Teacher trainees’ allowance increased

Minister of Education, Susil Premajayantha, told Parliament, yesterday, that they have taken steps to increase the monthly allowance, paid to students at teacher training colleges, in the form of a bank loan.

The Minister added that they are finalizing the recruitment of new students to teacher training colleges.

“We held the exams in January 2023. Applications were called, based on the z-score candidates, at the GCE AL examination. Interviews of candidates, too, have been held. Now it’s in the appeals phase,” he said.

The Minister added that the enrollments to teacher training colleges were slightly delayed because the list of vacancies, sent by Eastern and Central Provinces, were not accurate.

“We saw this especially in the Trincomalee district and in the Nuwara Eliya district. There are a lot of vacancies in the East and in the estate sector. The number of vacancies, sent by the provinces, had been under-estimated, in comparison to the number of teachers needed. We had to look into that, but now everything is in the last stages,” he said.

Minister Premajayantha added that currently those who study at the teacher training colleges receive 5,000 rupees as an allowance from the Ministry. Given the increase in cost of living, the government has introduced a scheme where an additional 10,000 rupees are added to the government allowance, as a bank loan.

“Once the students start working, they can pay off the loan,” he said,

The Minister also said that there are many vacancies at the Sri Lanka Education Administrative Service.

“Right now, 60 percent of the vacancies, in the Education Administrative Service, are not filled. We will also take steps to fill these vacancies by recruiting 1,200 people,” he said.