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A senior administrator of the University of Peradeniya once related
to an anecdote where a labour officer was negotiating with a delegation
of a striking union.
The labour officer had told the members of the delegation that a
strike was like a sword. The sword was to be waived before the employee
but should be used only when necessary.
I am very much disturbed at the decision of the Teachers’ Unions
boycotting or disrupting the marking of the GCE A/L examination answer
scripts.
When I was in service at the University of Colombo, I was one of
those who visited a centre allocated to me to check whether the marking
was properly done according to the marking scheme.
At that time about 12-15 mostly female teachers were allocated to a
centre. They all clock in at about 8 a.m. and work very hard until 4
p.m. with a short break for lunch. At the end of the marking, they were
expected to perfect the mark entry sheets, double check the entries and
also work out the statistics.
They were thoroughly exhausted at the end of the session. Those
living outside Colombo had to leave their homes very early in the
morning and get back after night fall.
Some teachers lodged with their friends in and around Colombo.
Apparently the strike does not involve a demand for higher rates of
payment but a demand for the correction of certain salary anomalies in
the teaching profession.
This letter is an appeal to trade unions to allow the marking
examiners to proceed with the marking for the sake of the students who
sat the Advanced Level.
A significant number of the candidates come from middle class
families, leaving home very early and getting back at sunset after
attending tuition classes.
Any delay in the marking will cause delays in the release of the
results, finalising the lists for university admissions and the
commencement of their university education.
Further students who wish to pursue studies in foreign countries
would not be able to forward their applications prior to the closing
dates.
Successive Governments have always turned a blind eye to this issue
of salary anomalies but this should not be a weapon for the teachers to
penalise students for faults of Governments.
R. N. DE FONSEKA – Panadura
I worked in the Middle East for 20 years. When we were there we
consoled ourselves by thinking that we were the preferred country in the
Arab nations because we thought we were intelligent and better than the
other expats there.
Unfortunately we do not reconcile to the fact that the Arabs want us
to do the work they do not want to do and not the work they do not know
to do added to which we were the cheapest in the labour market.
All the Indians in the Arab world are originally toddy tappers and
fishermen in their country. No qualified Indian will even dream of
coming for the salaries we so joyfully grab from the Arabs.
How is it that our country is undergoing such shame when they the
Arabs are doing so well? It was not our brains and brawn that made their
country but their own brains and foresight.
All Sri Lankans mostly Sinhalese should understand this.
The sooner they do, the sooner we will prosper.
EMMANUEL PHILIP
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