The Hon. Madhura Senevirathna - Deputy Minister of Education and Higher Education
The Deputy Minister, replying on behalf of the Education Minister, stated that there were 3,152 vacancies across Grades I–III of the Sri Lanka Principals’ Service as at 31 August 2025, while 2,494 non-SLPS officers were covering duties and 1,677 principals would be aged 57 by 30 September 2025. He said recruitment must follow the SLPS Service Minute through competitive examination and interview, and that a Gazette notification for new recruitment would be published within two weeks after PSC non-concurrence with an alternative proposal. He also said a proposed Education Council would address recruitment and promotion matters across education services, and that principals’ salary anomalies would be referred to the National Pay Commission within a broader framework.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 On behalf of the Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education, I reply:
¶ 02 (a) (i) As the Sri Lanka Principals’ Service (SLPS) has an uninterrupted promotion scheme, vacancies are not calculated by grade; however, as at 31.08.2025, total vacancies across Grades I–III amount to 3,152.
¶ 03 (ii) Numbers of Principals who will be 57 years old as at 30.09.2025, by province and grade, are provided in the annex (total 1,677).
¶ 04 (iii) As per provincial reports finalized as at 30.04.2024, the number covering duties but not belonging to SLPS is 2,494.
¶ 05 (iv) Under the SLPS Service Minute, recruitment must be to available vacancies based on the order of merit of marks obtained at competitive examination and interview. Any deviation requires approval of the Public Service Commission (PSC). Although approval was sought to appoint these officers to the post of Vice Principal on the Supra Grade basis, PSC did not concur. The PSC has been informed to conduct the competitive exam without delay to fill vacancies. Accordingly, the Gazette notification for new recruitments will be published within the next two weeks.
¶ 06 (b) Not applicable.
¶ 07 Regarding supplementary questions: An Education Council is proposed to be established, mandated to make recommendations on recruitments, promotions, and related matters across the five education services. Once constituted, it can take necessary decisions for this service as well; we expect to operationalize the Council expeditiously.
¶ 08 On salary anomalies: We have held several rounds of discussions with principals’ trade unions and stakeholders. There are overlaps and issues across the five services’ salary structures due to piecemeal decisions previously taken by service/grade, causing inconsistencies. We intend to submit proposals on principals’ salaries to the National Pay Commission so this can be addressed within an overall framework rather than ad hoc decisions.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Thursday, 22 January 2026 ·No. 23203 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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Cite as: The Hon. Madhura Senevirathna - Deputy Minister of Education and Higher Education. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 22 January 2026. No. 23203. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/22416