Daily Mirror 12/07/2011
By Lakna Paranamanna
Indicating the possibility of disruptions to the 2011 A/L evaluation process, university academics yesterday announced they would refrain from submitting the required marking schemes for the answer scripts.
Federation of University Teachers’ Association (FUTA) President Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri said though Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena and other officials claimed that the evaluation process would not be disrupted, the process could not be initiated without the marking schemes.
“The marking scheme includes guidelines which should be adhered to during the evaluation process. The standard of the evaluation process will drop drastically if evaluations take place in the absence of a marking scheme,” Dr. Dewasiri told Daily Mirror Online.
He said at a meeting on Friday the FUTA executive committee decided on this course of action because of the snide comments made by Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena.
“Minister Gunawardena has insulted the academics and has mocked our trade union demands,” Dr. Dewasiri said and pointed out that the academics were demanding only what they were entitled for.
He dismissed media reports that the academics were withdrawing from lectures and said no such decision had been taken.
“From the time the academics resigned from voluntary administrative positions, most universities have not conducted lectures. Therefore, this is not a situation that has cropped up suddenly but has been going on for weeks,” he added.
More than two months ago academics holding voluntary administrative positions in universities countrywide resigned from their posts as part of a series of trade union action to win their demands of a reasonable salary increase.
Although several rounds of discussions had been held between FUTA members and government officials, the academics issue has not been resolved so far.
