– The Minister of Education Dr. Susil Premajayantha
It was possible to give teaching appointments to 7342 diploma holders from 19 Colleges of Education and the foundation for this was laid in 1980s when the present President Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe was the minister of Education and due to the service rendered by him to the system of education by establishing the National Institute of Education in 1980 and introducing the Act of Colleges of Education in 1985, said The Minister of Education Dr. Susil Premajayantha.
The minister expressed this while participating in the program held today at the Temple Trees for presenting Colleges of Education teaching appointments. At this occasion, presentation of 2355 teaching appointments to provincial and national schools in the Western Province happened with the patronage of The President and The Minister of Education and in parallel to this, the presentation of remaining Colleges of Education teaching appointments happened in 8 provinces.
This diploma course of the Colleges of Education will be extended up to four years as a degree course in the future and the teachers who have already completed the diploma course will be given the opportunity to complete the degree, the minister said. The minister further said that the post graduate courses offered in the future by South Asian Teacher Development Center at Meepe will be helpful for this purpose and this program will be organized in collaboration with the National Institute of Education and the Teacher Training Colleges.
The teachers receiving their appointments today are welcomed to the education system as the pioneers who will engage the children in a quality education going forward to achieve sustainable goals by 2030 through a transformative change in education including the subjects of Artificial Intelligence and Technology coupled with STEAM education method in a world where the speed of changing the knowledge is doubled. As a country, we have been able to take 99.5% of children into schools out of nearly two hundred and fifty thousand children born daily in this country except the small percentage of children with special education needs and the number of children completing primary education is also the same, he mentioned. He also pointed out that we have the capacity to maintain the percentage value of providing compulsory education till 15 years of age just same as in a developed country.
Establishment of necessary institutions and using the new technology has been a good backup for that and the necessary plans in relation to the section of education in the process of digitalization of the state and other services have already been finalized, the minister said at this occasion. Specially we need a skills development rather than an attitudinal change while remaining advanced in knowledge levels and that is an undeniable responsibility vested on the newly appointed teachers in the process of taking the children towards that goal, reminded the minister. And the minister expressed his thankfulness to The President who participated in that occasion and to the officers of the Ministry of Education who worked dedicatedly to give these new appointments within a short period of time for reducing the current teacher shortage prevailing in the schools.
