Trapped Vanni school teachers to be employed in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 February 2007, 00:02 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander for Jaffna, Major Gen. G. S. Chandrasri, told the teachers of Vanni schools, trapped in Jaffna peninsula due to SLA closure of the A9 route in August 2006, that they will receive temporary assignments to teach peninsula schools. Major Gen Chandrasri met with nearly half of the 700 stranded teachers at a special centre at Kattuvan, located close to Palaly Military Base, around 7:00 p.m Monday, education officials in Jaffna said.

The 350 teachers were taken to the meeting escorted by SLA.

Following this meeting, Jaffna Education Officials started interviewing the teachers Tuesday for the temporary positions.

Civil society sources in Jaffna said education in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held areas, already suffering from shortage of teachers, will be seriously impacted by the unavailability of teachers from Jaffna.

More than 1,000 teachers from Jaffna peninsula were appointed to Vanni schools in the LTTE held areas under Mahinda Rajapakse's Graduate Teacher appointment scheme in 2005.

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