Sri Lanka Education Forum

Justine Ferrari, Education writer | February 05, 2008 (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23161015-13881,00.html) PUBLIC schools in NSW will be free to hire their own teachers under changes announced yesterday, but the union has threatened to fight the move. Education Minister John Della Bosca said all government schools would have the option of advertising openly to fill vacancies. Schools would still have the choice of asking the Education Department to appoint a teacher, as occurs in the current system. But from the second term in 2010, principals will no longer be obliged to accept the teacher at the top of the department's transfer list. Selection panels for the vacancies will ...

Notice of Public Meeting on Recommendations for a New Education Act February 18, Monday, 2008, 3p – 5p Sri Lanka Foundation Institute Sri Lanka Education Forum has been hosting a series of meetings to identify areas of agreement among civil society organizations regarding recommendations for a New Education Act to the Ministry of Education's Committee to Draft a New Education Act. The final meeting in the series is to be held on February 18, 2008, Monday, 3pm to 5pm at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute. The Education Forum is a group of professional, academic, corporate and civil society individuals and organizations representing ...

The Education forum has conducted 3 study sessions so far with a good cross section of persons representing Associations of teachers, principals, and past pupils and  educationists and well wishers. Compilation of past legislations, circulars and Policy papers are now complete. Paper copies of these can be obtained for the cost of photocopying from Ms. Inoka Udayanganie at Sri Lanka Foundation Institute. Compilation of proposals from various groups into one document is in progress. Following is a summary of discussions so far.   January 24 RMB Senanayake (Economist); Tissa amarakoon, WA Upali Alwis, Y. Madavan (North Colombo Community Organization);  and Gamini Jayakody ((School Development ...

In Sri Lanka, as in many others countries with a centralized teacher service, there is a problem of getting teachers to locate In poor rural (and estate) areas, when they can tap patronage systems to obtain transfers to more popular areas. Various incentives schemes have been tried, in a number of countries including Sri Lanka, but with limited success. An alternative, to address the problem of staffing poor rural and estate schools, would be to appoint teachers directly to schools, perhaps combined with an extra financial allowance as an incentive. Then, if teachers wanted to move to new schools, they would ...