* Minister to hold discussions with striking university academics of Sri Lanka
Wed, Aug 1, 2012, 07:37 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Aug 01, Colombo: The union of Sri Lanka's striking academics, Sri Lanka Federation of University Teachers' Associations (FUTA), is to meet Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa today (August 01) to discuss their demands.
The Minister has come forward to discuss with the FUTA to find a solution to the strike by the university teachers that has been continuing for nearly a month.
The FUTA launched a continuous strike on July 04 despite the salary increment granted by the Ministry of Higher Education and academic activities at the country's universities have been paralyzed due to the strike.
Minister of Higher Education S.B. Dissanayake has said that a 72 percent salary increase has already been provided for the University lecturers.
However, according to the FUTA, the strike is based on broader demands to find solutions to other problems of the universities not just the salary increase.
The FUTA demands granting the salary increase promised by the government in 2008, increasing allocations for education up to 6% of GDP, freeing universities from politicization and granting facilities to admit children of the university teachers to the schools.