Sectoral Oversight Committee approves the Universities (Amendment) Bill
The Sectoral Oversight Committee on Education, Manpower and Human Capital took into discussion the Universities (Amendment) Bill and the matters pertaining to the recruitments of the Sri Lanka Principal Service.
In consideration of the Universities (Amendment) Bill, it was discussed that the Bill intends to set provisions enabling the Faculty Board to elect a Dean from among the Senior Professors, Professors, Associate Professors and Senior Lecturers (Grade I) of the Faculty, enable the Council to remove a Dean from his office prior to the completion of his term of office, and introduce limitations with respect to the term of office of a Dean of a Faculty.
This was taken into discussion when the Committee met recently (06) at Parliament under the Chairmanship of Member of Parliament Hesha Withanage.
Moreover, it also amends and specifies the procedure to be followed by the Council when appointing a Head of a Department of Study, enables the Council to remove the Head of a Department of Study from his office prior to the completion of his term of office, and introduces limitations applicable with respect to the terms of office of the same. Following in depth discussions and considerations, the Committee approved the said Bill.
The Committee also discussed the matters pertaining to the recruitments of the Sri Lanka Principal Service at length. It was stated that Principals are recruited for the Sri Lanka Principal Service through a competitive exam held for teachers in service, which was held in 2019 for 1918 vacancies. It was then stated that 155 were again recruited in 2022 from the same pool who sat for the 2019 exam. It was then stated that another batch of 4672 were recruited in 2023 by a court determination. Moreover, it was observed that a few remaining from the 2019 batch are yet to be absorbed into the Principal Service.
The Committee pointed out that issues have arisen because recruitments have been made consistently from the group that sat for the examination in 2019 for various reasons. The Committee questioned why exams were not held yearly and the status of holding a fresh exam.
Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa, and Hon. Members of the Committee (Dr.) V.S. Radhakrishnan, (Ms.) Krishnan Kalaichelvi, Sugath Wasantha de Silva, (Mrs.) Nilusha Lakmali Gamage, Attorney at Law, Sujeewa Dissanayake, Chanaka Madugoda, Sanjeewa Ranasingha, Thurairasa Ravikaran, Sunil Rajapaksha were present at this committee meeting held.
