The Sri Lanka Teachers Union says that the number of teachers who left Sri Lanka after December 2022 and are on leave without pay has exceeded five thousand (5000).Sri Lanka Latest News
Sri Lanka Teachers Association President Priyantha Fernando stated that there is a tendency for teachers to completely leave the teaching profession and go abroad, which is affecting the serious collapse of education.
Most of the teachers who have left the service are teachers of English, Science, Mathematics, Technology, and Information Technology and this situation has strongly affected schools because of the risk of losing the only teacher for these subjects.
Since the government has decided not to recruit for public service this year, due to the retirement of nearly five thousand (5000) more teachers at the end of this year, it will be a problem to make the future generations of this country a well-fed group with knowledge, skills and attitude. Priyantha Fernando mentioned that this is a major issue.
The shortage of teachers in Sri Lanka is close to forty thousand (40000) and it has seriously affected the remote provinces. Accordingly, this problem will intensify and provinces such as North Central, where there is a shortage of about four thousand (4000) teachers, will be in trouble as a result, he said.
He further mentioned that it is the government’s responsibility to fill the teacher vacancies as much as possible even if the state recruitment is not done for other fields and his association demands that it be fulfilled.
He stated that in order to prevent Sri Lankan teachers from going abroad like a wave and taking leave without pay, the government should immediately intervene in this matter and adjust their salary disparities so that the teachers can live and work to retain them in this country.
Pointing out that the government does not have any alternative proposal for this, the chairman should immediately recruit graduates and the program of recruiting graduates has now become a mess and if recruitment is done, priority should be given to remote areas with vacancies, he said further .
