Govt keen to hike dons’ salaries

Dinesh De Alwis

Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake said discussions regarding university lecturers’ salary increase held with Finance Ministry officials were proceeding positively.

The Finance Ministry will give the final decision soon. We agreed to offer a large scale salary increase to University lecturers. We can’t issue a Circular at this moment,” Minister Dissanayake told the Daily News regarding the university lecturers’ token strike today.

”President Mahinda Rajapaksa is keen on this issue.

That is why we are increasing their salaries. We are having discussions with relevant parties. We want to stop the brain-drain in future,” he added.

Minister Dissanayake told Parliament that the Government had taken steps to raise the salary of the junior academics from Rs. 20,750 to Rs. 72,000 and senior academics from Rs. 57,750 to Rs. 200,000.