Striking dons out to make govt. surrender

September 13, 2012, 9:52 pm , The Island

by Dasun Edirisinghe

University teachers, who have been on a continuous strike for over two months, staged a demonstration yesterday opposite the Fort Railway Station to force the government to meet their demands immediately.

President of the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri said that the government was yet to provide acceptable solutions to their demands.

FUTA’s main demands are the allocation six per cent of the GDP for education, consulting university teachers when decisions on higher education and a pay hike.

Dr. Dewasiri said that the government was ignoring their demands.

"We will not stop the strike until our demands are met," he said.

The senior academic said that the striking dons had also held a special convention at the public library auditorium yesterday.

He said that they had held discussions with Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa and Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake, but all talks had failed due to the government’s intransigence.

"Finally, the Labour Commissioner offered arbitration to solve the problems, but we rejected it," Dr. Dewasiri said.