FUTA to continue strike until demands are met

July 6, 2012, 10:22 pm 

By Harischandra Gunaratna, the island

The Federation of University Teachers’ Association (FUTA) President Dr Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri yesterday said that his association’s talks with President’s Secretary Lalith Weeratunga had not reached fruition. However, he said, Weeratunga had given the FUTA representatives a patient hearing unlike Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake, whom he accused of having a confrontational approach.

Dr. Devasiri said the FUTA would continue its on-going strike until its demands were met.

Sri Lanka’s education sector was facing a severe crisis and Higher Education Minister had to change his attitude, the FUTA president said, urging the government to get its priorities right. He said it now had to decide whether to invest in the loss incurring Mihin Lanka or in education.

Addressing a news conference at the National Library Services Auditorium in Colombo, Dr. Devasiri said: "The government is attempting to give a different interpretation to our struggle and it is resorting to cheap propaganda by enlisting the support of bankrupt trade unionists who talk out of turn and try to teach university teachers what to do."

Devasiri paid a tribute to one of the founders of the Communist party of Sri Lanka Dr. S. A. Wickremasinghe, whom he described as one of the few leaders who had understood the value of education.

Asked whether FUTA had faith in the government, Dr. Devasiri said going by the manner in which the powers that be handled the university issue, he did not think they were making a genuine effort to settle the dispute.

The FUTA president said the government kept on asking the masses to tighten their belts while increasing the salaries of parliamentarians, bureaucrats and their favourites. "There is so much corruption and waste in the government but when the university teachers request a salary increase or urge it to invest more in education, it tightens purse strings."

 "The government boasts that the country’s economy is expanding fast, but in the same breadth it claims that it cannot increase the salaries of university teachers," Dr. Devasiri said.