Recruit unemployed graduates as teachers for Plantation schools: CTU

The Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) last week said the Government should recruit striking unemployed graduates as teachers in schools in the Plantation sector and other Tamil areas in the country.

The CTU said that 3,202 vacancies for Tamil teachers islandwide can be filled from the striking 20,000 unemployed graduates in Jaffna, Batticaoloa, Ampara and Trincomalee, demanding government jobs. CTU General Secretary, Joseph Stalin said this in response to the Ministry of Education (MoE) plan to recall retired teachers to serve in Plantation schools to arrest teacher shortages in those schools.

He said the Tamil graduates from the North and East can be trained in teaching and appointed to schools that are short of teachers.

“They can be trained in Teacher Training Colleges (TTC) and given appointments after an exam on their eligibility to teach," he said.

"For this," he said, "the Government has to revive the now defunct 15 TTCs in the country. At present only 9 TTCs are functioning.

Mr Stalin said it is important we use our resources and train the graduates to teach. “This will solve our national problem to some extent," he said.