Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa has raised alarm over a deepening crisis in Sri Lanka’s education sector, warning that chronic teacher shortages and poor infrastructure are jeopardising students’ academic and professional futures.
Speaking in Parliament on Thursday under Standing Orders 27(2), Premadasa said the country’s student generation is in “great difficulty” due to the government’s failure to address longstanding imbalances in the education system.
He noted that the shortage of qualified teachers, combined with the deterioration of basic facilities in universities, has severely undermined both the quality of higher education and public confidence in local degree programmes.
Premadasa called on the government to table a comprehensive report on the number of teacher vacancies in both national and provincial schools.
He also pressed for a timeline on when these gaps would be filled.
Highlighting the lack of religious studies teachers, he urged the government to clarify whether it plans to recruit qualified candidates from those who have passed the final Dharmacharya examination.
The Opposition Leader’s remarks come amid growing concern over Sri Lanka’s human capital development, as the education sector faces mounting challenges in the wake of economic and administrative instability.
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