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Teachers allege favoured officers sent for overseas study 

15 Sep 2021

BY Buddhika Samaraweera The Ministry of Education is allegedly preparing to send a group of Sri Lanka Education Administrative Service (SLEAS) officers selected in a manner contrary to the due process to the UK, to pursue a postgraduate degree programme at a cost of around Rs. 432 million.  Speaking at a media briefing yesterday (14), the Ceylon Teachers Service Union (CTSU) General Secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe claimed that it is planned to send a total of 54 SLEAS officers to the UK to pursue this programme in two phases. According to him, 16 officers will leave during the first phase while the remaining 38 officers will leave in the second phase. “The Ministry of Education is to spend around Rs. 8 million for each of these officers. The Government always says that the country is in an economic crisis at present due to the Covid-19 pandemic. If so, how do they do this kind of thing in the face of such a crisis? Most importantly, the majority of the officers who are to leave for this course are selected on the basis of personal favouritism,” he alleged. Speaking further, Jayasinghe further claimed that among the said group are also certain officers who have been accused of various acts of corruption and several others who are allegedly holding various secret discussions with the Ministry of Education Secretary Prof. Kapila Perera, to sabotage the ongoing trade union actions that have been initiated by teachers and principals trade unions, in protest over what they claim to be the Government’s failure to provide solutions to the teacher-principal salary anomaly issue.  “It has been 65 days since the teachers and principals trade union actions were initiated demanding solutions to the teacher-principal salary anomaly issue that has been going on for many years. The Government states that it has no money to address it due to the prevailing situation, but they have millions of money for these things. The majority of these officers were selected on the basis of favouritism,” he further alleged. Prof. Perera was not available for comment on the allegations levelled by the CTSU.


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