Srilanka, Oct. 18 -- The Ceylon Teachers' Union (CTU) has warned that a serious teacher shortage has emerged within the school system, citing irregularities in the gazette notification issued for teacher recruitment.

CTU General Secretary Joseph Stalin said the recruitment process had now developed into a crisis due to shortcomings in the gazette notification published to fill teacher vacancies.

He noted that the Prime Minister had previously stated that there were 36,000 teacher vacancies in the school system. However, only around 23,000 applicants had been summoned for interviews, while approximately 17,000 had been called for the initial round of interviews, he said.

Stalin also pointed out that a large number of teachers were unab...