Jun 29, Colombo: Sri Lanka's government teaching service has recruited over 3,700 IT graduates and the College of Education diploma holders to fulfill the needs of the schools in the rural area of the island.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in a ceremony held at the Temple Trees Friday (29) handed ove the appointments to 3,789 graduates recruited to the service.

According to the Secretary to the Ministry of Education Gotabhaya Jayaratne, the new teachers will be appointed to both national and provincial council schools to ease the teacher shortage prevailing in schools in the remote areas of the country.

Of the total, 2300 are teachers graduated from the National Colleges of Education. They have completed a two year teacher training and one year internship. They are to be appointed to the schools in difficult areas in remote districts like Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Trincomalee, Vavuniya, and Ampara.

The IT graduates will be appointed to the 1000 schools that are being developed country wide by the Ministry of Education. They are appointed to teach Information and Communication Technology.

The government has given teaching appointments to over 37,000 graduates since the year 2005.

Minister of education Bandula Gunawardena, Deputy Minister Vijith Wijayamuni Soyza and monitoring MP Mohan Lal Grero participated in the ceremony to hand over the appointments.

(Photos by Sudath Silva)