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A/L qualified residents of estates as Teacher Assistants for Estate schools
View(s):The Government is in the process of recruiting 3,000 Advanced Level qualified- 3 Passes, persons from the estate to be posted as Teacher Assistants, exclusively to estate sector schools, said Education Ministry Secretary Upali Marasinghe.
He said the appointments will be given by the end of this month.
“Interviews are now being conducted for the applications we called earlier,” he said.
The reason for making such appointments to this sector is because education standards in the estates have dropped. “Many teachers sent to these areas are not proficient in the Tamil language, and even those who are transferred to these areas don’t stay long, which has led to a shortage of teachers in this sector,” he added.
The new recruitments will be on a strict basis and those appointed have to be resident on an estate and show proof of same.
The new recruits will be initially paid Rs 6,000 for 5 years. However, the Treasury has been requested to increase this rate, as Rs 6,000 is inadequate to meet the cost of living.
Within the initial five-year period, the new recruits are required to either obtain a Degree or complete their Teacher Training Programme, failing which their contract will be terminated at the end of five years.
Meanwhile, the programme started under the previous government where A/L qualified students from throughout the country were to be recruited as teacher assistants has been stopped, he added. “We will only recruit teacher assistants for areas only where there is a shortage of teachers for a particular subject,” he added.
Mr Marasinghe said teachers will be recruited to the Governments service for subjects such as Mathematics, Science, English and IT where vacancies exist.
“We are compiling a list of the existing vacancies to recruit new teachers,” he said.
“By end 2015, 2,900 Diplomates from the College of Education will also be given appointments,” he said.