Teachers salaries will be increased by between Rs. 1,200 and 1,300 with effect from January next year, Education Ministry Secretary Nimal Bandara said yesterday.
He said the Education Ministry is in the process of drafting a new circular to give effect to the salary increases.
He said the new salary structure which has been proposed by the Ministry with the assistance of the Salaries and Cadres Commission has also been approved by the Cabinet.
“A circular is being drafted according to the proposals we have made and it would take at least two more weeks to finalise,” he said adding that the Government has already allocated Rs. 3,000 million for the teachers’ salary increase.
However, teacher unions have called for the implementation of a proposal which requires the Government to spend Rs. 6,700 million.
Mr. Bandara said the islandwide strike by teachers on Thursday was a failure since 95-95% of teachers attended National Schools and schools in the main towns.
Mr. Bandara said the strike was somewhat of a success in remote areas due to the communication gap. He said that the Ministry explained the situation in the country to the teachers saying that this was not the suitable time to go on strike.
However, Ceylon Teachers’ Union Secretary Joseph Stalin said that when considering the sabotage campaigns carried out by the Ministry, the strike could be called a success with more than 100,000 teachers boycotting school on Thursday.
“Provincial and Zonal Education Directors and some National School principals carried out campaigns on October 28 and 29 to sabotage the strike,” he said. strike.
He said in some areas, teachers had been threatened. “Some officials had said that the trade unions can’t ask teachers to go on leave,” he said adding that deciding on trade union action is a right of the workers and by saying that they have no right to do so, the Government has violated rights stipulated by the International Labour Organisation.
He said that according to the proposals of the Government, only Rs. 105 would be the salary increase even though the Ministry spread stories saying that the increment would be substantial. | 
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