Rural schools' Education suffers due to persistent teacher shortage

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The Ceylon Teachers' Union (CTU) NCP Secretary Priyantha Fernando said, "Though the Province needs around 16,200 teachers itt only has 14,600. A shortage of 1,600 teachers in the schools," he said.

He added that, "Despite around 400 teachers passing out annually from the Teacher Training Colleges, none have been posted to NCP schools. The National College of Education also passes out 1,350 Diplomate teachers annually, but none have been posted to the rural sector.

He said there is a severe shortage of teachers for Science, Maths, Technology and Primary schools.

Around 50,000 teachers posted to rural schools in 1989-'90 are retiring after completing 60 years, and by 2020 the shortage of teachers will triple. In the NCP 1,000 teachers are retiring this year, while there is a dire need to recruit new teachers for Information Technology. CTU General Secretary, Joseph Stalin said the problem is because of the inefficiency of the Transfer Board (TB) to transfer teachers on time.

He said that, "If teachers were posted in keeping with the Transfer Board Policy of 2007/20, there will be enough and more teachers in rural schools.

According to CTU statistics, Sri Lanka has 1 teacher for every 20 students, while in the Western Province the ratio is 1 teacher for every 17 students. The countrywide teacher population count stands at 241,523.

The TB policy requires that teachers in service for over 5 years in one station, be transferred to another school. However, ad hoc transfers have resulted in the concentration of teachers in popular and national schools, at the expense of rural schools, which are overlooked.

"Many teachers in popular and national schools continue to serve in those schools for over 10 years. Some even serve for their entire tenure of service, with the blessings of the politicians in their areas. This has resulted in a disparity in the number of teachers serving in the national schools and rural schools in the country," he said. - CC