Better deal for teachers

The teaching fraternity is in for a bonanza by way of a substantial salary increase announced by the Education Minster Susil Premajayantha.

Addressing a media conference on Tuesday the Minister said that the salary of a teacher would be fixed between range of Rs. 21,500 to 34,005 per month depending on their grade.

He said the Salaries and Cadres Commission had recommended the hike on a recommendation made by him (the Minister). The increase would come into effect from September 1.

It is hoped that the salary increase for which the teachers had been agitating for long would once and for all end the militant approach adopted by the teaching fraternity to win their demands. It would also hopefully release the teaching profession from the clutches of Trade Unionism which does not accord with a profession dedicated to guiding the destinies of our youth and whose recent conduct brought disrepute to the profession has a whole.

They should now devote their energies towards the student population and further themselves form Trade Union activities that had sullied the good name of this noble profession.

This is also an appropriate time for the teachers to look back on their recent conduct which left much to be desired. For the first time in this country the teachers who should set an example to society and particularly the younger generation broke with all traditions and values associated with the teaching profession and threw in their lot with the rabble of Trade Unionism.

Their decision to stay away from evaluating answer scripts of the GCE A/L examination was unprecedented and reflected the times we live in. It also mirrored the extent to which the dignity and decorum associated with the teaching profession had eroded over the years. They should at least now resolve to restore the dignity of this noble profession which had taken a severe battering in recent times due to the irresponsible conduct of its fraternity.

Teachers should do well to hark back to the old times when the teaching profession was held in awe and reverence and teachers were almost deified in society. They should recall the days when a member of the teaching profession was a pivot in community life, to whom people went for counsel and guidance.

That was a time when reverence to school and teachers extended well beyond school life as seen by the numerous articles appearing in newspaper readers’ columns eulogising the pedagogues of the past. One has only to juxtapose this with the present day scenario where teachers are seen at roundabouts demonstrating with placards to realise the rot that has set in.

This is not in any way to belittle the teaching profession and the services rendered a majority of the fraternity who still cling to the values associated with the profession. In fact redress to the grievances of the teachers had been long over due.

Previous Governments neglected the teachers which perhaps resulted in the bottled up frustrations over the years taking a militant form at present. What is unpardonable is the political flavour which the recent teacher agitation assumed.

One cannot imagine the outcome should the teaching fraternity too decide to wrap their demands in political garb. That will be the day when the death knell will be sounded on the teaching profession as an institution that is looked up to by society especially one entrusted with the responsibility of moulding and guiding the youth of the country.

It is hoped that the teachers take cognizance of the respect and regard they enjoy in society and refrain from acting in a way that would barter their status. On the Government’s part it should address the grievances of the teaching profession.

It should treat the teaching profession as a separate entity deserving priority treatment. Society needs the services of the teachers as never before as a strong influence to arrest the slide into decadence that we are witnessing all around us today. As guardians entrusted with moulding the character of the future generation their worth cannot be overemphasized.