By Saman Indrajith

Leader of the House and Education Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said that a national policy to recruit teachers to the school system was being formulated and it would be introduced to the country soon.

 Speaking at the Consultative Committee on Education held in Parliament on Friday (10), Minister Gunawardena said that the need for a national policy to recruit persons to the teaching service had been there for decades.

 He also pointed out that there was a need to formulate a proper system to fill the vacancies of principals in schools with qualified teachers.

 While claiming that resolving the current teacher salary anomaly is a serious problem, State Minister Susil Premajayantha said that the process of locating teachers should also be streamlined. The State Minister also stated that a programme was underway to transform the teacher training National Colleges of Education into Universities.

 Minister Premajayantha said that there were 240,000 teachers in 10,155 schools across the country teaching 4,300,000 children. The student to teacher ratio was 17:1. Although that ratio was for the national level, there was a disparity when it came to schools which had less than 100 students. There the student- teacher ratio was 7:1, the State Minister pointed out.

 Addressing the committee through online technology, Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara said that the official languages are in a state of decline. He also drew the attention of the Committee to the fact that English was becoming the language of education in the country at present.

 It was revealed at the Consultative Committee on Education that the report of the technical committee for the inclusion of law as a subject in the school syllabus would be submitted to the relevant subcommittee within two weeks. It was also suggested that law should be included not as a separate subject but as part of the subject of Civic education. Member of Parliament Dr. Harini Amarasuriya said that it was very important to include children’s rights in it as well. She pointed out that the relationship between law and society should also be reflected in it.

 It was also discussed at this Committee that a proper programme should be implemented to make permanent the graduate trainees attached to schools. MPs brought to the notice of the committee that out of 60,000 graduates, 18,000 were currently attached to schools and the methodology proposed to make them permanent was problematic.

 State Minister Jayantha Samaraweera stated that some of the graduates who were currently attached to schools do not like the methodology.

MP Chandima Weerakkody pointed out the need to implement a proper programme to protect the dignity of teachers.

 Further discussions were held at the Committee on the School Selection Programme for the project to establish 1000 National Schools. The Committee Chairman informed the Secretary to the Ministry of Education, Prof. Kapila Perera to take measures and explain the matter to the Committee.

 State Minister Sitha Arambepola, Members of the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Education, MPs Anupa Pasqual, Yadamini Gunawardena and Premanath C. Dolawatta were also present at the Committee Meeting. Meanwhile Minister Douglas Devananda, State Ministers Vijitha Berugoda and Piyal Nishantha as well as Parliamentarians Upul Mahendra Rajapaksa and Gevindu Kumaratunga joined the Committee via online technology.

 Officials of the Ministry of Education and related institutions also participated in this committee meeting through online technology.

 The Committee which met after a six months lapse was the first Ministerial Consultative Committee Meeting of the Ministry of Education held after the appointment of Dinesh Gunawardena as the Minister of Education, Parliament sources said.