Teacher trainees guilty of ragging to be expelled

30 January 2012 03:07 pm

The Education Ministry has decided to expel teacher trainees, who are found guilty of subjecting new comers to ragging at the National Colleges of Education, Minister Bandula Gunawardane said today.

Education Minister Gunawardane told the Daily Mirror that students with the second best Z-score marks at their Advanced Level Examinations are admitted to the National Colleges of Education to be trained as teachers.

“Students with the highest marks are admitted to the university system. Those with the second best results are admitted as teacher trainees to the National Colleges of Education. Unlike university students, these teachers have job security.  They are absorbed into the permanent cadre after their training programmes. They are required to guide school children in the right direction. How can they be exemplary by being cruel to their junior batches at the colleges?” he asked.

The Minister said that such teacher trainees were only suspended from their studentship earlier as a punishment for harassing their juniors in the guise of ragging.

“Now, we have decided to expel such errant teacher trainees. Otherwise, we can't instill discipline into the system. The circular announcing such stringent punishments will be released soon. I have instructed my secretary to work on it,” he said.

The Minister said that numerous cases of inhumane forms of ragging were reported from the National Colleges of Education in recent times.

"In some cases, freshers have been forced to eat dirt. We cannot tolerate such acts any further. Errant trainees  should be sent home so that the students who are next in line can be admitted,” he said. (Kelum Bandara)