The Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) blamed the Education Minister, attorney Dr. Susil Premajayantha, for not consulting President Ranil Wickremesinghe properly regarding issues with their salary anomalies in order to obtain an increment to their salaries from the Appropriation Bill for 2024.

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (25), CTU General Secretary Joseph Stalin claimed that the conduct of some officials in the Education Ministry – including the Minister – has hampered the Government’s measures to increase the salaries of the Teachers’ Service and the Education Administration Service, as they had promised a few months ago.

He alleged that the Ministry had completely neglected the voice of teachers and principals even though many Ministries had already consulted the Ministry of Finance to give benefits to their relevant communities.

“The Education Ministry has the responsibility to discuss these issues with the Government on behalf of the teachers. We can speak for ourselves if we are allowed to go to the Cabinet of Ministers. We have no such power. Therefore, the Minister should make an intervention regarding this matter. Instead, he continuously gives promises without doing anything to get this done,” he claimed.

Stalin added that most trade unions affiliated with the education system had urged the Government on several occasions to look into the issues persisting in this sector for decades, but that no one in the Ministry had paid considerable attention to their demands. He further added that this movement could not be stopped by intimidating teachers who are crying for a reasonable payment for their effort.

On Tuesday (24), several trade unions consisting of principals and teachers staged a protest in front of the Isurupaya building where the Education Ministry is located, demanding solutions to issues faced by teachers, including salary anomalies which have persisted for more than two decades. They demanded that the Government should address these issues via the Budget for the next fiscal year (2024), which is to be tabled next month.

Several attempts made by The Daily Morning to contact Minister Premajayantha proved futile.