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Protesters find exam unpalatable for teacher recruitment
View(s):Development officers seeking to be absorbed as permanent teachers are calling on the government to treat them with dignity and resolve longstanding grievances.
Representatives of some 16,000 development officers-turned-teachers have continued a fast at Galle Face Green not far from the Presidential Secretariat for nearly a week. Some teachers have occasionally fallen ill and been admitted to the National Hospital.
Asanka Dissanayake, a teacher from Viyaluwa, Badulla, acting as the convener of the organisation, said the members in the current government backed them in previous protest campaigns while they were in opposition, but they are silent now.
For more than six years, we have been teaching in state schools. Therefore, recognise us as teachers by giving us teacher appointments, say the protesters. Pix by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
“We stepped into the teaching profession when the government was in a crisis and facing a shortage of teachers after the COVID-19 crisis after 2000, and now the government has been ignoring us,’’ Mr Dissanayake told the Sunday Times at the protest site.
He said that though they were an original batch of 23,000, only about 16,000 wanted to be absorbed into the permanent teaching service.
He said that despite repeated attempts, the Education Ministry has ignored their concerns, while a recent meeting with an official from the Presidential Secretariat, too, was futile.
Asanka Dissanayake
“The government is trying to get us to sit the teachers’ examination and join the teaching service. How unfair is that? What happens to the service period of about six years? We will be losing that service period,’’ he said.
He said besides that, some of the teachers would have to sit the examination with the one-time students they had been teaching.
Mr Dissanayake said that since they are considered development officers, though they are teaching, they are expected to remain in school until 3:30 p.m.
Kamani Dhammika, a teacher from Monaragala involved in the fast, told the Sunday Times that she has been a class teacher as well as a teacher in charge of various subjects in the school, where there are staff shortages.
“We are known as teachers in the village, and we want to remain as teachers. Allow us to serve with dignity,” she said.
Kamani Dammika
The Sunday Times learns that a new gazette is to be issued regarding a competitive examination to recruit development officers serving in ministries/departments as teachers. Those who pass will be trained before recruitment.
On Friday, an official from the President’s office visited them and informed the group that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake was prepared to meet their representatives next Tuesday but that he wanted them to end the fast.
The protesters were due to take a decision on the suggestion.
Yesterday, the protesters decided to conduct another demonstration tomorrow with the participation of more members, while calling on the President’s office to give them an early appointment for a meeting.
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