Prime Minister Dr Harini Amarasuriya said on Sunday that about 30,000 new teachers will be added to the school system by February–March next year, progressively filling vacancies that have stood for years, Hiru News reported at 12.36 p.m.
She was addressing the Badulla District Women’s Conference, which NewsFirst identifies as the Badulla Women’s Rally organised by the National People’s Power. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake spoke at the same event.
How the 30,000 is built
The Prime Minister, who also holds the education portfolio, gave the components rather than only the total — which is what makes the figure checkable.
- From 20 November, interviews begin for teaching appointments. Hiru’s account gives 17,000 appointments at this stage.
- Through that process, 23,000 graduate teachers enter the system.
- A further 6,000 or so from the Colleges of Education (vidyapeeta) join by February next year.
- An unspecified additional number of holders of the Bachelor of Education degree are planned for recruitment alongside the graduate appointments.
“That comes to about 30,000 new teachers added to the system by February–March next year,” she said. “We are filling the vacancies that have existed all this time, systematically.”
The components roughly support the total. 23,000 plus 6,000 is 29,000, and the unquantified Bachelor of Education tranche covers the remainder — so “about 30,000” is consistent with the parts, rather than being a round number asserted on its own.
One internal figure does not reconcile. Hiru has the 20 November interviews producing 17,000 appointments and the same process yielding 23,000 graduate teachers. The filing does not explain the 6,000 difference, and does not say whether the 17,000 is one tranche of a larger graduate cohort or a separate count. NewsFirst does not carry either number.
The figure has moved, and so has the date
This desk has the Prime Minister’s own earlier figure on the record. At Habarana on 11 October she said the government expected to recruit 23,000 teachers this year, describing it as the largest teacher recruitment drive in the country’s history. On 14 October the Education Ministry published graduate teacher interview lists carrying 23,006 names.
Set against Sunday’s statement, two things changed in a week.
The headline number rose from 23,000 to 30,000 — but on Sunday’s own breakdown these are not competing claims. 23,000 is the graduate component; 30,000 is the total once Colleges of Education output and Bachelor of Education holders are added. The earlier figure was not wrong, it was narrower.
The delivery date moved. At Habarana the 23,000 were to be recruited this year. In Badulla the 30,000 arrive by February–March next year, with the interviews that start the process not beginning until 20 November. On the Prime Minister’s own timetable, the bulk of this recruitment now lands in the first quarter of 2027, not in 2026. Neither filing notes the shift.
Correction to the above, 19 October. A third filing of the Badulla speech narrows this. The Daily Mirror’s own report has the Prime Minister saying the 30,000 arrive by March “with 23,000 graduate appointments expected to be made this year” — so at Badulla she did not move the graduate tranche into 2027. She kept it in 2026 and added the later tranches on top. What moved is the total, not the 23,000. The paragraph above reads the shift as applying to the graduate component; on the Daily Mirror’s account it does not.
Curriculum changes
Both outlets carry the curriculum element, and they agree on it.
A new curriculum was introduced for Grade 1 this year. New curricula for Grades 2 and 6 follow in 2027. The Prime Minister described this as new curricula for Grades 1, 2 and 6 within two years.
The stated purpose is to reduce students’ academic burden. She said the aim is to produce children who look to the future with confidence rather than children trained only to sit an examination, and that securing every child’s future through a strong educational foundation is the greatest hope of every parent and grandparent.
Universities
Hiru adds a tertiary component NewsFirst does not carry. The government began filling university vacancies in 2025, the Prime Minister said, and has approved the recruitment of about 2,000 academic staff to the university system. Those recruitments are under way.
Update, later on October 18 — the President gives a third figure from the same platform
Hiru has since filed on the President’s address to the same Badulla rally, and he put the teacher recruitment number at about 23,500, Hiru reported. “We have decided to recruit about 23,500 teachers,” he said.
That is a third number for one programme, and the two heads of government gave theirs from the same stage on the same afternoon:
| Who, when | Figure | Scope as described |
|---|---|---|
| PM at Habarana, 11 Oct | 23,000 | graduate teachers, “this year” |
| Education Ministry lists, 14 Oct | 23,006 | named graduate interview candidates |
| President at Badulla, 18 Oct | 23,500 | ”teachers”, scope not specified |
| PM at Badulla, 18 Oct | ~30,000 | total, by February–March 2027 |
On the Prime Minister’s own breakdown set out above, 23,000 is the graduate component and 30,000 the total once Colleges of Education output and Bachelor of Education holders are added. The President’s 23,500 sits beside the narrower graduate figure, not the total — so the likeliest reading is that he was quoting the graduate tranche while the Prime Minister quoted the full programme. Neither filing says so, and neither man is reported acknowledging the other’s number.
The university figures also diverge
The Prime Minister’s account, above, has approval for about 2,000 academic staff for the university system. The President gave a more precise and lower pair: 1,515 academic staff and 2,311 non-academic staff approved for recruitment — 3,826 posts in total, and the first time this desk has seen the non-academic component quantified. The gap between “about 2,000” and 1,515 is not explained by either filing.
Fibre in 6,000 schools, and a question about what comes next
The President said fibre connectivity has now been provided to about 6,000 schools, and put the next step as an open question to his audience: whether schools now need smart boards, computers and the signal capacity to run them. “We have to integrate with the new technology,” he said.
