There’s a shortage of 40,000 teachers islandwide – PM Harini

Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya stated that there is currently a shortage of 40,000 teachers across the country, and that the government expects to recruit a certain number of the required personnel by the end of this year.

The Prime Minister made these remarks in Parliament today (21), while responding to a question raised by Member of the Opposition Mujibur Rahuman, according to the Prime Minister’s Media Division.

The Prime Minister further stated:

“There are currently 4,240 teacher vacancies in the Sinhala medium and 2,827 in the Tamil medium for Grades 1 to 5 in government schools. The number of vacancies for Grades 6 to 11 is 11,274 in the Sinhala medium and 6,121 in the Tamil medium.

In the Western Province alone, government schools report 1,310 Sinhala medium and 302 Tamil medium teacher shortages for Grades 1 to 5. For Grades 6 to 11, the vacancies stand at 1,325 for Sinhala medium teachers and 397 for Tamil medium teachers. As a whole, nationwide there are 40,000 vacancies for teachers.

The Public Service Commission has issued a recommendation that recruitment to fill the vacancies in the Ministry of Education should be done through an examination-based process.

Currently, there is an ongoing court case regarding the recruitment of graduates into the teaching profession. Taking all these matters into consideration, attention is being directed towards recruiting graduates to fill the existing teacher vacancies.”

However, the Prime Minister emphasized that the government expects to fill at least a certain number of the required vacancies by the end of this year, the statement added.