2013 A/L paper marking on hold
Advance payments overdue
Teachers engaged in the 2013 A/L answer script evaluations yesterday decided to temporarily withdraw from paper marking duties, as a mark of protest against the Examinations Department’s delay to pay their due advance payments.
The initial mark of protest was made by evaluators of the Nalanda College evaluation centre, where they gave up their duties and stepped out of the paper marking centre. The aggrieved evaluators also staged a protest opposite Nalanda College, expressing their objection to the delay in their payments.
The impending crisis in the 2013 A/L answer script evaluation process was made evident when Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) President Joseph Stalin stated that teachers from many other A/L paper marking centres island-wide were due to follow suit in the coming days, if the Examinations Department failed to address the grievance of the evaluators concerning their advance payments.
According to Mr. Stalin, the advance payment of Rs. 5000 paid to evaluators usually five days after each stage of the paper marking process is begun, had been delayed at the evaluation process this year. Although the teachers had made repeated requests from the Examinations Department to arrange a system through which they would be paid the advance payments promptly, the requests had been ignored. “During the two initial stages, the advance payments of the evaluators were paid only on the final day of each stage,” Mr. Stalin explained.
He pointed out that to date, although it had been nine days since the third stage of the A/L paper marking began, the teachers still had not been paid their advance payments. “Most teachers who attend paper marking are from outstation areas. They have to pay for their accommodation, travel and meals when they are on paper marking duty. Therefore, it is unacceptable for the Examinations Department to be withholding their due payments,” Mr. Stalin said.
The distressed A/L answer script evaluators also wrote to the Examinations Commissioner W. M. J. Pushpakumara yesterday, urging him to provide an immediate solution to their grievance.