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Teachers claim most schools yet to received 2021 monetary allocations 

24 Jan 2022

By Buddhika Samaraweera  The teachers’ trade unions have claimed that even though the schools have to spend a lot of money to maintain schools in the face of Covid-19 pandemic situation, most of the schools islandwide have not yet received the necessary monetary allocations even for the last year. Speaking to The Morning yesterday (23), the Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) President Priyantha Fernando said: “There is a huge cost involved in maintaining schools in a hygienic manner during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the Government has not yet provided the schools with relevant monetary allocations. Let alone those for this year, even the allocations for last year have not yet been received.”  He further said that as a result of the lack of funding in that way, school development committees in many schools are now collecting money from parents, adding that it was totally unacceptable. He said that instead of allowing schools to collect money from parents at a time when many are facing economic hardships, the Government should immediately provide the relevant funds to the schools.  “Among the recommendations of the Cabinet Sub-Committee appointed to look into issues including teacher-principal salary anomalies is the need to formulate a programme at the provincial council level to address the problems in schools. Therefore, we, as a trade union, have planned to pressurise the Government to implement those recommendations as soon as possible,” said Fernando. The Ceylon Teachers’ Service Union (CTSU) last week alleged that in a backdrop where schools have been closed for nearly two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many schools are currently charging facilities and service fees from students even for the period during which the schools were kept closed. In a letter to Education Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, the CTSU General Secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe had stated that it was not justifiable to charge such facilities and service fees given the fact that many other expenses related to the school system other than salaries have been saved due the school closure. Jayasinghe had also requested the Education Minister Dinesh Gunawardena to immediately allocate the necessary monetary funds to run schools without collecting money from students. Education Ministry Secretary Prof. Kapila Perera was not available for comment. The schools which were closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic were initially opened for academic activities in a few stages. Thereafter, the Director General of Health Services Dr. Asela Gunawardena granted approval to the Education Ministry to normalise academic activities of all schools from 10 January 2022 onwards.


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