1 September 2021 08:48 am Views - 108
As Interim Allowance
Cabinet Spokesman, Plantation Minister Dr. Ramesh Pathirana said yesterday that the government expects teachers and Principals resorting to trade union action would accept the government’s offer of Rs. 5,000 as interim allowance for September and October until their demands would be met in full in early next year through the 2022 budget.
However, the Cabinet had not taken a decision on what would be the next course of action of the government if the teachers did not accept the solution proposed by the four-member Cabinet Subcommittee to pay Rs. 5,000 for two months as a temporary step to resolve the dispute, he added.
Minister Pathirana told the post-cabinet news briefing last morning that he was making a request to striking- teachers and principals to give up their trade union action considering the plight of 4.3 million students who had been deprived of formal education for nearly one and half years due to Covid- 19 pandemic and also of the precarious situation of the national economy.
Education Minister Dinesh Gunawardana announcing the Cabinet decision taken on Monday on the issue, said the Cabinet unanimously decided to implement in full, the four-member Cabinet Sub Committee’s recommendations and as such pay Rs. 5,000 monthly for the next two months until the Budget for 2022 was presented in early November.
The Cabinet also decided to make the ‘Teacher Service’ a closed service as demanded by the teachers' trade unions and issue the relevant Gazette notification in November. The government would also appoint a special committee to discuss the salary anomalies and service- related issues with Provincial Councils and find solutions to all issues stage by stage within six months starting from January 2022 in accordance with the 2022 Budget proposals.
When a journalist told that the teachers had already rejected the Rs. 5,000 allowance and the failure to declare teacher service a closed service by the government immediately, Minister Gunawardana said the government expected a more positive response from the striking- teachers and humane assessment of the current financial position of the Government and the quandary in national education.
“A permanent solution remained for 24 years has been ensured by the cabinet by early next year to all issues of teachers and principals. The strike has delayed the release of results of 600,000 GCE O/L students who had sat for the examination in 2020 and practical tests of students at the University of Aesthetic Studies,” he added.