Teachers continue to stay away from online teaching

Teachers islandwide continued to stay away from online teaching for the third consecutive day today (14) as unions are calling for an international investigation into the detention of education sector activists in the form of quarantine.

President of Ceylon Teachers Union Joseph Stalin who is presently in Sri Lanka Air Force’s Mullaitivu quarantine centre told TimesOnline that they have requested right groups, both local and international to conduct investigation into the incident in which protestors were forcibly dragged to quarantine centres.

“The behaviour of the police towards protestors needs to be investigated. While 32 were produced before courts only 16 are at this quarantine centre. We have no idea where the others are. Members of the Human Rights Commission’s Jaffna branch tried to visit us several times, but were denied permission to talk to us as we were in quarantine. But we briefed them over the phone,” he said.

Protests were staged in several places today (14) against the detention of Stalin and other activists, who were arrested, bailed out and directly taken to quarantine centres. Last Thursday, over 30 activists protesting against the government's move to pass the controversial Kotelawala Defence University bill were arrested by police.