Teacher unions: Politicians’ attempts to scuttle strike fail

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Attempts made by certain regional politicians to undermine the union action of principals and teachers had failed, CN Liyanage, the President of the Graded Principals’ Association told the media yesterday.

Liyanage said that in the past few weeks’ meetings had been organised for principals and teachers at zonal education offices across the country. “These were organised on the pretext of discussing measures to reopen schools. However, they were arranged by regional politicians. All those meetings were failures because very few people turned up,” he said.

The principals and teachers from 31 unions would not call off their strike until an acceptable solution was given to their salary issues, he said.

The government seemed to have funds for everything except for resolving the long standing salary issues faced by principals and teachers, Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) General Secretary Joseph Stalin said.

“The government divided the salary increment proposed by the ministerial committee into three installments. The first one is to be given in January 2022 and for most it is a Rs. 1,250 increment. The government made a lot of savings because schools were closed for a long period, hopefully they will invest the money on education,” he said.

Stalin said that the Subodani Committee’s proposal to end the crisis would have cost the government RS. 71 billion a year. However, the principals and teachers have agreed to a proposal made by a ministerial committee that only costs the government Rs. 30 billion a year.

“Some politicians like S.B. Dissanayake, sidelined by the President, are trying to score points by insulting principals and teachers. Such actions only make matters worse for the government,” he alleged.