Principals' protest outside President’s House secures assurance

The Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) has secured an assurance from the President’s office that outstanding issues of Principals will be addressed soon.

The assurance followed this week’s protest by some 3,000 Principals outside President’s House, said the CTU.

CTU Secretary General, Joseph Stalin said that, President’s Office Additional Secretary, S. Kariyaperuma had assured CTU representatives he met, that their problems will be taken up with the Education Ministry Secretary and resolved, early

He said that many protests and representations made to the MoE have been ignored, and they were forced to take the issue to President Maithripala Sirisena.

Among their demands were to grant promotions to Principals in Grades 2 (2) & (3), who have been denied promo- tions due to a delayed court ruling. He said the Supreme Court ruling on case SCFR/2010 /2012 given in 2012 and 2014 has deprived several Principals of their rightful promotions, despite having completed 6 years in their Grades.

The Principals demand, their Letters of Appointment be back dated to 2009, to qualify them for promotions.

Additionally, 3,850 teachers promoted to the Principal service recently, have yet to be granted placements in schools for the last several months, and are not functioning commensurate with their post.

Furthermore, others face discrimination in their salary structure, in keeping with the new Principal Service Minute of October 22, 2014. Mr Stalin alleged that Principals are drawing salaries far less than what they were drawing as teachers.