KAMALIKA PIERIS
Revised 20.6.19
HEALTH
We start with
Sunshine stories”. Here they are:
- European standard hospitals will be established in Hambantota,
Panadura, Dambulla, Matale and Embilipitiya with German, Netherlands and French
aid.
- New accident wards are to be
established in 24 General Hospitals and Teaching Hospitals located island wide.
- A total of 48 blood transfusion centres have
already been established island wide.
- A clinical wastage
recycling project, spending Rs. 2600 million will be launched.
- A foreign company will invest in E-Health system and issue
E-Health cards for Sri Lankans .the company will include all State hospitals in
the E-Health system. It has provided E-Health cards for 40 million people in
Andhra Pradesh in India.
The country’s
health care system will be digitized via an E-Health policy. According to the
E-Health policy, all citizens will be issued E-Health Cards which will record
their health conditions so that any doctor can have history of their patients.
The E-Health System will be introduced to 45 Hospitals in the next two years
2018-19 .it is to be expanded to 300 hospitals following the initial
implementation.
- The government is to launch a project to manufacture a key
ingredient in medical products using liters of blood plasma daily unused in the
country. We will have a joint project with United States of America and India
to produce certain ingredients which are very important in some medical
products. When we export blood plasma, these countries manufacture these
ingredients and export them back to our country for very high prices. With this
new project, we will receive a quantity of these products for our local use.
***
In 2017, The Government
Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA)
urged the Health ministry to appoint a
suitable officer to the post of Director General of Health services. This is the apex position in
the health services and the post has been vacant for nearly one year now with
an acting DGHS.
***
In 2018 The GMOA
asked the Health Ministry to fill the 148 Deputy Director posts which had
fallen vacant instead of creating ‘Acting Deputy Directors’. There were
180 Deputy Director posts in the country and 148 of them were vacant. the
vacancies had been advertised about one year back. But, no attempt had been
made to fill them. Medical
Superintendents in Base hospitals, Deputy Directors in all major hospitals,
Deputy Regional Directors come under the category of Deputy Director. State-run
hospitals are facing a crisis due to the delays in appointments.
***
In 2018 the Government Medical Officers’
Association warned it would resort to a
strike if the North Central Provincial Council attempted to bring doctors
serving in the province under the Provincial health service. North Central
Province (NCP) had, in a letter, informed the Provincial Director Health
Services that the Council had taken a decision to absorb doctors under its
purview. GMOA said doctors belonged to
the All-Island service.
The doctors
had also wanted to take up with the Governor NCP several other issues including
Indian medical officers conducting mobile clinics in the East, the misuse of
World Bank funds and the delay in paying doctors’ overtime. A group of GMOA
representatives in the East who attempted to take up those issues at a meeting
with Governor on March 29 had been threatened.
***
Puttalam
nurses staged a demonstration in March 2018 saying that they had worked in
Puttalam for nine years and had got transfer orders but the hospital is not
letting them go.
***
Doctors protested in 2018 against an
appointment of a second vascular surgeon to the Ragama Teaching Hospital
(Colombo North Teaching Hospital) from outside the annual transfer list. The surgeon involved was sent to the
Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital in 2016.Two years later a special position had
been created for a second vascular surgeon at Colombo North Teaching Hospital
(CNTH), Ragama and this surgeon appointed to it, in violation of the annual
transfer list. Doctors allege that the
second position had been created to accommodate this particular surgeon. Director of the Ragama hospital told the
Director General Health Services, that two vascular specialists are not required
in his hospital as the hospital doesn’t have a specialized unit for vascular
surgery.
***
The post of
the Chief Epidemiologist was always held by a qualified epidemiologist but a
doctor without the required medical knowledge
was appointed to this position
in 2017. Protests were made by the
GMOA, former Chief Epidemiologists, current Epidemiologists and senior
academics.
Chief
Epidemiologist, Dr. Paba Palihawadana, sought and obtained no-pay leave from
the Health Ministry to join the UN service for one year, in 2017. While she was
on no-pay leave, another senior public health specialist of the Epidemiology
Unit acted for the Chief Epidemiologist. However, when Dr. Palihawadana
reported back for duty as Chief Epidemiologist on January 1, 2018, she found
that another person had been appointed to the post.
Dr. A. Dissanayake was appointed as Chief
Epidemiologist on December 19, 2017, There was an advertisement, I applied and
I was selected,” he said, pointing out that the appointment was made by the
Public Service Commission in accordance with the prevailing medical minutes. Dr. Dissanayake said he had headed the
National Blood Transfusion Service for several years. Before that he was Regional Director of
Health Services (RDHS) in Kalutara, where he was handling everything”. The medical profession did not agree. They
said Dr D. did not have the necessary qualifications. He had a M.Sc in Medical Administration.”
