By Buddhika Samaraweera   Two leading teachers’ trade unions (TUs) – The Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) and the Ceylon Teachers Service Union (CTSU) – have expressed their opposition to the recent proposal of the Ministry of Labour to allow students aged 16-20 years to engage in part-time jobs, with both the TUs alleging that the proposal in question will keep children from low-income families away from schools. Speaking to The Morning, CTU President Priyantha Fernando charged that allowing students to work part-time is a decision that would further plunge the education sector, which has been in crisis for many years, into the abyss. He claimed that under the current education system, the students who are going to appear for the Ordinary Level (O/L) and Advanced Level (A/L) Examinations, which are two important points in their life, are not able to study while working. “Since 2019, schools have been closed on many occasions. As a result, the syllabi related to many grades have not been covered properly. The non-coverage of the syllabi mainly affects the students who are scheduled to sit for the O/L and A/L examinations. In such a situation, instead of taking steps to cover the relevant syllabi, it is a very wrong decision to allow the students to engage in jobs, even on a part-time basis.” he added. Fernando further noted that due to the current economic crisis in the country, many students are already engaged in various jobs instead of attending school. He charged that trying to provide a legal foundation to such negative trends that lead to the decline of the education sector through various laws, instead of eradicating them at the time of their occurrence, is totally unacceptable. Meanwhile, speaking to The Morning, CTSU General Secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe said that the CTSU is strongly opposed to giving students the opportunity to work, and added that the CTSU would be initiating the necessary action including legal action against the move in the future. “By giving students the opportunity to work in this way, the children of poor families in the society will be kept away from school education. The children of rich parents will never work. When they successfully complete their education, the children of poor families will move away from education little by little. How do we approve a programme which would cause such a situation? We ask the Government to stop this preparation at this very early phase,” he said. He charged that at a time when the educational opportunities available to students should be expanded, the Government takes decisions to limit education to allow politicians to continue their corrupt practices under an uneducated generation. Therefore, he said that all progressive parties including teachers, principals, parents, students, and the education experts should get together and defeat the Government's move. Minister of Education Susil Premajayantha was not available for comment. Minister of Labour Manusha Nanayakkara recently stated that steps would be taken to amend the labour laws to include provisions for students between the ages of 16-20 to engage in part-time jobs subject to a maximum of 20 hours per week. Apart from the currently identified 72 hazardous occupations, he said that the programme would focus on giving students the opportunity to engage in jobs related to supermarkets, restaurants, and cleaning services. The Morning recently reported that due to the severe economic difficulties faced by many families, as well as schools not conducting lessons in a proper manner, there is a tendency among students in senior grades discontinuing their education to engage in various forms of employment. It was reported that this is seen mostly among students who are scheduled to appear for the O/L and A/L examinations. According to sources, most of the students turning to jobs are engaged in various daily-wage jobs in or near the areas they live. It is also reported that certain other students, especially those living in remote areas, have resorted to earning money through various informal means, such as sand mining, instead of formal employment. Given the Covid-19 pandemic situation, schools islandwide were closed on several occasions in the past two years. Despite the Government’s efforts to carry out teaching activities online, given the school closures, teachers and parents were continuously charging that the Government had not provided the necessary facilities for teachers and students to teach/learn online. Furthermore, due to the continuous strike launched by the teachers’ and principals’ trade unions demanding solutions to the teacher-principal salary anomaly issue from mid-June to August 2021, the activities of the schools were hindered. Schools were also closed for several weeks due to the fuel shortage in the country and the resulting transportation crisis.