A special meeting between representatives of the Sri Lanka Teachers’ Service Union & the Principals’ Service Union and the Hon. Governor of the Northern Province, N. Vethanayahan, took place today – on Thursday evening, 02 April 2026, at the Governor’s Secretariat.
At the beginning of the discussion, the General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Teachers’ Service Union and Hon. Deputy Minister, Mahinda Jayasinghe, expressed his heartfelt congratulations to the teachers, education officials, and the provincial administration for a student from Kilinochchi District achieving first place at the national level in the Mathematics stream of the G.C.E. Advanced Level Examination with outstanding performance.
Following this, attention was given to the progress of matters discussed at the previous meeting. Trade union representatives also raised concerns regarding delays in investigations within the education sector and requested that these be expedited. The Secretary of the Provincial Ministry of Education explained the administrative challenges involved in speeding up these investigations and noted that continuous steps are being taken to complete them as quickly as possible. Furthermore, detailed discussions were held on delays related to teachers’ salary increments, promotions, and the provision of pensions.
Clarifications were also provided regarding steps taken to formulate new teacher and principal transfer policies for the Northern Province. It was stated that the teacher transfer policy has been prepared and submitted to the Chief Secretary, and that further discussions will be held with teacher unions before finalizing and forwarding it to the Provincial Public Service Commission. Meanwhile, it was pointed out that the principal transfer policy, which had been prepared with the participation of relevant trade unions and submitted to the Provincial Public Service Commission, had been rejected. It was further noted that discussions will be held again with the trade unions regarding a revised transfer policy.
Participants at the meeting included Mahinda Jayasinghe, General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Teachers’ Service Union and Hon. Deputy Minister; M. Jegatheeswaran, Vice President of the Sri Lanka Teachers’ Service Union and Hon. Member of Parliament; S. Sathiyaseelan, Secretary to the Governor of Northern Province; M. Patrick Diranjan, Secretary to the Provincial Ministry of Education – Northern Province; Y. Jayachandran, Provincial Director of Education of the Northern Province; and Zonal Directors of Education from all Education Zones of the Northern Province.
