Are our teachers shortsighted? - EDITORIAL

Sri Lanka is a nation which has seen many rebellions staged against the state or the government. These rebellions suggest that past governments have hardly been people friendly regimes. 
There is a section of the society which still maintains the idea that Sri Lanka would have been better off under British rule. But history shows us that the Ceylonese were brutally repressed during colonial times and their incomes were taxed with the introduction of taxes. Apart from paying taxes for uncultivated lands there was a tax that had to paid if you rared a dog (these are two among several other reasons that fueled the 2nd battle for independence). 

People rebel against the regime when lawmakers make merry at the expense of tax paying citizens. This tendency to rebel against the state has continued over the years since the time of the British. 
These days we see the teachers rebelling against the regime. Strangely the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) is not using strong arm tactics to squash these rebellions by teachers. 

Past records on rebellions against the government show that the main cause for them being unsuccessful was due to the lack of cooperation. 
These agitating teachers are having the government by the scuff of its neck. Covid or no Covid these teachers have crippled school education because they have pulled out of online education; and worse threatened to stay away from upcoming exam duties and paper marking.  

Now in this environment we see private tuition masters minting money by conducted online classes. Some parents have said that if their sons and daughters don’t log in to the class at least 10-15 minutes before the class commences such students have logging in problems and miss the class. In the absence of school activities these tuition masters have virtually taken over education in the country and have found loyal students and supportive parents, who’d keep their bank accounts supplied with a steady remittence. 
The GoSL probably loves what it sees. These private tuition masters are fighting the regime’s battle. The government has specifically stated that salary anomalies of teachers would only be solved after the presenting of the next budged. 

Parents and observers of this standoff between the regime and teacher unions must understand that there is a political line to this battle fought by the teachers. If one observes the proceeding up to now one can see that two of the top most individuals marshaling these teachers are almost in retirement and would be desperate about what the future holds for them; hence their aggressiveness and efforts to add fuel to agitation activities. 
There was a time in the past when school teachers were looked upon as demi gods. But over the years private tutors have taken that place and cemented their futures in education by producing students with island rankings at Education Ministry conducted school examinations. 

This is a ‘me’ era and any ambitious student would ask the question ‘what’s in it for me’ before making a commitment to sign up for a course or even participate in a social responsibility project like a ‘shramadhana’. The same thinking is adopted by the private tuition masters; hence that is why they prefer to do their own businesses rather than teach in schools for paltry salaries. 

There are those who bat for these school teachers and support their demands. But a good majority of parents are frowning at them for neglecting their duties and the children who came under their tutelage. A recent facebook post on the teachers perhaps sums up the general thought outsiders have of these teachers. It reads, “If the teachers can only think of staging a strike to win their demands during the present pandemic and suggest that they are so shortsighted then these teachers deserve the present salaries they are drawing’.