He also addressed resistance to the education reforms directly, saying old structures cannot be changed as easily as changing clothes, that “old forces and old groups” shout against change, and that he had seen some declare they would fast to death if the new reforms were introduced — people he said belong to the old world.
Update: the teachers’ union supplies the vacancy count — and explains the 17,000
The Ceylon Teachers’ Union puts the vacancy figure at 36,000, revised down from an initial 46,000, and says the government has decided to recruit only 23,000, the Daily Mirror reported at 2.37 p.m. — six hours before the President spoke, and from a source hostile to the government’s account.
CTU General Secretary Joseph Stalin said irregularities and ambiguities in the gazette notification issued for teacher recruitment had contributed to a crisis in the education system, with thousands of vacancies still unfilled.
This answers the question posed below, which this article had recorded as unreported: neither Sunday filing gave a current vacancy count, so the 30,000 could not be measured against the gap it is meant to close. On the CTU’s figures the gap is 36,000 and the decided recruitment is 23,000 — leaving roughly 13,000 posts unfilled even if the programme completes. The Prime Minister’s “about 30,000”, which includes Colleges of Education output and Bachelor of Education holders, would close more of it but still not all.
The 17,000 was never an appointment figure
This article flagged one number that did not reconcile: Hiru had the 20 November interviews producing 17,000 appointments while the same process yielded 23,000 graduate teachers, with the 6,000 difference unexplained.
The CTU filing resolves it. Stalin says around 17,000 applicants have been summoned for the initial round of interviews. That is a number of people called to interview, not a number appointed — so the two figures were never describing the same quantity, and Hiru’s filing appears simply to have mislabelled it.
A fourth figure, and what the spread now looks like
| Who, when | Figure | Scope as described |
|---|---|---|
| PM at Habarana, 11 Oct | 23,000 | graduate teachers, “this year” |
| Education Ministry lists, 14 Oct | 23,006 | named graduate interview candidates |
| CTU, 18 Oct | 23,000 | what the government “decided to recruit”, against 36,000 vacancies |
| President at Badulla, 18 Oct | 23,500 | ”teachers”, scope not specified |
| PM at Badulla, 18 Oct | ~30,000 | total, by February–March 2027 |
Four of the five figures cluster at 23,000–23,500. The Prime Minister’s 30,000 is the outlier, and her own breakdown explains why — it is the only figure that counts the non-graduate tranches. The union, arguing against the government, reaches for the same 23,000 the Education Ministry’s own lists carry.
The union’s timetable matches the PM’s, and reads it as failure
Stalin said interviews were expected to begin by the middle of next month — consistent with the 20 November start the Prime Minister gave — and that appointments were therefore unlikely before January. He said the vacancies had stood unfilled for more than a year and a half, forcing schools to operate amid a severe shortage, and criticised the government for pursuing education reforms while failing to fix the shortage.
The same facts are being presented as delivery by the government and as delay by the union. Nothing in the two accounts of the timetable actually conflicts — the disagreement is over whether a programme landing in early 2027 counts as the problem being solved.
Transfers: a consequence neither Badulla speech mentioned
Stalin added a knock-on effect absent from both the Prime Minister’s and the President’s remarks. Because replacements are not being appointed, a large number of teachers cannot obtain transfers, with some serving at the same school for 12 to 13 years.
“Since replacements are not being recruited, these teachers will have to remain at their current schools for another year,” he said.
He asked who would take responsibility for the unfilled vacancies and for the difficulties the delay has caused teachers and students.
The two accounts now contradict each other on one point
With the Daily Mirror’s report of the Prime Minister’s own words alongside its report of the union’s, the disagreement sharpens into something testable.
The Prime Minister expects the 23,000 graduate appointments to be made this year. The union says appointments are unlikely before January. Both statements were published by the same newsroom on the same afternoon, roughly two hours apart, and they cannot both hold.
The arithmetic favours the union. Interviews for 23,000 posts begin 20 November; on the union’s figures about 17,000 applicants have been summoned for the first round alone. Completing that volume of interviews and issuing appointment letters inside the six weeks left in the calendar year — across a period that includes the year-end holidays — is the claim the Prime Minister’s timetable requires. Neither filing addresses how it would be done.
This is the one point on which the government’s and the union’s accounts are in direct conflict. On every other element — the 20 November start, the 23,000 figure, the February College of Education tranche — they agree, and differ only on what the facts amount to.
Not reported
The government’s own filings give no current vacancy count — the figure above is the union’s, and no ministry source has confirmed or disputed either the 46,000 or the 36,000. No filing says how the appointments are distributed by province, subject or school type — the question that matters most for Badulla and other districts outside the Western Province, where the conference was held.
Nothing explains why the timetable moved from this year to February–March, or whether the 20 November interview start represents a delay against an earlier plan. No filing reports the budgetary provision for 30,000 salaries, or whether the Treasury has approved the cadre increase.
On the curriculum, neither outlet names the subjects being changed, says what is being removed to reduce the “academic burden”, or reports whether teacher training for the new Grade 2 and Grade 6 curricula is in place before 2027.
Sources: Hiru News — PM (Sinhala), NewsFirst, Hiru News — President on schools and recruitment (Sinhala).
