In a parliamentary session on Saturday, Education Minister Dr. Susil Premajayantha revealed a comprehensive strategy to fill existing teacher vacancies and address the persistent teacher imbalance across provinces. The Minister acknowledged the delay in recruiting 25,000 graduate teachers, attributing the setback to a nine-month delay caused by the Supreme Court’s Interim Order.

Responding to questions raised by MP Rohini Kumari Wijeratne, Dr. Premajayantha assured Parliament that measures would be implemented to complete the recruitment process before the end of the upcoming school holidays. The urgency to resolve the teacher imbalance issue, particularly at the provincial level, was emphasized during the session.

Highlighting the unfortunate situation of imbalanced teacher distribution, the Minister cited the example of the Colombo district, where there is a surplus of teachers in Colombo North but a shortage in Colombo South. Dr. Premajayantha pledged to address this regional disparity and ensure a more equitable distribution of educators.

In a proactive move to tackle systemic issues within the education administration, the Minister announced a two-day workshop. This workshop will bring together Provincial Education Ministers, Directors, other officials, and Trade Unions. The collective aim is to identify and implement effective solutions to the challenges hindering the smooth functioning of the education system.

As the nation anticipates the conclusion of the teacher recruitment process and subsequent measures to rectify the teacher imbalance, the Education Minister’s commitment to addressing these issues signals a positive step towards enhancing the overall quality of education in the country.