Teacher transfer barrier finally comes down
In a ground breaking move the Ministry of Education has removed the barriers that existed for teacher transfers making it possible for even a teacher serving in a provincial school to get a transfer to a national school in future, the Ceylon Teachers Union said yesterday.
Previously, teachers who received their appointments after December 12, 1989 had been prohibited from getting a transfer from a provincial school to a national school. The Ministry informed governors, provincial education secretaries and the Public Service Commission of the decision in writing on August 21, 2009.
There are 9662 schools in the country and only 330 are National Schools. Ceylon Teachers Union Secretary Joseph Stalin explained that there were 212,683 teachers in the country and 31,741 of them serve in National Schools. “National Schools are considered the elite schools and therefore teachers who served in those schools are considered the privileged ones. So, the remaining 180,836 teachers may now all try to get transfers to these schools. It can lead to an administrative nightmare if this happens. We urge the education authorities to work out a proper transfer policy under these circumstances,” he said.
He also cautioned that there could be increased pressure put on the education authorities by politicians as a result of this to get teachers in their electorates transferred to these schools, creating an even bigger problem.
dailymirror
