SB, stumbling block to solving university problems – JVP

June 24, 2012, 9:54 pm 

by Dasun Edirisinghe,the island

The JVP yesterday alleged the Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake was purposely delaying solutions to the problems of university teachers and the non-academic staff.

Addressing a press conference at party head office at Pelawatta, JVP Propaganda Secretary Vijitha Herath said that they would fully back the on-going strike launched by the university non-academic staff and university teachers’ strike scheduled to commence on July 04.

Responding to Minister Dissanayake’s claim that the JVP was behind the trade union action in the university sector, he said, JVP would always be in the forefront to protect the free education system of the country, which, he claimed, the present government was trying to privatise.

Herath asked how minister Dissanayake could blame the JVP for disrupting universities, when the pro-government Sri Lanka Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya, too, supported the ongoing strike of the non academic staff.Herath said that according to UNESCO standards, a country should allocate 6% of the GDP to the education sector, but this government had allocated only 1.86% of GDPfrom the last budget.

"That was the main demand of university teachers," MP Hearth said, accusing Minister Dissanayake of abusing his powers in a bid to break the strike.