Cabinet must approve Sports Instructors

Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam will seek special Cabinet approval to appoint more than 3,000 Sports Instructors (SI) to schools coming under the Provincial Councils (PC), despite opposition.

The Ministry of Education (MoE) had, initially, intended to appoint 3,867 SIs, of which, 500 were for National Schools and the balance 3,367 for Provincial Schools.

However, the PCs objected to the appointments as teaching service appointments, which would reduce from the Teacher quota to be recruited by the PCs.

The selection of the SIs had been completed and the issue came up when the appointments were to be made to the PC schools.

The objective of the appointments is to raise the standards of Sports in Provincial schools.

"Provincial schools are compelled to recruit coaches using their own school funds, and it is costly," said a senior MoE official.

He said that, currently, though there were Physical Training Instructors (PTI) in some schools, they did not spend sufficient time on PT activities, as they spend part of their time in classrooms.

"However, if we appoint SIs, they will be in the grounds full time," the officer said.

He said that, those recruited had performed well in Sports at national or international level.

"We will go ahead with the plan, after the Minister gets Cabinet approval," he added.

However, Western Province Education Ministry Secretary S.G.Wijeyabandu told the Sunday Times that the appointment of 3,867 is to be made by suppressing the Teacher service and therefore, the cadre will have to be from the Teachers category.

"Currently, the Teachers recruited as PTIs, are capable of teaching other subjects such as Health and Science but, as the SIs will not be teaching subjects, the educational quality could be affected," he said.

"Our proposal is to set up another cadre for this purpose, but it has not been accepted," he said. A similar controversy had risen when the MoE tried to appoint Principals to PC schools.

However, the MoE was able to make the appointments only to the National schools, while appointments to PC schools were held back.