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AEP remark unfair - Education Ministry

The office of the Ministry of Education responding to a statement by the President of the Association of Educational Professionals that the AEP would resort to a protest since nothing had come out of its discussions with the Minister states that the remark was unfair and calculated to mislead the teachers and the general public with ulterior motives.

The statement further adds

Such a statement has been made without any regard to the action that has been swiftly initiated by the Minister immediately after the discussions with AEP, without much fanfare, and the work that is now in progress to address the reasonable demands of AEP.

It must be stated that Minister is fully aware of the grievances of the teachers. It is in order to address some of their grievances with urgency, that Minister has already commissioned a Senior Education administrator exclusively to go into Wimaladharma Ekanayaka Committee Report who is expected to report shortly to the Minister identifying and classifying the recommendations under following categories i.e Recommendations (a) That could be implemented immediately at the Ministry Level, (b) Those requiring concurrence of the Ministry of Public Administration, (c) Those needing financial provision from the treasury.

The very reason for obtaining the above classification is to identify those, which could be implemented without delay and offer redress as early as possible. The officers concerned are working round the clock to finalise the above within the shortest possible time. As regards the Tissa Devendra Committee (TDC) report no meaningful discussion could be had with AEP, as the report had not even been published at that time. Now we know that TDC recommends a salary increase after retrenching one third of the cadre. It is not clear whether the AEP is in favour of retrenching 1/3 of teachers from the Government Service.

With regard to the recruitment of volunteer teachers as requested by the Secretary of AEP, it should be reiterated that there is an excess of Sinhala medium teachers and even the Teachers Service Minute is quite clear on teacher recruitment. Every one knows that the Ministry cannot resort to adhoc recruitment. It must be stressed that most of the present ills and anomalies, that have contributed to all heart burning and frustration among teachers, can be directly attributed to this type of ad-hoc recruitment and promotions. The Ministry does not intend perpetuating such ad hocism in making decisions.

Under the circumstances, any ill-conceived designs to set up teachers and other educational personnel to engage in protest campaigns are unfair and unjust. Its aim is nothing but achieving ulterior motives at the expense of the teachers. Particularly at a time when the Hon Minister has initiated action to resolve the problems accumulated over so many years.

While the Hon Minister appreciates the services rendered by a vast majority of Government teachers, it is regretted that a small minority of teachers is trying to disrupt the smooth running of Government School System. Declining commitment levels of a minority of teachers have become so unbearable even. H.E. the President had the occasion to express her concern recently in Kandy. May be this minority is trying to promote private tuition houses".

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