The Hon. (Dr.) Madhura Senevirathna — Deputy Minister of Education and Higher Education

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, I thank the Hon. Member for the questions.

¶ 02 1. Based on the Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey 2025, the estimated number of unemployed graduates is approximately 50,786.

¶ 03 2. For filling vacancies in Ministries, Departments, Statutory Bodies, Provincial Councils and Commissions, requests are submitted by institutions, reviewed by the Committee on Recruitment Processes and the Staff Management Committee, and recommendations are made to Cabinet. As at 2026.02.05, recommendations to fill 105,367 public service vacancies have been sent to Cabinet, and approval has been granted. Of these, 38,571 are graduate posts. As at 2025.10.15, about 5,250 graduates have been recruited. Other recruitments are being processed by the respective institutions. Detailed statistics by Ministry are tabled as Annex 01.

¶ 04 Regarding Development Officers serving in schools, some are, in certain instances, deployed for teaching tasks, but precise numbers are difficult to provide immediately as this varies by circumstance.

¶ 05 From 2021 onwards, through open competitive examinations, appointments have been given to teachers in National and Provincial schools. Exact numbers will be provided after verification. Development Officers have sat these competitive exams in 2021, 2023 and 2024, and some have entered the system.

¶ 06 As for the competitive exam to recruit graduates to Grade 3-1(A) of the Sri Lanka Teacher Service for Sinhala, Tamil and English medium vacancies in National and Provincial schools, interim orders had suspended the exam (SC FR 77/2023 and 88/2023), but those matters were disposed of on 2025.08.06. In SC FR 78/2023 and 95/2023, it was directed that, for the Gazette of 2023.01.27, the upper age limit be extended from 40 to 45 years for this occasion only. However, due to a pending writ application CA 92/2023, the exam could not be held until that was concluded. Following the Court’s directions, we proceeded to call applications via Special Gazette Nos. 2474/18 and 2474/19 dated 2026.02.02, increasing the upper age limit to 45. We plan to conduct the exam before the end of this month and complete recruitments by end of March, and to complete all recruitments within 2026.

¶ 07 Recruitments follow service minutes and schemes, and where a degree is the basic qualification, those posts are filled accordingly. Of the 38,571 graduate posts approved as of 2025.10.15, 23,344 are for teacher service, and expedited actions are underway.

¶ 08 On the concern about convocation timing versus cut-off dates, the dates were fixed in line with Supreme Court determinations; we are consulting the Attorney General’s Department regarding any revision. On “education service” eligibility, this relates to education degrees; we must ensure proper standardization, including of private institutions. The Ministry of Higher Education regulates such institutions, currently identified as about eight private degree-granting bodies. We have referred matters to the Public Service Commission to obtain necessary recommendations for recruitment from both state and private university graduates.

¶ 09 Regarding subjects like Archaeology or other fields you mentioned: if at least one-third of first-degree credits are in that subject, candidates may apply in that subject area; we will consider such requests carefully.

¶ 10 Thank you.