National policy on teacher recruitment

by M.A.Kaleel

(July 19, Kalmunai, Sri Lanka Guardian) I understand the Cabinet has approved a memorandum submitted by the Education Minister Susil Premajayantha to formulate a national policy on teacher recruitment making first degree mandatory for recruitment to teachers’ service from 2009 onwards. Well done! A significant step towards qualitative school education.

According to this proposal I understand graduates below 30 will be recruited to 18 National Colleges of Education (NCOE) and given training for one and a half years. During this period they will be paid an allowance. On successful completion of the training programme, they will be awarded the Post- Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) by the National Institute of Education and recruited to the Teachers’ Service and placed on Gr. 2-11 of the service.


Under the present system, around 3000 Advanced Level qualified candidates are admitted to NCOE based on their Z score. To date this has been a golden opportunity for those who failed to enter the universities. But, if the new policy is implemented, initially half the intake to NCOE will be degree holders. According to this proposal for subjects like Physical Education, Technical Subjects and Art, A /L qualified will continue to be recruited as there is lack of degree holders in these subjects. But as time goes the NCOE will train only the graduates as teachers.

School education has suffered a lot due to lack of a National Policy on Teacher Recruitment. the Ministry of Education under different regimes has adopted different systems to recruit teachers. In the school system there are teachers by different brand names – Janasaviya Teachers, Volunteer Teachers, Youth Service Teachers, Samurdhi Teachers, Home Guard Teachers, Police Teachers, Political Victimization Teachers, Terrorism Victim Teachers, Contract Basis Teachers, Cadet Corps Teachers, Competitive Exam Teachers, National Colleges of Education Teachers and Graduate Teachers.

In response to a question raised by UNP parliamentarian Madduma Bandara during the last budget speech, Education Minister Susil Premajayantha himself disclosed in the parliament that there were 12,000 unqualified teachers in the present education system. Following this disclosure, the UNP and the PA traded allegations as to which party was responsible for this sorry state.

Education Services Minister Nirmala Kotalawela in an interview with Dinamina said the unqualified entered the Teachers’ Service through Janasaviya and Volunteer Teacher Recruitment systems of President Premadasa era when the present Speaker Loku Bandara was the Education Minister, but Madduma Bandara had a different story. In my view the bulk of the unqualified teachers had entered the Teachers’ Service through Janasaviya and Volunteer Teacher Recruitment systems of the Premadasa era. But they also entered through the teacher recruitment systems of this government as well. Recently in response to a fundamental rights petition filed by a group of university graduates, the Supreme Court issued an interim order imposing restraint on the recruitment of Volunteer Teachers to the Teachers’ Service and the case has been fixed for July 30, 2008.

As I said earlier, the absence of a National Policy on Teacher Recruitment, among other things, has badly affected school education. The Island has written some impressive editorials on the plight of education. It twice highlighted the massive failure rate at the Ordinary Level exam and it also bemoaned the National Education Commission (NEC) finding that 18 percent of the sixth graders could not write at all and 28 percent of the tenth graders could not write legibly and only 35 percent of them could take down a passage dictated to them.

It also wrote a pertinent editorial on ‘Failed Education’ and emphasized the need to arrest this situation. It was none other than the former Education Secretary Dr. Tara De Mel who paid tribute to one of those editorials. The Island has also carried many articles on education in its Opinion and Features columns. Dr. Tara De Mel/ former Secretary of Education, Dr. Dilaka Sundari Kariyawasam/former Director General of National Institute of Education, Prof. Rajiva Wijayasinghe/former Consultant to Ministry of Education, Prof. Ratnajeevan. S. Hoole, Prof. Carlo Fonseka, Dr Uswatte, Rohana R. Wasala and Jayatissa Perera are a few contributors to mention. But I wonder how many top education officials and policy makers would have read these articles. I bet only a few. As a reader I take this opportunity to thank The Island for its critical views,reviews on school education which have acted as a catalyst for the MoE to formulae a policy like this.

Next the MoE should concentrate on formulating a National Policy on Promotion. Under the existing system, experience is the sole yardstick of promotion. For instance, if you join the Sri Lanka Educational Administrative Service (SLEAS) and exist in the service for ten years you are automatically promoted to Class – 11 and if you continue for another five years in this Class you are promoted to Class – 1 and becomes a top official of the MOE. This applies to Teachers’ Service, Principals’ Service and Teacher Educators’ Service as well. Because of this system of automatic promotion, there are top education officials who are EC (Establishments Code) illiterate, FR (Financial Regulation) illiterate, IT illiterate and English illiterate and they are only able to read and write in their first language.

In the case of these officials, experience has been a mere passage of time without any other worthwhile inputs. They cannot be blamed because the only criteria for their promotion has been due to a silly system of seniority. Getting to the top without the requisite qualifications and professional wherewithal is a system that cannot boost education as a whole. This has badly affected the efficiency of the MoE.

I hope the Education Minister will also bring about changes in Text Book Writing, Teacher Education and Supervision as well.
- Sri Lanka Guardian