Commissioner General of Examinations Anura Edirisinghe says the evaluation of answer scripts will definitely begin on September 13th.He says all evaluators should attend duties on this day, and that any absentees will be reported to the Supreme Court, which has ordered him to ensure the smooth conduct of the evaluation.
The court has banned the boycotting and disrupting the evaluation, he added.
However, the five teachers unions are planning to stage a token strike to pressurize the government to issue a circular that contains interim proposals to eliminate salary anomalies in the teachers and principals services.
The decision was announced at a media briefing in Colombo yesterday (September 9).
It was attended by the Ceylon Teachers Union, the All Ceylon United Teachers Union, the Association of Educational Professionals, the Ceylon Teacher Service Union and the Union of Diploma Holders on Home Science and Agriculture.
President of the All Ceylon United Teachers Union Venerable Yalwela Pannasara Thera said the strike action aims to support the boycott of G.C.E. (A/L) Examination answer script evaluation. Failing this, sterner measures will be taken, he warned.
It was alleged that the Ministerial Sub-Committee appointed to settle the salaries issue, has cheated the teacher unions by giving a false promise to eliminate the anomalies by January, which has not been agreed to by the Salaries Commission.
President of the Association of Educational Professionals Wasantha Dharmasiri said that instead of going for a settlement amicably, the government was worsening the issue that has been dragging on for 21 days now. An innocent student is being used as a pawn to threaten teachers, he charged.
Dharmasiri also condemned the Commissioner General of Education for his actions, and warned that he would have to take responsibility if anything goes wrong by using untrained persons to evaluate the answer scripts.
Also speaking at the news conference, Secretary of the Ceylon Teacher Service Union Mahinda Jayasinghe said they are ready to take up the challenge by the Commissioner General of Education that a boycott of the answer script marking would become a trade union action, only if all teachers join it. Thursday’s token strike will involve all 225,000 teachers, he claimed.
President of the Ceylon Teachers Union Joseph Stalin said they were ready to face intimidations and oppressive action that are aimed at sabotaging the trade union action. We will show our strength to the government on the 13th, he said.
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