FSP says extremists in govt. refusing to grant just demands of teachers

The extremist who are delaying the GCE A/L answerscript evaluation are in the Cabinet of Ministers, says Education secretary of the Frontline Socialists Party (FSP), Pubudu Jayagoda.Education Minister Susil Premajayanth has said that an extremist group is behind the delay in paper marking.

“The university lecturers made several demands to the government. They wanted the government to start PAYE tax from Rs 200,000 a month to reduce the starting tax rate to four percent from six percent and to reduce the peak tax rate to 24 percent, given that the largest corporates only pay 30 percent at maximum. The government didn’t respond, and this is why the academics are boycotting paper marking,” he said.Jayagoda said that the government is also taxing research grants received by academics.

Even the number of teachers who have applied for paper marking have reduced drastically.

“Rs 175 is paid per answer script. If we look at a paper like biology, a teacher can mark 10 papers the most and earn Rs 1,750 a day. Once you have lunch and two cups of tea, there is nothing left. When the Cabinet decided to pay Rs. 3000 a day, the Minister of Education decided he can only pay Rs 2,000 ,” he said.

The FSP education secretary said that the minister of education and his senior officers receive significant perks from taxpayer rupees. However, he has failed to carry out the most basic administrative tasks.

“Also what is the connection between holding OL exams with the delays in AL paper marking? The minister says that they find it hard to

protect papers from rats. If the ministry can’t protect the papers from rats, how can a child apply for re-correction?” he asked.