New teachers to take on the reins in national and provincial schools

The Government is to go ahead with a programme to recruit 15,000 more graduate teachers to national and provincial schools in the next few months.

The proposal to recruit these teachers was delayed during the past few months, due to the COVID- 19 situation and the parliamentary elections, an Education Ministry official said.

The focus of this proposal will be on filling the vacancies for Science, Maths and English teachers in the primary and O/L grades, and vacancies for A/L teachers

The Education Ministry had already informed school principals to provide details of teacher vacancies. Accordingly, about 5,000 teachers will be deployed to provincial schools, the Education Ministry official said.

S i m u l t a n e o u s l y, t he Ministry would also conduct a programme to regularise the distribution of teachers by transferring teachers from schools with a surplus of teachers, to those with vacancies.

This is one strategy the Ministry would take to ensure that schools, which were due to re- open after a prolonged closure due to the COVID- 19 situation and the general elections, had the sufficient number of teachers to conduct academic activities without any interruption.

Under another programme, the Government also hoped to recruit 1000 teachers assistants. These recruits would have to complete their teaching and education diploma, before they receive their appointments. This programme had been delayed due to issues raised by teacher trade unions, the Ministry official said. (C)