Principals and teachers take to the streets
Ministry Secretary promises discussion
The protesting teachers held placards and protested against the Education Ministry officials’ lax responses to their grievances
Education Ministry Secretary Gotabhaya Jayaratne yesterday promised an appointment to productively discuss the teachers’ and principals’ issues following a massive protest held before the Education Ministry by a group of aggrieved teachers and principals.
The protest was organised with the collaboration of about ten teacher and principal unions from various parts of the country including Mullaitivu and Jaffna. The protesting teachers held placards and protested against the Education Ministry officials’ lax responses to their grievances.
Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) General Secretary Joseph Stalin speaking to Daily Mirror at the protest yesterday said the main concern among the many issues they were facing was the salary anomaly in teachers’ and principals’ salaries that had been in existence for more than a decade.
“On several occasions we also made the Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena, aware of the irregularities in the teacher transfer process and the absence of a proper mechanism to grant the relevant promotions to teachers as well as principals,” Mr. Stalin added speaking more of the issues faced by officials of the education sector.
Following the protest held yesterday, some of the union representatives had been granted permission to meet Secretary Jayaratne. “He informed us he would need time to study the issues highlighted by us as he was still new in the position and promised us an appointment to discuss our issues within another three weeks,” Mr. Stalin said.