A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
(Full Story)
Search This Blog
Back to 500BC.
==========================
Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Friday, June 2, 2017
‘Teachers, students hit by tug-of-war’
June 1, 2017, 10:15 pm
Teachers
and students were at the receiving end of a tug-of-war between the line
and provincial ministries of education over the issue of number of days
schools closed owing to the last week’s disasters, the Ceylon Teachers’
Union stated in a media release.
The release signed by General Secretary of the union, Joseph Stalin said
the Ministry of Education had announced that the schools in Colombo,
Gampaha, Kalutara, Galle, Matara, Kegalle, Ratnapura and Hambantota
districts would be closed till June 02 in view of the current disaster
situation.
However, on May 31, the Secretary to the Western Provincial Ministry of
Education announced through the media that schools in the Kalutara,
Gampaha and Colombo districts of the Western Province would re-open from
June 01. "On the same day the line min istry stated that the provincial
ministry could not take such a decision and its own previous circular
would be in effect and the schools of the aforementioned eight districts
would be kept closed. These contradictory statements have been
published in newspapers of June 01 too. Students and teachers of the
Western province are in difficulty while the Provincial Education
Secretary getting Zonal and Divisional Education directors to force
principals of the schools in the province to open their schools. This
tug of war between the line ministry and the provincial ministry shows
that there is no proper procedure in those ministries on how to act
during a national disaster situation.
The CSU called on President Maithripala Sirisena to intervene
immediately in this situation to prevent the disaster hit students and
teachers being further harassed by a tug of war between the line and
provincial ministries of education, the release added.
Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, contacted for comment,
said: "We as the line ministry make policy decisions. We decided to
reopen schools on June 2nd due to several reasons. As for the Western
province one could say that only several schools in Avissawella, Colombo
and Kalutara have been affected by disaster and others could be opened.
That is wrong. Many schools in Colombo are now being used as relief
coordinating centres providing assistance to the disaster hit people.
"We cannot upset that process. In addition, I have taken action to send
engineers to check buildings of all affected schools. Before making them
open for children we have to assess whether they would be safe.
Further, this is not a decision I took on my own. I consulted the
President before making this decision and got his approval."