According
to circular No. 02-132/2000 dated
September 26, 2000, the Chief Epidemiologist should be a Board certified
Consultant in Community Medicine with work experience in epidemiology,. These
criteria are also included in the Medical Services Minute of 2014. All Consultants attached to the Epidemiology
Unit have these qualifications and field experience in epidemiology-related
activities.
The
Epidemiology Unit is responsible for controlling communicable diseases. If
there is a major outbreak of a communicable disease, the Epidemiology Unit, will
not be able to handle the crisis with a non-technical head without a background
in epidemiology, Sri Lanka’s much-commended public health system would crash
with the next outbreak of disease.
All
epidemiological-related activities — which include communicable disease control
and the immunization programme – are coordinated and implemented through
Regional Epidemiologists based at district-level. When the Regional
Epidemiologists need any technical input, it has to be provided by the Chief
Epidemiologist. the Chief
Epidemiologist has to provide technical advice and guidance to these
Consultants. The doctors will not be ready to follow the medical instructions
given by a doctor who does not have the requisite knowledge. That is why we
think that the current Chief Epidemiologist cannot handle the job,”
Doctors
pointed out that a non-technical doctor had been appointed to head the Dengue Control
Programme. He had abandoned” his post during the height of the dengue epidemic
in 2017. The main reason for influenza reaching the epidemic level in the
Southern Province is the appointment of a doctor without the relevant medical knowledge
to the post of Chief Epidemiologist, said the GMOA in May 2018.
The influenza
started to spread in the Southern Province one month ago, but nothing was done
to control it, The Chief Epidemiologist kept mum. Now it is up to the parents
and the school authorities to control the outbreak and prevent it from
spreading all over the country. The
Epidemiology Unit and the Chief Epidemiologist is not ready to face any
possible disease outbreak that could occur as a result of the present floods,
either.
***
Cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Namal Gamage has
decided, in July 2018, to stop performing surgeries as the air-conditioner at
the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital was not functioning. There were around 3,000
heart patients waiting to undergo heart surgery at the hospital. Although a
number of requests had been made for repairing the central air-conditioning
system, no action had been taken, The
patients also made the same request to the authorities.
***
The Health Ministry said in 2017 it would make
use of theatres at private hospitals to perform cardiac and eye surgeries to
clear waiting lists at government hospitals. The surgeons and staff would be
from the government and private sectors. Health Ministry would meet the cost. The
private hospitals have submitted their
charges for each surgery and the time table during which the operations could
be performed. The Private Sector Regulatory Authority would study the report
and come up with an action plan.
***
The Emergency medical
Service system of the country will soon be strengthened with eight Airbus
Helicopters and 28 state-of-the-art emergency vehicles, said the Ministry in
2017. Steiger
Foundation of Germany will provide 24 helicopters, 1,025 ambulances and 24
emergency vehicles. Helicopters
will be useful addition to the system, considering
road traffic congestion . Sometimes
ambulances could not travel through roads due to traffic congestion.
The government announced that it has decided to continue with
Sri Lanka’s pioneering Pre Hospital
Emergency Care Ambulance Service, Suwasariya, launched with Indian financial
backing in 2016. the free ambulance services now operating in
Western and Southern Provinces will be expanded covering the entire country
by 2018. Joint Opposition pointed out in
Parliament that it was the ambulance service in the hospitals
which should be expanded.
The Indian firm GVK EMRI LANKA operated the
free ambulance service through a
Public-Private Partnership with the Ministry of Health,. The operation is a 24
hour, 7 days a week, round the clock service, the Control Centre received over
322,000 calls and has served over 32,000 cases, out of which, cardio, trauma,
and stroke were the major cases.
In a Memorandum to the Cabinet of Ministers,
Wickremesinghe had said that the Pre Hospital Emergency Care Ambulance Service,
which was launched in the Western and Southern Provinces with GVK EMRI Lanka
Limited and assistance of the Indian Government on July 29, 2016 had by April
2017, responded to 236,000 calls with an average responding time of 12.52
minutes and transported 130 to 135 patients daily.
In a ‘letter to the editor’ which was supposedly
to praise a hospital ward, ‘Concerned woman’ heaped praise on the Indian
ambulance service which she said was excellent. The service included a doctor, a nurse and nurse aide. They were
trained in India, including the driver. They knew emergency medical
action. they were considerate and capable. They helped revive her husband with
emergency first aid. All this at no cost thanks to the present government, she
said.
***
Health Ministry has. in 2018, outsourced the laundry services of hospitals
in the Western Province to an Indian Company, complained Government Medical
Officers’ Association . The GMOA wanted
this outsourcing of the laundry in government hospitals to an Indian Company,
stopped.
The Ministry
said that the new laundry service would be provided by the Sri Lankan affiliate of India’s Sugram
Hospital Solutions, which is engaged in laundry services at several hospitals
worldwide, The service is a Board of
Investment (BOI) project under the Build, Operate, & Transfer (BOT) method
with a USD 4 7.5 million investment. The
government does not bear any expenses for the project. Constructing of buildings and installing required machinery, will
be done at the expense of the investors, After 15 years the project, with up to
date technology will be transferred to the Ministry of Health. More than 300 unemployed youths will be
given employment.
