Education Minister Dr. Susil Premajayantha said that although the Presidential Election candidates of each party said that they would call the teachers’ trade unions to Colombo and remove the salary disparity, there is no mention of it in their manifestos.
“Apart from President Ranil Wickremesinghe, no other candidate has presented a solution to the disparity in government employee salaries in their manifestos,” the Education Minister said yesterday (02) while joining the ‘Puluwan Sri Lanka’ press conference in Colombo.
“The main Presidential candidates have presented their election manifestos. When we say the minimum wage is Rs. 55,000, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) says Rs. 57,000. But their range is not shown. We are not in a programme like these people who are irrational and have no guide. A solution to the wage disparity has not been presented in any manifesto except in the election manifesto of President Ranil Wickremesinghe.”
“We don’t need to put our mission in the election manifesto. The committee’s report was approved by the Cabinet before the unveiling of the election manifesto. That is why we do not want to put this in a manifesto again. The policies are listed only about giving tax concessions.”
“Even though today the teachers’ trade unions of the main candidates’ parties are called to Colombo to remove the wage disparity, there is nothing stated about it in their manifestos. In two years, we have restored the situation in the country. As the Education Minister, I request those in the education sector to continue to maintain that trust.”
Minister Premajayantha said that he reached an agreement with the commission to stop the modular system until July 2025 until a simple system is introduced instead of giving increments to teachers based on the modular system.
“President Ranil Wickremesinghe has already appointed a committee to eliminate the disparity in government employee salaries and has taken steps to implement the committee’s recommendations. The teacher–principal salary gap has existed for 29 years. This provides a complete solution to that problem.
We think that there will be no further teacher trade union actions with the implementation of this from January 1, 2025, as the disparity in the entire public service will be removed. Teachers and principals will not get sick. We will be able to continue the education of the children in the classrooms. Non-academics in the university sector had a problem. This also solves that problem. The professors will not have any problem when solutions are given,” Minister Premajayantha said.
