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By Padma Kumari Kankanamge
The National Organisation of Retired Teachers and Principals (NORPT) has urged the government to resolve their pension discrepancies by first rectifying the salary anomalies affecting teachers and principals.
NORPT members, some of them in their seventies and eighties, held a protest in Colombo on Wednesday and handed over a memorandum to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
Pix by Priyankara Samaraweera
They demanded funds be allocated in the 2026 budget for the implementation of the 20 per cent salary increase for teachers and principals, as recommended by the Subodhani Committee in 2022.
NORPT General Secretary Anil Pushpa Kumara said, “The B.C. Perera Salary Commission increased the salaries of all public servants by sixty percent in 1997. But teachers and principals were not granted this salary increase. They were told their request would be considered later.”
It was to sort out this anomaly that the then Education Minister appointed a committee headed by the ministry’s Additional Secretary, G.K.S. Subodhini. The committee, after a lengthy study, recommended that teachers and principals be given the same salary increase, Mr Kumara said.
However, the recommendation was not fully implemented by successive governments, and only 20 per cent of the 60 per cent hike was granted. After the protest, the group met the Director General of Presidential Secretariat Public Relations, Dharma Siri Gamage.
Mr Siri Gamage assured the NORPT of the President’s intervention to sort out the problem despite challenges the government is facing due to the IMF conditions.
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