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Education Services Additional Secretary to probe undue influence in school principal posts

24 Feb 2022

  • Education Ministry Secretary requests public and aggrieved principals to lodge complaints 
BY Dinitha Rathnayake  Education Ministry Secretary Prof. Kapila Perera has instructed the Educational Services Additional Secretary to investigate any undue influence exerted by candidates for national school principal posts. Speaking to The Morning, Perera said that instructions were issued after the reporting of several such incidents and also taking the President’s advice into consideration. “We do receive many complaints related to irregularities daily; however, if there is an incident taking place at any school related to a school principal, we urge the public to make a complaint so that we would be able to investigate the issue.” “Principals who have an issue with their appointments are welcome to inform me about any matter directly rather than whispering here and there,“ he said.  According to Prof. Perera, a principal who represents a leading girls’ school in Colombo had levelled false accusations related to her appointment without even informing about the matter officially. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa issued directives to look into any undue influence exerted by candidates for the national school principal posts on 8 February. Accordingly, Prof. Perera has been instructed to probe such undue influence exerted on the Interview Board or the Education Service Committee of the Public Service Commission during and after the interviewing of candidates to be appointed as principals for national schools. A group of principals staged a protest at the agitation site near the Presidential Secretariat last year urging the authorities not to make school principal appointments fraudulently. They also urged the authorities to stop recruiting 4,600 principals illegally.  


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