We have been cheated and fooled: Dons
The Federation of University Teachers Association (FUTA) said yesterday it would write to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake on the government’s failure to fulfill its promises by increasing teachers’ salaries and investments in higher education through the 2012 budget.
“We have been cheated and fooled. It is irresponsible for the government to treat the academic community in this way,” FUTA President Nirmal Dewasiri said. He said FUTA would take trade union action and hold discussions with all the universities in the country on the next step.
Dr. Dewasiri said according to the understanding reached between the government and FUTA, the basic salary of university academics was to be increased by 20 per cent from January 1, 2012.
The government also agreed to extend the housing loan scheme introduced for public servants to university academics as well and to increase the rates for various services provided by university academics.
“FUTA also requested amendments to be made to the University Act — to do away with the various poorly thought out training programmes for university students being carried out without the approval of the faculty boards and senate boards, spending the resources allocated for higher education for training programmes outside the university, forcing universities to hire security services from two extremely expensive security firms, in which high ranking government officials have vested interests,” Dr. Dewasiri said
FUTA called off its trade union action which began in May this year after President Rajapaksa assured that their requests would be fulfilled. “At the time the government said it would implement the proposals submitted by FUTA in stages during 2012 and 2013,” he said.
“We are displeased with the government. Assurances it gave us have turned out to be false. It does not talk about reducing the number of ministers or their salaries and cars provided to them or the massive expenditure that was to be spent on the 2018 Commonwealth games. It does not consider the funding for education. This is a far bigger problem than just receiving an increase in salaries. The education sector has a direct impact on the economic performance of the country,” Dr. Devasiri said.
FUTA Vice President Ananda Jayawickrama said though it was believed that some 2.9 per cent was spent on education, last year’s statistics showed that investment in education had been in the region of 1.5 per cent which is less than adequate for the education system to function.
“The government says Sri Lanka’s economy is knowledge-based and it will move the country forward but unfortunately we do not see this happening,” Dr. Jayawickrama said.
Courtesy: DM Online
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FUTA,
You fools! You do not run the country but MR & Co do and they know what is best for the country and its inhabitants including you, the so called Academics! You voted them in, why whinge now? Be happy with what you have as if not the white van will come for you!
Our country is small and we are doing fairly well despite the economic recession the world over due to capitalist greed of the imperial West.
The new Budget is planned to benefit all fairly. No special provisions can be made for the University Teachers, with a 20% salary increase when the rest of the public service is awarded 10% rise. When the country’s economy develops Hon President will be able to provide even greater salary increases for all, and not just the University Lecturers.
They do not realise how fortunate they are even to get a 10% salary increase when Universities in the West are struggling with government subsidies cut by 70% and they have to be privatised with huge tution fees, which most students can ill afford. Some universities in the West may have to be closed with redundancies. Hence SL University Lecturers must stop making a fuss like spoilt brats. The cake is small and it has to go round to all. They cannot demand a bigger slice for themselves.
Nicholas Dias,
You are a Diaspora who live in abroad has no worries about the budjet in Sri Lanka.Shut your bad mouth,dont talk about the cook & bull stories by relating cake & pieces. You are an idiot, do you know the value of the lecturers in Sri Lanka? Do you know the hardness of higher studies in abroad? Do you know the value of each Degrees? It is better to shut your elephant mouth.
Thanks to the media we are able to know what is happening around the world instantly. One does not have to live abroad to know what is happening in the world today.
According to the media, in USA university fees have been increased by about 70% and most young can ill-afford a university education. This is true in Britain and in Europe as well. EU governments have been subsidising tertiary education but no more, due to economic recession. The universities in EU countries have also increased their tution fees by 60-80%. Ordinary students can ill-afford this. Hence they are now turning to apprenticeships to learn a trade and earn at the same time.
Roshan insults me instead of putting his point across rationally like a gentleman, thereby showing his own poverty of character. For his information, I am a qualified lecturer and has been in the teaching profession for a long time. I am a highly qualified man without having to boast. So I know about tertiary education. With my guidance and teaching, my daughter is a medical doctor and my son is Human Resources Manager. I am retired now. I am also surviving somehow on a pension, but I don’t complain. We should not expect the government to dole out money to everyone. We should be resourceful and try to generate money ourselves as best as we could without turning to crime. I try to grow my own food as much as possible in the home garden. My simple philosophy is, If we lead a spiritual life we can have peace and joy amidst all our trials and tribulations.