The Ministry of Education will provide free uniform material for Government school and Pirivena students by March 15.
“The Chinese Government will provide 70 percent of the material while the local private sector has agreed to provide 30 percent,” said Minister of Education Dr. Susil Premajayantha.
He was speaking at a committee meeting of Government officials at the Education Ministry recently.
Graduates who pass out from the National Education University after 2028 would be offered teaching appointments in Government schools and they would be trained for four years. One-year of their degree course will be for practical teacher training. Teachers should be well-equipped with the practical aspects of life, society and need to be well versed in the vocational training aspects with regard to teaching, he said.
The Minister said those who get the best Z-score at the results of the GCE (AL) examination would be selected to follow the degree courses of teaching at the National Education University.
The National University will be set up by inter-connecting 19 National Colleges of Education in the country and lecturers would serve in the National University since students have to be equipped with human values, vocational training skills, foreign language skills and positive thinking.
Youth need to be fostered with life skills as theoretical knowledge alone cannot create balanced and useful citizens in present day society.
The teaching profession is regarded as noble and respectable hence that social acceptance has to be maintained without teachers becoming mere puppets of political parties, the Minister added.