Oct 28, Colombo: The Secretary of the Ministry of Education Gotabhaya Jayaratne has said that the cabinet has given approval to transfer teachers between national schools and provincial council schools.

According to Sri Lanka's power devolution arrangements, the central government runs 330 national schools while the provincial councils run the other 9,000 some schools in the respective provinces.

The teachers stagnating in the same school for a long period has been identified as a problem that affects the education system.

The Ministry Secretary pointed out that out of the 34,300 teachers serving in the national schools 3,100 have served in the same school for more than 20 years while 9,130 teachers have worked in the same school for over 10 years.

According to the Secretary, these teachers are to be transferred both to national and provincial council schools to balance the number of experienced teachers in schools.