FUTA sticks to its guns

September 7, 2012, 9:17 pm , The Island

by  Dasun Edirisinghe

Striking university teachers yesterday said that they would not give up their struggle to win demands for the protection of Sri Lanka’s free education system until all their demands were met.

Addressing a news conference in Colombo, President of the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri said that all types of coercion was being used to make them stop their strike, but they would not give up.

He said that the government was attempting to end their strike by not paying their salaries for two months.

"The government may think that we would give up the struggle due to non-payment of our salaries," Dr. Devasiri said adding that it was wishful thinking.

The senior academic said that their struggle was not for their survival but to protect the State education system of the country for the next generation.

He said that they had held several rounds of discussions with the government, but all negotiations had concluded without an acceptable solution.

FUTA launched the all out strike on July 04. Their main demands are allocation of 6 per cent of the GDP for education, consult university teachers when taking decisions on higher education and a pay hike.