ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Opposition leader has asked the government to give public sector jobs to 50,000 unemployed graduates, despite the country having a bloated state service sector, and an ongoing strike today by public servants demanding salary increases.
“We have around 50,000 unemployed graduates in the country. Is the government going to give them appointments, I would like to know, or send them to the jobless queue?” Sajith Premadasa said in parliament on Tuesday.
Premadasa said there was a teacher shortage of 40,000 vacancies.
“Just because they are graduates, they can’t be made teachers,” Education Minister Susil Premajayantha said in reply. “It is unfair by them and even more unfair on the student.
Sri Lanka’s teacher service charter specifies that recruits have to sit for a competitive exam and obtain a specific pass mark, and that their qualification match the subject, the minister said.
“I’m a law graduate, but I can’t become a teacher because law is not in the school curriculum.”
40,000 unemployed graduates were recruited by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. 52,000 unemployed graduates were recruited as development officers by his brother President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Some of these were later appointed as teachers, Premajayantha said.
He said most teacher recruits refused to go out of Colombo, to schools in places like Anuradhapura.
“Sri Lanka requires a public sector workforce of 1 million to function efficiently. That is what the administration services commission says. But successive governments have ignored this,” Minister of Employment Manusha Nanayakkara said. (Colombo/Jul9/2024)