Teacher recruiting delay prevents A/L classes start

A delay in going ahead with the recruitment of teaches – after the competitive exam to recruit graduate teachers was postponed – may hold up commencing GCE (A/L) classes in some schools, a senior Education Ministry official said.

He said the process could mainly affect the teaching of Science, Maths, Physics, Commerce, Accounts and Technology subjects among others. He pointed out that some schools had delayed opening A/L classes as they were awaiting teacher appointments.

The official went on to say that paper-marking, too, would be affected by the shortage of teachers.

Some 27,000 teachers were due to be recruited through the aforementioned process. The recruitment process was held up following an interim order by court after a group claimed that persons up to 45 years of age, too, should be allowed to apply. The government had earlier announced that recruitment will be confined to below 35 years. Eventually, the age limit was raised to 40.

That too the recruitment will be made from those graduates who were taken in as Development Assistants in order to prevent an additional financial burden on the government.

The court order was sought by a group above 40 years as well as those who have not been recruited under the particular scheme.