MoE-PSC tug-of-war over Principal appointments

The crisis over filling Principal vacancies in National schools has worsened with differences in opinions between the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Public Services Commission (PSC).

Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam said he intends to fill vacancies in Grade I from those in Grades II and III, to be appointed to National schools.

He said there were 89 Grade I vacancies and 64 of them were for National school Principals.

“We have only 12 requests from SLEAS members to serve in National schools, while the others have issues such as disciplinary inquiries or the PSC has made recommendations that they should not be appointed as Principals. Then there are several others who prefer to remain in administrative positions in the Education sector, r ather t han wo rk as Principals,” he said.

Minister Kariyawsam said that was the reason to follow a different criteria in to fill vacancies pending for prolonged periods.

He said the PSC had rejected the proposed names and thereby, the MoE has not been able to effect some of the proposed transfers .

He said they hope to send another list to the PSC for approval, to fill the vacancies.

A senior PSC official said they were expecting a list of 64 Grade I Principals and, if the list sent previously was approved, they would have run into problems.

He said the MoE would have to follow proper procedure and make the appointments, before sending it to the PSC.

Meanwhile, several National schools have been operating with ' Acting' Principals for several years.