Sri Lanka is currently facing a significant shortfall in its education workforce, with 36,178 teacher vacancies reported across provincial and national schools, Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya said.
Responding to a question during a parliamentary session on Tuesday (21), Dr. Amarasuriya said that 1,501 of these vacancies are in national schools, while the remainder are spread across the island’s nine provinces.
The Eastern Province is the most affected, with 6,613 vacancies, followed by the Central Province with 6,318 and the Western Province with 4,630.
Other affected areas include the Southern Province (2,513), North Western Province (2,990), Uva Province (2,780), North Central Province (1,568), Sabaragamuwa Province (3,994), and the Northern Province (3,271).
The Prime Minister announced that teacher recruitment officially began on July 28, 2024, focusing on critical subject areas such as Science, Mathematics, Technology, and languages, particularly in G.C.E. Advanced Level classes across Sinhala, English, and Tamil mediums.
In a bid to fast-track the process, Dr. Amarasuriya also said that 353 graduate teachers under Grade III (B) 1 of the Sri Lanka Teaching Service will be appointed within the next two months.
She assured Parliament that requests would be submitted to the Recruitment Review Committee, chaired by the Secretary to the Prime Minister, to expedite remaining appointments and restore stability to the nation’s education system.
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