Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya says there is currently a shortage of 40,000 teachers across Sri Lanka, and that the government expects to recruit a certain number of the required vacancies by the end of this year.

PM Amarasuriya made these remarks in Parliament on Wednesday (21 May), while responding to a question raised by opposition MP Mujibur Rahman.

Addressing the Parliament, PM Amarasuriya said there are currently 4,240 teacher vacancies in the Sinhala medium and 2,827 in the Tamil medium for Grades 1 to 5 in government schools, while the number of vacancies reported from Grades 6 to 11 is 11,274 in the Sinhala medium and 6,121 in the Tamil medium.

She went on to note that in the Western Province alone, government schools report 1,310 Sinhala medium and 302 Tamil medium teacher shortages for Grades 1 to 5, adding that for Grades 6 to 11, the vacancies stand at 1,325 for Sinhala medium teachers and 397 for Tamil medium teachers. 

PM Harini Amarasuriya revealed that as a whole, nationwide, there are 40,000 vacancies for teachers.

She further said that the Public Service Commission has issued a recommendation that recruitments to fill the vacancies in the Ministry of Education should be done through an examination-based process. 

“Currently, there is an ongoing court case regarding the recruitment of graduates into the teaching profession. Taking all these matters into consideration, attention is being directed towards recruiting graduates to fill the existing teacher vacancies,” she said. 

The Prime Minister emphasized that the government expects to fill at least a certain number of the required vacancies by the end of this year.