The Federation of University Teachers' Associations (FUTA) is to make a final decision regarding their participation in the paper marking activities pertaining to last year’s (2022) General Certificate of Education (GCE) Advanced Level (A/L) examination held this year (2022), within two to three days, The Daily Morning learned.

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (19), FUTA President, Prof. Shyama Banneheka said that Education Minister, Attorney, Dr. Susil Premajayantha is making a positive intervention to solve their issues. "The Minister is trying his best to solve our issues and we appreciate it. We anticipate some good results. We will meet in a day or two, analyse the situation and then make a final decision on the matter."

Meanwhile, Dr. Premajayantha said on Tuesday (18) that state intelligence agencies had reported that there was a conspiracy behind the delay in commencing paper marking activities that involved some extremist political groups. "Intelligence agencies have reported that some extremist political groups want to delay the paper marking activities, causing great distress among the youth of 18, 19 and 20 years of age. They have reported that there is a programme to take advantage of that distress and to divert the youth towards their political ideologies," he claimed.

Commenting on the said statement, Prof. Banneheka said that the Minister was not accusing the university teachers and school teachers of having been involved in a conspiracy. "He says that there are certain groups that utilise the atmosphere created by our action for their advantage and political gain. That is what we understood. What he (Dr. Premajayantha) says is that because of our action, students are in an unrest and that third parties may utilise it for their gain. It is true that the people get affected when we are in a trade union action. We do not want it to happen, but there is no other action that can be taken if the authorities continue to ignore our issues," he said.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Grade Five Scholarship, GCE Ordinary Level and A/L Examinations were postponed in 2021 and 2022. Accordingly, both the Scholarship and A/L Examinations, which are usually held in August of each year, were postponed to December, 2022. Following requests made by several parties to postpone the A/L Examination again, as the relevant syllabi had not been covered in most of the schools by that time, it was again postponed to February, 2023. Although the Examination was held in February, the paper marking process did not commence as the teachers and university teachers engaged in trade union actions over their respective issues. The teachers' trade unions recently said that they would participate in the paper marking activities following the Government's decision to raise the relevant payment to Rs. 3,000. The university teachers have however not expressed their willingness to participate in the same yet.