Union pins blame on President for not appointing principals

The Teachers- Principals Front ( TPF) has held President Maithripala Sirisena directly responsible for the failure to fill vacancies for principals in 302 of the 354 national schools.

In the letter to the President, TPF Convenor Mahinda Jayasinghe notes that action has not been taken to appoint new principals for the schools despite a directive from the Public Service Commission (PSC) and even after interviews for prospective candidates were concluded.

The letter points out that though vacancies in the post of principal of national schools needed to be filled immediately, they had been allowed to increase since 2015. It points out that the PSC, which was constituted with the intervention of various persons, including the President, adopted a policy of silence and allowed the problem to exacerbate.

The TPF says the previous Government kept delaying appointments to fill the vacancies in an effort to recruit 1,014 of its supporters to the principals’ service, while hiding behind the cover of giving justice to those victimised by political revenge. This was done in the hope of filling the posts with their supporters, the letter alleges, pointing out that this could well have been the case, had the then Government not been forced to back down in the face of public protests.

The trade union has called on the President to put a stop to the bad precedent that has been set by acting principals looking after affairs at these schools for a long time. It calls on him to take immediate steps to fill the 302 vacancies before the start of the 2019 school term.