Posts denigrate Sri Lankan opposition leader with fabricated news graphic
- Published on February 12, 2026 at 06:03
- Updated on February 12, 2026 at 09:25
- 2 min read
- By Harshana SILVA, AFP Sri Lanka
After Sri Lankan school development officers staged demonstrations and hunger strikes to pressure the government into integrating them into the country's teaching service, a purported news graphic was shared in posts falsely claiming it showed opposition leader Sajith Premadasa's proposal to end the protests. Premadasa told AFP he never made the remarks attributed to him in the posts, which he called an "insult to the intelligence of Sri Lankan people". A local news outlet which posts similar graphics also called it "fake".
"Hand over advanced-level classes to tall development officers, and primary classes to short development officers," reads Sinhala-language text on a purported news graphic shared on Facebook on February 4, 2026.
The text is featured above a picture of Sri Lankan opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, with a blurred logo in the image's bottom-right corner (archived link).
The graphic is referring to school development officers -- university graduates recruited by the government to work in schools, where they have also been assigned to serve in teaching roles. They are not paid teachers' wages, however, and have been demanding integration into the formal teaching service for years.
It circulated following protests and hunger strikes by the officers who pressed the government to absorb their ranks into the permanent teacher service (archived link).
The protests ended on February 3 after the officers met President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who proposed they transition into the service after sitting for required examinations (archived here and here).
The graphic was also shared in similar Facebook posts.
While Premadasa met protesters and accused the government of breaking its promises to them, he did not make the remarks attributed to him in the circulating graphic (archived link).
A reverse image search on Google led to a similar graphic featuring the opposition leader on Sri Lankan news outlet Ada Derana Sinhala's Instagram and Facebook pages (archived here and here).
But it has different text, which reads: "Recruit the development officers to the teaching service -- Sajith Premadasa."
A report on his remarks was published on the outlet's website on February 2 (archived link).
It highlights Premadasa's call for development officers to be absorbed into the permanent teacher service to address vacancies, while accusing the government of breaking promises made when it was in opposition.
The news editor of Ada Derana's Sinhala website, Poornima Ayuwardana, told AFP via WhatsApp that their template was used to create the falsely shared graphic.
"This is also fake news. We don't use headlines like this. And also this isn't our official font," Ayuwardana said on February 9.
A separate reverse image search showed the image used in the report came from a YouTube video posted by Premadasa on his official channel (archived link).
Its caption reads, "Enough of lies. At least now, recruit the teacher development officers into the teacher service".
Premadasa also told AFP via WhatsApp that the graphic was false.
"I have never ever said such a thing," he said on February 9. "These types of posts are an insult to the intelligence of Sri Lankan people."
AFP has previously debunked other misinformation targeting Sri Lanka's opposition.
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