AMS urges teachers to suspend their protests for the sake of nation

The Association of Medical Specialists (AMS) yesterday requested the teachers and principals to suspend their protest campaign for the safety of the public in view of the rapid spread of the pandemic.

AMS President Dr Lakkumar Fernando told The Island that they were saddened by the rigid approach of the present government towards the demands of principals and teachers that had led to the current stalemate.

Dr. Fernando said that the AMS respectd the right of principals and teachers to fight for their long unattended and neglected demands. However, given the surge in Covid-19 infections, with the Delta variant claiming the major share, the teaching fraternity should be more considerate of ordinary citizens than politicians.

“If the pandemic reaches catastrophic levels our crafty politicians may even frame teachers as solely responsible for generating “Delta clusters” and we sense that they have already started working on this,” he said.

The AMS also requested the government to make sure that all the principals and teachers get both doses of COVID-19 vaccine and allow adequate time to develop their immunity before they resume their school activities.

“No educated person will be able to put a price tag on your sacrifices to keep children’s hopes alive by engaging in online education with virtually no state patronage or incentives. We as teachers involved in medical education, agree and endorse your right to engage in trade union activities unreservedly. We blame present and past political authorities for neglecting your very reasonable claims. We are sad to note the rigid approach of the present government which has led to current stalemate.

“As a responsible, educated and mostly apolitical force of the society, we plead with respect to focus on surging Covid 19 infections with the deadly Delta variant claiming the major share. With ever surging numbers of Covid 19 cases, we all should be more considerate of ordinary citizens than politicians in a more pragmatic approach. If the pandemic reaches catastrophic levels (we think it is already) our crafty politicians may even frame teachers as solely responsible for generating “Delta clusters” and we sense that they have already started working on this.

“Therefore, as a professional organization we urge and plead with all organisations of the teaching fraternity to temporarily suspend their protest campaign purely for the safety and health of our nation in the middle of this deadly pandemic.

“Further, we request from the government to make sure that all the principals and teachers get both doses of COVID-19 vaccine and allow adequate time to develop their immunity before they resume their school activities.

“Finally, we would like to request from HE the President and the government to kindly consider the reasonable demands of Principals and teachers in a favorable manner and initiate a dialogue at the highest level to resolve this crisis. We also hope that the government will take all possible measures to curtail all forms of ceremonies and other public gatherings and reimpose restrictions on public movements to ease the disastrous overcrowding of public and private hospitals and to bring down the escalating daily death rates.”