Parents can take legal action against the Education Ministry if trained teachers are not provided to schools in future, the Prime Minister said.
“Parents will be given the right to obtain the services of trained teachers to schools attended by their children in future.If any future government failed to fulfill this obligation, parents will also have the right to go before courts and obtain the redress by recourse to the law of the land,” Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said.
The Prime Minister was addressing a meeting after opening a new building complex at Gintota Zahira Vidyalaya in Galle on July 30.
“As much as buildings and equipment, trained teachers are also essential to develop a school. Training is a quintessential factor for ensuring a proper service to the people whether it be at a hospital, school or any public utility,” the Prime Minister said.
He said during his tenure as Education Minister he decided to provide training to all teachers and set up Colleges of Education to recruit and train teachers systematically by a process of selecting the teacher trainees.
This was implemented in 1985 and 86 on the lines of the education system in countries such as Thailand and Malaysia.This system he introduced to provide trained teachers to all schools was subsequently politicised causing great harm to education.
As a result a large number of untrained teachers are now serving in the school system today. But these teachers could not be blamed for this sorry situation as their appeals for training facilities went unheeded by the previous regime.
The Prime Minister said during discussions held with Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam they decided to fulfill the pledges held out to the people regarding education.
“Recruitment of teachers would not be handed over to politicians. Instead legal provisions would be made to ensure quality education.The burden of maintaining a high standard of education in schools would be vested in Principals. Only trained teachers could be recruited to schools within the next five years.The government would make the recruitment of teacher groups two to three years in advance and provide training so as to assign them to schools. If these provisions by law are not adhered to, parents would be given the right to petition courts and obtain a ruling against any politician involved or the Education Ministry itself. Unless these provisions were made available the trained teacher recruitment programme will not succeed,” he said.
These laws and regulations implemented in the UK and New Zealand have been made available to the Education Ministry to formulate its own set of regulations.
After the local regulations were formulated they would be forwarded to the President and the Cabinet for approval before enacting them.
Minister Vajira Abeywardena, Parliamentarian Wijayapala Hettiarachchi and several other politicians and state officials were present.