History of the Department of Education, University of Jaffna
The Department of Education traces its inception back to four decades as the University of Jaffna was stepping into the fifty years of its educational service to the nation. The Department of Education was instituted in the Faculty of Arts on 15th October 1980 as the efforts of the scholars of the Northern Province and the leaders of Tamil community were realized, when the government decided to establish a faculty for teacher education at the University of Jaffna.
The first academic programme was inaugurated at the Department of Education with the first batch of 45 Post Graduate Diploma in Education students and five academic staff transferred from the University of Colombo. The Department of Education started its multifaceted educational programmes under the excellent guidance of late Professor. P. Chandrasegaram as the Head of the department. The department has been engaged in its traditional role of teaching and training the teachers and leaders of general education and allied occupations. It also is concerned with generating and disseminating knowledge through research and scholarship and with providing professional development services to the wider educational communities.
The department aspires to move into the next stage of its development and establish itself as a Faculty of Education. Also, it is strongly and highly recommended by the National Education Commission through a research conducted in the field of Teacher Education, headed by eminent academics under the leadership of Prof. Elsie Kothlawala .
It had been made initial preparations for launching the undergraduate degree programme (BEd) in close proximity, as in 2005 when the department commemorated its silver jubilee reaffirmed to move towards to these goals. The Department conducted an undergraduate programame for Faculty of Science Students in the name of BSc with Education which was renamed later as BSc in Science and Education. There are four batches of students graduated through this programme and working in different field of Education Sector. Now, it has been made initial preparations for launching the undergraduate degree programme Bachelor of Education (BEd) in close proximity.
Currently the department comprising six permanent academic staff and visiting lecturers conducts the Postgraduate Diploma in Education Programme for both Part time and Full time batches and is collaborating with the Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Graduate Studies in higher degree programmes in education such as Master of Education (MEd) , MPhil in Education and PhD in Education. During the past four decades the department has contributed immensely to the professional development of thousands of teachers and education administrators throughout the island though various academic and professional development programmes. Now, Initial steps have been taken to introduce Master of Educational Management with the collaboration of Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce in near future.