, 40 teachers were trained on new teaching techniques in Autism Education, while 30 Special Education teachers received training on Sign Language and Braille Education, to enhance the quality of Education provided for students with special needs. In order to reduce disparities in physical infrastructure facilities across schools, 9,063 Provincial schools and 282 National schools are currently being developed through the construction of new classrooms, technical buildings, laboratories, water supply schemes, etc., under the ‘Nearest School is the Best School’ concept.

Meanwhile, funds were allocated through the annual budget of the MoE to rehabilitate schools damaged by floods and landslides in disaster affected districts.

During 2017, measures were taken by the MoE to maintain the quality standards in the General Education sector.

During the year, 7,347 schools were evaluated by the MoE, Provincial Depts of Education, Zonal and Divisional Education offices, while 7,549 schools were evaluated through school internal evaluation committees, with the objective of ensuring minimum standards of quality in General Education.

Meanwhile, 16 Govt approved Private schools were monitored through the Provincial and Zonal authorities. However, International schools are not within the purview of the MoE, or the Provincial or Zonal authorities, although the number of students enrolling in these schools has been rising.

Therefore, it is crucial to set up a mechanism to monitor and evaluate the quality of Education provided by these International schools, by engaging stakeholder representatives in the evaluation process. Meanwhile, there is room for further improvement in terms of maintaining quality standards in General Education, the report pointed out.