The Sri Lanka Principals’ Service Professionals’ Association today (14) issued a statement clarifying the position of the school pricipal arrested with narcotics in Anuradhapura earlier this month.

A principal attached to a primary school in Eppawala was taken into custody on the 5th with more than one kilogramme of heroin.

However, the association said the suspect — despite being widely referred to as a “principal” — is not a graded officer of the Sri Lanka Principals’ Service.

According to the statement, it has now been confirmed that the suspect is an officer of the Sri Lanka Teachers’ Service and was serving as an acting principal at the time of his arrest.

The statement emphasised that only graded officers of the Sri Lanka Principals’ Service can be formally designated as “principals,” and that using the title for others amounts to an injustice to those in the official service.

The association further requested that, when reporting on the case, the suspect be identified accurately as “an officer of the Sri Lanka Teachers’ Service.”