Colombo: Education Minister and Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya informed Parliament today that the government is considering the implementation of blended learning to temporarily address the ongoing teacher shortage in the country.
Highlighting the time-consuming nature of teacher training, the Prime Minister noted that producing qualified teachers takes a minimum of three years. "Given the duration required to train teachers, we are exploring blended learning as a temporary solution to manage the current shortfall," she said, responding to a query from Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP S.M. Marikkar.
Blended learning, which combines traditional classroom instruction with digital tools and online education, is seen as a practical interim measure to bridge the gap until new teachers are ready to be deployed.
In a related development, Prime Minister Amarasuriya announced plans to promote bilingual education among students from Grade Six to Nine. Under a new initiative, Sinhala-speaking students will be required to study Tamil as their second language, while Tamil-speaking students will learn Sinhala.
She stated that the programme will initially be launched as a pilot project, as the government works to train a sufficient number of language teachers to support the policy in the long term.
