Teachers’ strike

Teacher Trade Unions have decided to call of their two day token strike. This follows an understanding reached between the TUs and Minister Susil Premajayantha on the basis of a Cabinet intervention to resolve the salary anomalies of teachers before December 31.

Teacher strikes are a new phenomenon in this country and have to be viewed with seriousness by the authorities lest the practise catches on.

No doubt the teaching fraternity have been a poorly paid lot upto now and their grievances should be addressed with the utmost priority before this noble profession too descend to the level of another noble profession whose practitioners are constantly out with their scalpels.

What should be realised is that any agitation on the part of the teachers would set a bad trend which could be picked up and emulated by the future generations who are their charges leading to social upheaval.

Therefore it is incumbent on the part of members of this profession who are looked upon as the fountain of discipline and moral conduct to tread warily before plunging into agitation.

Time was when teachers were looked upon with awe and reverence and students cowered at the sight of a typical specimen that represented the old school variety. The teacher held sway even among village communities where the counsel of the “gurunnanase” was often sought by the public.

Alas this patina worn by the teacher has worn thin over the years with the march of liberalisation and all that was held sacred in the profession was gradually replaced by economic considerations with teachers devoting most of their time to private tuition than attending to school curricula.

The result is now we have teachers demonstrating at street corners as any other Trade Union outfit. It is therefore opportune for our pedagogues to realise the harm they cause to the image of their fraternity by these acts and strive to conduct themselves differently to those in other fields, by not plunging into any precipitate action.

Equally the Government should not leave room for any cause for complaint by the teacher fraternity and ideally should appoint a special body to address any shortcomings confronting this important segment before they could crop up and cause dissension.

Here it should acknowledged that the teachers do a thankless job and are subject to pressures and tensions as perhaps in no other profession.

Most importantly they are entrusted with the onerous task of not only imparting a sound education to their charges but also moulding them into being responsible citizens.

This the Government should bear in mind when addressing their grievances.

The Government should also try to ascertain the reasons for the massive demand for tuition and inquire if there are any shortcomings in the teaching structure in the present day.

Today, with the large scale transformation witnessed in almost every sphere following globalisation and the cultural modernism some of the teaching methods adopted in the past may render themselves obsolete.

There is also a raging debate on the suitability of the present educational curriculum in the context of the sea of fresh knowledge unfolding each day through internet, the strides made in communication technology and shifts in the frontiers of knowledge.

It is therefore opportune if a complete overhaul is considered in the system of education so that it would move with the current trends and produce a generation who would fit into the present milieu.

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A ‘Sixer’ for the game

Our congratulations go out to Sri Lanka’s six-a-side cricket team who held aloft the world championship Trophy in this format of the game in Hong Kong, China, on Sunday.

This victory we hope will rub on the fortunes of the Test side who will take on the mighty Aussies down under in a few days time.

True, the Hong kong carnival was not the real thing and would no doubt baulk at the sensibilities of the purists, who would consider this biff bang variety played in an outpost like Hong kong as crude and a cricketing sacrilege.

However the fact that these drop outs from the mainstream national side overcame and beat all comers including the “All Star” side comprising former greats in the final cannot be belittled.

While there will be no red carpet to welcome them this feat should be recognised by the cricketing czars at Maitland Place and the team rewarded fittingly. Their feat should be lauded for no other reason than placing Sri Lanka on the world radar even for a fleeting moment.

Steps should also be taken to reinduct some of these fringe players into the national pool if for no other reasons than the prestige they brought to the country by their triumph.

Some of these players still have it in them to make it to the national side and this cannot be overlooked.

Their success is also bound to ignite the debate on the current selection policy where players such as Upul Chandana were relegated when they still had a lot to offer to the game. A pragmatic selection policy is the need of the hour.