Teacher vacancies to be filled shortly

by Ananda KANNANGARA

Education Minister Bandula Gunawardane has directed the heads of District Educational Zones to look into the requirement of teachers in their respective schools, so that vacancies could be filled soon. He said priority will be given to recruit teachers for subjects such as Science, Mathematics, Accountancy, Economics, English and Information Technology.

He said once these vacancies are filled, other teacher vacancies will also be gradually finalised before the end of the year. Quoting statistics, Minister Gunawardane told the Junior Observer that teacher shortages in almost all schools in urban areas have been finalised and only a few more teachers need to be recruited for rural and remote schools. The Minister said unlike in the past, children of today show a keen interest in learning subjects such as English, Information Technology and foreign languages, considering the current trend of local and foreign employment opportunities.

He said graduate teachers will soon be appointed to all public schools to teach Chinese, French, Korean and Japanese languages in addition to English Language.

"Most school leavers secure tourism related jobs here and abroad and they also wish to secure jobs in airlines and shipping companies. Therefore, learning foreign languages is essential to them".

Referring to existing job opportunities in Korea for Sri Lankan workers, the Minister said a large number of Sri Lankans are showing a keen interest to learn the Korean language as a result of this.

He said foreign languages will be taught even in rural schools as the number of people seeking foreign employment has drastically increased in the rural sector, according to the statistics given by the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.

He said there are a number of vacancies for teachers who have excelled in foreign languages and such teachers will be selected after a competitive examination. "Only those who are very capable and have the necessary educational qualifications to teach foreign languages will be selected as teachers," he added.

What is the 'God particle'?

Particle physicists think they have discovered a key element to a question even scientists have never been able to answer: Where did we come from?Not taking into account the religious belief of many about the origin of life, it has been the view of the scientific world for a long time that life on Earth was created by a "big bang"-the high-energy collision of particles and matter billions of years ago within the universe.

However, there was one very big snag in the theory put forward by them..They could not answer the question as to where those particles came from, themselves. It becomes a sort of, "chicken-or-the-egg" thing.

The missing element to the theory is what scientists call the "God particle" Higgs boson. Now, researchers think they've found a key element to that particle, what is essentially a "footprint" of the Higgs boson, and are eager to examine it more carefully to determine if it is, in fact, the basis of living organisms.

If you picture the Higgs boson as a huge field in space which affects everything it comes into contact with, you'll get a sense of why it's so important. Other particles are either super-charged because of it, and are therefore attracted to it, or they don't have much energy and sort of slog through the particle field. The super-charged particles give the Higgs boson more mass.

Only it's not volumetric mass; in this case, "mass" means a charge, or energy.Named after Peter Higgs, an Edinburgh University physicist, the Higgs boson is crucial to understanding the origin of mass. Shortly after the big bang, it is thought that many particles had no mass, but became heavy later on thanks to the Higgs field.

Any particles that interact with this field are given mass. The Higgs boson is the signature particle of the field.

The Higgs field is a theoretical, invisible energy field that stretches throughout the universe. The theistic nickname 'god particle'was coined by Nobel prize winning physicist Leon Lederman.

Courtesy: Internet

Esala Perahera will commence on July 19

The annual Esala Perahera will commence on July 19 and the final night perahera will be on August 1.

The four Devala Peraheras will be held from July 19 to 22. The Kumbal Perahera will be held from July 23 to 27 and the Randolee Perahera will be held from July 28 to August 1.The water cutting ceremony will be held at Gatambe Mahaweli River on August 2.

The Diyawadana Nilame Nilanga Dela Bandara has already given instructions to officials to provide facilities for the devotees during the Esala Perahera season.

The world famous Kandy Perahera or the Esala Perahera traces its origin to the arrival of Prince Danta and Princess Hemamala, the son-in-law and daughter of King Guhasiva of Kalinga, India to Sri Lanka during the reign of King Kirthisiri Meghawanna.

Following the decree of King Kirthisiri Meghawanna that the Sacred Tooth Relics of the Buddha be taken round the city of Anuradhapura once a year, the Esala Perehera was held annually during his time.This practice was followed by the succession of kings, with interruptions during foreign invasions. The most revealing narration of the Esala Perehera is found in a book written by the Chinese pilgrim Fa Hsien who visited Sri Lanka in the 5th century A.D

- RJ

More child protection officers recruited

With the number of children being subject to abuse and violence increasing drastically in the country, the Government has taken steps to provide better protection for children.

The Government has recruited 360 graduates specialised in Sociology, Psychology, Human Resources, Health Sciences and Criminology as child protection officers.

They will conduct islandwide programmes to create an awareness among the public of the need to protect the rights of the child.

According to the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA), they will educate the public about child molestation and rape with the objective of reducing such incidents and also help create a better environment for children to live and grow up in.

The Government aims to increase the efficiency of the NCPA with the recruitment of these graduates. By educating the public, they would be able to assist the police to arrest those responsible for committing crimes against children, the NCPA said.