Acute shortage of teachers in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 February 1999, 22:27 GMT]
There is an acute shortage of teachers in Kilinochchi district sources at the Department of Education said today. At least 1271 more teachers are needed, they said.

As of the beginning of this year, a total of 1635 teachers were required in the district given the number of schools and the number of students at these.

But only 814 teachers are available in the schools the sources said.

Furthermore, 120 teachers have re-entered teacher training college, 24 have been transferred out of the district and another 37 have left their stations without notifying or obtaining the permission of the department, all within the past month, the sources pointed out.

As of this month, only 633 teachers are teaching in the schools in the district. There is a shortage for 1002 teachers in the district the officials said.

Officials said another 269 teachers who are on probation are also expected to enter teacher training college and this will make the situation much worse they said.

"We are helpless. The officials at the Ministry of Northeast Provincial Council and senior officials in the Central Ministry are not in the least concerned about this situation in our district" an official who did not want to be named told this TamilNet correspondent.