Govt. given 1 month to resolve 'political victimisation' issues: CTU

Teacher trade unions have given a month for the Government to look into the issue of plans by the Ministry of Education (MoE) to grant relief to some 1,000 persons reportedly affected by ' political victimisation'.

The Ceylon Teachers Union ( CTU) says their trade union action was called off temporarily, to give time for the Special Committee ap p o i n t e d by President Maithripala Sirisena to look into the files of persons recommended to be appointed to the Sri Lanka Administrative Service.

The CTU last week called off a token strike to be conducted in all schools on Thursday ( 26), following an assurance given by President Sirisena that the case will be looked into.

Accordingly, a Committee comprising senior officials of the SLEAS and the Government Administrative Service were appointed to examine the list of names proposed by the MoE.

CTU General Secretary Joseph Stalin said that even if some of them have no disciplinary inquiry pending, they will not qualify for the positions, as they have not passed the competitive examinations held by the SLEAS, to qualify for the posts.

"The list of persons have been selected on the ‘ politically victimized’ category and have no other claims to the position they are being appointed to. No competitive examinations were held by the SLEAS," he said.

Meanwhile, the CTU claims that 27 persons in the list have not passed in Maths at the GCE Ordinary Level Examination, which is mandatory for the position. Also, around 115 individuals have disciplinary inquiries pending.

The MoE, however, claims that 1,014 names in the list qualify for the position, under a special category – ‘ politically vicitimised persons’.

Mr Stalin said that past governments tried the same tactics and failed, with cases pending in the courts. "We will continue with our protest," he said. Around 15,000 Principals and 240,000 Teachers participated in the July 4 protest.