By Chaminda Silva
The government’s ambitious plans to overhaul Sri Lanka’s school education system and introduce new curricula could face serious implementation difficulties, with teacher unions warning that a longstanding and severe shortage of teachers remains unresolved.
The warning came as Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya announced yesterday that new curricula would be introduced for Grades 2 and 6 next year, while also stating that the government planned to recruit around 30,000 new teachers across the education system by February.
However, the Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) questioned whether the government would be able to provide the teachers required to implement the proposed reforms, claiming that the recruitment process itself had become mired in problems.
CTU General Secretary Joseph Stalin accused the government of making misleading claims about teacher recruitment and said the shortage that had affected schools for more than a year would continue into next year.
“There is currently a severe teacher shortage in the school system,” Stalin told a press conference in Colombo yesterday.
He said the government had previously acknowledged that there were about 46,000 teacher vacancies in the school system, but the figure was later revised to around 36,000.
“Those vacancies have remained unfilled for more than a year and a half. The school system has continued to operate with a severe teacher shortage throughout this period,” he said.
Stalin questioned how the government intended to introduce new curricula while thousands of existing teaching vacancies remained unfilled.
He said the Government had initially announced plans to recruit 23,000 teachers, despite the number of vacancies being significantly higher.
Although a gazette notification, relating to the recruitment had been issued, only around 17,000 applicants had been summoned for the initial round of interviews, he added.
Stalin said interviews were expected to begin in November and that appointments would, therefore, be made only from January onwards.
“If there are more than 36,000 teacher vacancies, the Government has decided to recruit only 23,000 teachers, and only around 17,000 have been called for interviews.
Who will take responsibility for the remaining vacancies?” he asked.
He said the problem was not merely one of numbers but also involved the Government’s recruitment procedure.
According to Stalin, shortcomings and ambiguities in the gazette notification issued for the recruitment examination had contributed to the present crisis.
“We primarily believe that the lack of proper procedures in the gazette notification issued for the recruitment examinations has contributed to this crisis. The ambiguities in the notification itself have led to the recruitment process becoming a major issue,” he said.
The shortage was also affecting the transfer system, Stalin mentioned.
A large number of teachers had been unable to obtain transfers because replacements were not available, with some teachers remaining at the same school for 12 or 13 years, he claimed.
As replacements had not been recruited, such teachers would have to remain at their present schools for another year, he said.
“This is a serious crisis. However, the situation is even more critical for students who are left without teachers,” Stalin said.
He also questioned the Government’s plans to close schools with fewer than 50 students.
“We suspect that this move is to take the teachers from these schools and redeploy them to other schools to fill vacancies there.”
The union’s concerns come at a time when the Government is pushing ahead with a major overhaul of the education system.
Addressing the Badulla District Women’s Conference yesterday, Prime Minister Amarasuriya said the Government would introduce new curricula for Grades 2 and 6 next year as part of its wider education reforms.
She said a new curriculum had already been introduced for Grade 1 this year, while new curricula for Grades 2 and 6 would be introduced over the next two years.
The Prime Minister said the Government was developing a new education system aimed at securing the future of all children, with the emphasis shifting away from producing students, focused solely on examinations.
The Government’s objective was to nurture a generation capable of facing future challenges successfully and confidently, she said.
The Prime Minister also announced that interviews for the recruitment of 17,000 teachers would commence on November 20.
She said approval had also been granted to recruit 2,000 academic staff members for the university system, with that recruitment process already under way.
The Government plans to recruit approximately 30,000 new teachers across the education system by February next year, she said.
A special programme would also be implemented to improve infrastructure facilities in schools, the Prime Minister added.
The contrasting positions highlight a potentially significant gap between the Government’s education reform timetable and the capacity of the existing school system to deliver it.
While the Government has set out a timetable for introducing new curricula and recruiting tens of thousands of teachers, the CTU argues that the existing shortage, delays in recruitment and unresolved transfer problems could leave schools struggling to provide adequate teaching staff when the reforms take effect.
With the Government planning to introduce another round of curriculum changes next year, the ability to fill vacancies in time could, therefore, become a crucial test of whether its broader education reform programme can be implemented as planned.