Minister of Education, Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, says there are currently 36,178 teacher vacancies across provincial and national schools in Sri Lanka, including 1,501 vacancies in national schools.

She further noted that provincial school vacancies are distributed as follows: Western Province – 4,630, Southern – 2,513, Central – 6,318, North Western – 2,990, Uva – 2,780, North Central – 1,568, Eastern – 6,613, Sabaragamuwa – 3,994, and Northern Province – 3,271.

The Prime Minister also announced that 353 graduates belonging to Grade III (A) of the teacher service, who have not yet assumed duties, are scheduled to be recruited within the next two months.

To address these shortages, she added that requests have been submitted to the Recruitment Review Committee established under the leadership of the Secretary to the Prime Minister, and that necessary steps will be taken promptly to fill the vacancies.

PM Harini Amarasuriya made the remarks in Parliament yesterday (21), in response to a previous question raised by Opposition Leader MP Sajith Premadasa.