Education Minister’s claims completely false: Stalin

5 December 2023 12:12 pm Views - 782

Colombo, Dec.5 (Daily Mirror) - The statement by the Education Minister yesterday claiming that addressing the salary anomalies of teachers as a top priority during the current economic crisis may pose significant challenges in meeting the identified priorities for children is completely false, the Ceylon Teachers' Union (CTU) claimed.

Addressing the media CTU General Secretary Joseph Stalin said the budget heading for education is being discussed in parliament today.

With the current economic situation, the parents have to bear the school costs, and they have to send money every day to school for various purposes, he said.

Therefore, the government must allocate six percent of the money from the GDP to the education sector, but that allocation was not done, Stalin said.

He said that with the recent budget allocations, no solution has been provided to the teachers and principals, but a heavy burden has been thrust on them.

Providing textbooks, uniforms and shoes is done every year by the government as usual, but solutions to the teachers' and principals' salary anomalies have not been provided yet. 

Stalin also claimed that the Education Minister had requested Rs. 46 billion from the government to solve the problems.

"Through the current budget proposals, none of the solutions have been addressed to the issues that prevail in the education sector. The Education Minister always mentions of providing shoes, text books and uniforms for schoolchildren. This practice had been done always. He is doing nothing other than providing these facilities," he said.

Although the budgetary allocation of Rs. 6,000 billion was done by the government for school uniforms, all school uniforms were provided by the government of China and the Rs. 6,000 billion has not been used, claimed Stalin.