By Lakna Paranamanna
More than ten days have passed since the commencement of the A/L paper marking sessions. While some of the teachers’ trade unions are still boycotting paper marking sessions, the authorities assure that paper marking sessions are functioning smoothly. Meanwhile, the Minister of Education, Susil Premajayantha submitted a memorandum to the cabinet for the removal of the salary anomalies of the principals; and teachers’ service last week. It was approved by the Cabinet and was immediately implemented.
Now that the anomaly has been removed, will the teachers and the principals come and mark the papers? Has this move actually fulfilled the demands of the trade unions?

There will be no change!
The Principals’ and Teachers’ Trade Union Alliance (PTTUA) said that they do not accept the proposal submitted to remove the salary anomalies which has been approved by the cabinet as a solution to their demands.
“This proposal was presented to us by the Salary Commission on June 26th at the discussions held with the President, Mahinda Rajapaksa. We denied it then because it did not fulfill our demands. Now, again, the Minister of Education has taken steps to implement it without even consulting the teachers’ trade unions,” said the Convener of the PTTUA, Joseph Stelyn.

He also accused the Minister of Education for making false statements. “He has stated that the teachers would get an increment of Rs. 2,200 with immediate effect by this move. But in reality the increase is only Rs. 460, in maximum,” pointed out Stelyn. Rs. 1.6 billion was obtained from the General Treasury to implement the recommendations of the Salary Commission which the cabinet had approved. The total number of teachers and principals in the education sector is about 200,015.

It requires 20 years of service for a teacher to be a Grade I teacher. Currently, the starting salary of a Grade I teacher is only Rs. 21,645. “With effect of the proposed salary report, it would increase only up to Rs. 21,750. It is only an increase of Rs.105!” added Stelyn. Stelyn further stated that there is no point in implementing the new salary proposal since it would not make any changes in the principals’ and teachers’ decisions about attending paper marking.

Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the Ceylon Teachers Services Union (CTSU), Mahinda Jayasinghe agreeing with Stelyn said that they do not accept the removal of the salaries anomaly as a solution to their issues regarding salaries which have existed for over a decade now. “This proposal was rejected by the trade unions several times. By implementing this proposal, it clearly shows that the Government does not wish to grant our demands. They are only trying to show the masses that our demands have been granted when in reality, it hasn’t,” pointed out Jayasinghe.

He emphasised that after the discussions with the President, although they submitted their salary proposals, none of those proposals have been taken into consideration. “The students’ futures are in grave danger. But if we don’t continue our struggle, we wouldn’t be able to win our demands. This is the sole fault of the Government because we warned them several times. But they did not heed the warnings until the paper marking sessions were seriously disrupted,” said Jayasinghe. He added that after the commencement of the new school term, they would discuss with the other trade unions of the education sector and carry out several union actions.

Accused
Stelyn also accused the Commissioner of Examinations, Anura Edirisinghe for using media to influence and urge the parents against the teachers. “The sessions are disrupted! Even the Minister has admitted it, but the Commissioner states that there is no crisis. That explains the way he is making false statements. He is misusing media to attack us. The Government is trying to make the teachers accept the fault of the delay of paper marking and suppress our fight for our rights,” he added.
“This crisis has only two solutions; the Government has two choices, they can either properly rectify the salary anomaly that has existed for over a decade now, or else they can implement the interim salary proposal which was proposed by the Ministry of Education to the Salary Commission May 22nd, 2007,” added Stelyn.

No disruptions!
However, the Examinations Commissioner stated that there is absolutely no disruption in the paper marking sessions. “The sessions started on August 20th and they are continuing smoothly. Some of the teachers haven’t attended paper marking sessions and they are the people who are spreading rumors of this kind. But they do not represent the majority,” said Edirisinghe.

He also remarked that there is no need to take legal actions against the teachers who haven’t attended paper marking sessions., “No such legal actions would be taken against them,” he added.
But many trade unions claim that things are far from running smoothly. They claim that les than 10% of the teachers required to mark the papers have submitted the applications.

“They need 12 000 teachers if they want to run a smooth operation,” said General Secretary of the Ceylon Teachers Services Union (CTSU,) Mahinda Jayasinghe. “Although the Commissioner is claiming everything is ok, that is far from the truth. Only a fraction of the teachers needed have arrived and that is a fact,” he added.

Students’ reply
It is true that the teachers have legitimate grievances, problems that should have been resolved years ago. It is also true that there is no “quick” solution for this problem since it would create anomalies throughout the state sector. But regardless of both arguments it is the students who have suffered because of this.

“I know the teachers have problems and I accept that they need to fight for their rights,’ said Shyamane de Silva, an A/L student. “But this affects hundreds and thousands of students, and I think the teachers and the authorities would unite to sort out these issues,” she added.

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