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Prominent monk to help teachers meet President and Basil

09 Sep 2021

By Buddhika Samaraweera Chief Incumbent of the Anuradhapura Ruwanweli Maha Seya Ven. Pallegama Hemaratana Thera yesterday (9) agreed to intervene to provide an opportunity for the teachers’ and principals’ trade unions to meet with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, according to the Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU). “The monk agreed to make an intervention to find an acceptable solution to this issue,” CTU President Priyantha Fernando told The Morning following the meeting. A meeting with the President and Finance Minister has been sought by the trade unions for the past several weeks to discuss the issues in the education sector, particularly the teacher-principal salary anomaly issue. The continuous trade union action, carried out demanding solutions to these issues, marked the 60th day yesterday. Fernando said that the discussion with Ven. Pallegama Hemaratana Thera was the first in a series that is planned to be held with religious leaders, parents, and artistes to seek their support for the ongoing trade union (TU) struggle. Representatives of the CTU and several other trade unions had participated in the meeting. He also said that discussions would be held in the near future with a number of other parties, including Catholic, Hindu, and Islamic religious leaders. “We hope to meet the Bishop of Jaffna and several Hindu priests today (10),” he added. Nearly 30 teachers’ and principals’ trade unions have embarked on a number of trade union actions demanding a solution to the teacher-principal salary anomaly issue, the provision of facilities for teachers and students to carry out online education activities, and several other issues since 12 July 2021. In addition to online teaching activities, teachers and principals had withdrawn from duties related to sending applications for examinations, including the General Certificate of Education (GCE) Advanced Level (A/L) examination, online. They had also withdrawn from teaching activities at regional learning centres recently established by the Ministry of Education. Nearly 5,800 teachers and principals had decided to also withdraw from practical examination duties of the GCE Ordinary Level (O/L) examination that commenced on 26 July. Additionally, they have also decided to withdraw from duties related to the GCE A/L and Grade Five Scholarship examinations, which are to be held in November 2021.


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