Solutions mooted for severe shortage of principals

The Secretary of the Ministry of Education Gotabhaya Jayaratne says that the Ministry has decided to establish a pool of 500 teachers for the posts of principals.

Qualified teachers are to be selected for the positions and they will be given training on school administration. After the training, they can apply for the vacant positions, the Secretary says.

Addressing a meeting of the principals, the Secretary of the Ministry of Education said that for vacancies of principals for over 100 schools, only 60 applications were received.

With those applications, only the vacancies of 55 schools could be filled, he said.

However, the Ceylon Teachers' Union chairman Joseph Stalin Fernando said that a large number of principals who passed the competitive examination for the principals are still working in schools as teachers.