Teachers on strike: Education unions continue with island wide protests
View(s):The state education system in the country has come to a complete standstill as government school teachers continue to boycott online education and threaten to stay away from future exam duties as another week passed with failed discussions, protest marches, vehicle processions and arrests.
Determined to get their salary anomalies issue sorted, teachers abstained from online teaching for the 25th consecutive day on Friday, leaving government school students who were studying via Zoom, WhatsApp and Microsoft Teams losing the opportunity to learn from their school teachers.
Teachers and principals took to streets this week with protest marches and vehicle processions taking place in many areas.
“More than 30 teacher-principal unions are participating in this trade union action. A total of 247,000 teachers and 16,000 principals are fighting for an issue that has been unresolved for the past 24 years,” said Ceylon Teachers Union General Secretary Joseph Stalin.
Mr. Stalin who heads the teacher struggle for a solution to the salary anomalies issue said they are waiting for a solution at the third Cabinet meeting on Monday.
“Until we are given a favourable solution, teachers and principals will abstain from rehearsals for the O/L aesthetic subject practical exams scheduled to be held later this month, A/L examination application submissions in school and A/L examination duties, and boycott online meetings conducted by the Education Ministry, provincial departments of education or zonal education offices,” he said.
This week’s protest led to Police arresting 40 teachers who they (Police) said to have violated quarantine rules at the protest held near the Presidential Secretariat. The arrested teachers had to go through Rapid Antigen Test and all tested negative for COVID-19. The teachers were later granted bail by Fort Magistrate.
“While demanding the government to solve the salary issue, we will pressure the government to abolish the controversial Kotelawala Defence University Bill and ensure all students have online facilities for education. We do not want to cause inconveniences for the children, but this is a time when there is no equality in education, and 60 percent of students have no access to online education. We teachers and principals have waited for a long time seeking an answer to our salary issue,” the Ceylon Teacher Services Union General Secretary told the Education Times.
After several rounds of discussions with Education Minister G. L. Peiris, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, senior ministers Bandula Gunawardena and Gamini Lokuge, unions say they will continue with their trade union action as none of the officials were able to immediately solve the salary anomalies issue.
“This issue cannot be solved easily. It is not practical to make such demands in a situation where the Government has been affected greatly in all its income sources such as VAT, customs, excise duties and expatriate worker remittances which are the main sources of state income. It is not reasonable to boycott teaching activities due to an issue that has existed for 24 years,” Education Minister G. L. Peiris said.
(Nadia Fazlulhaq)