Under the
project, the garments used by the patients and staff during the surgical
procedures will be sterilized using modern methods, washed and ironed, sealed
in protective covers, and transported to the hospitals in sterilized trucks. The Ministry of Health will spend less than
the cost incurred by the hospitals on local laundry services at present.
The Ministry said doctors in Western Province
had complained about the local providers who were engaged in the laundry
service for the hospitals in the Western Province. They were using substandard materials for sterilization, they were not sterilizing, there was delay in providing cleaned laundry to
hospitals during rainy season, and the
possible spread of skin related diseases due to incomplete cleaning also,
white-colored bed linen are brownish. They were washed with water from the
Beira Lake.
GMOA replied that the local agencies involved
in washing hospital linen had been registered with and certified by the Health
Ministry after calling for tenders. They were experienced and met the required
standards. The charge that Beira Lake
water was used for washing hospital linen was incorrect. GMOA wanted to know
whether cleaner water was to be brought from India or whether linen was to be
sent to India to be washed and brought back to Sri Lanka.
This was yet another instance of Sri Lankan
politicians acting as agents of foreign countries. They were selling government
institutions and services to foreign companies, said GMOA. GMOA had warned that the Economic and
Technology Corporation Agreement (ETCA) would threaten the services and
professions in Sri Lanka. Now, it seems that not even small enterprises and
family trade would be safe with ECTA,
said GMOA. This project
has no relevance to ETCA, replied the Ministry.
***
there were 13
local drug manufacturers who locally produce 82 items for the State
Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corporation, said the Ministry at a media briefing
in 2017. Ten more local manufacturers producing 40 more items will join the
local drug manufacturing in the near future. a total of 38 agreements have been
signed between the government and the local drug manufacturers to produce drugs
in Sri Lanka .Sri Lanka has already begun local drug production at two
factories situated in Kandy and Horana.
Sri Lanka
expects to produce 80% of its drug requirements by the end of 2018, which will
save USD 400 million plus annually which the government spends for drug
importation. Accordingly, the importation of all drugs which can be produced
locally, will be stopped by the end of 2018.
**&
The State Pharmaceuticals
Manufacturing Corporation of Sri Lanka (SPMC) and Pharma Zone (Pvt) Ltd entered
into an agreement in January 2018, to build the first ever exclusive
pharmaceutical manufacturing zone (Pharma Zone) of Sri Lanka. It will be located
on 50 acres in Welipenna, Kalutara district at an investment of over US $ 10
million. to be.
The Pharma Zone is a BOI approved
company whose principals are the Sultan of Johor and Patrick Lim Soo Kit, a
leading Malaysian entrepreneur. This is
a 100 % Malaysian investment and it underlines the high regard that the Sultan
and the people of Johor for Sri Lanka, said the Ministry.
The Zone will be run and administered
by Pharma Zone, headed by Patrick Lim Soo Kit, while the SPMC along with the
Ministry of Health will set the standards and monitor quality. Electricity,
water, road infrastructure, security, waste water management, will l be provided to the companies operating
within the Zone. it is the intention of Pharma Zone to attract overseas
investors to set up operations within the Zone as well. “We will be
marketing Pharma Zone regionally,” said Lim.
Pharma Zone will facilitate the local
pharmaceutical manufacturers with sufficient land for manufacturing plants and
basic infrastructure facilities for the manufacture of pharmaceutical products.
So that the government can achieve its target of localising production of
essential pharmaceutical items to a value of US$100 million. with the
completion of the Pharma Zone, envisaged to be in operation within one year,
the country’s dependency on imported drugs will soon become a thing of the past,
said the Ministry.
**&
In 2017
the Health Ministry announced an exclusive agreement between the government and
the staff of the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) to grant a staggering
55 per cent salary increase to the lowest paid employees and 41 per cent pay
hike to their highest paid counterparts. This
salary increase had been granted due to an impressive profit of Rs 1,800
earned by the SPC . it would be effective from July 1, 2017 to June 6, 2020.
***
Hospitals do
not have adequate drugs to treat cancer patients and are not sure when the
drugs will arrive critics said in January 2019. This is due to the delay in
appointments to tender boards. That is turn is due to vetting process by the
committees appointed by the President. The Boards cannot function until persons
are formally appointments to tender boards. the Medical Supplies Division of the Health Ministry and the State
Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC) responsible for supplying the required medicines
confirmed that delays in appointing tender boards and the release of payments
to suppliers had adversely affected the supplies.
The resulting delays in completing tender
processes has particularly affected the
purchase of vital drugs for cancer patients.. medical authorities have been
forced to defer treatment of cancer patients throughout the country. the
country’s main Cancer Hospital, ‘Apeksha’ in Maharagama was forced to tell patients to come back
later for treatment or advise them to by the medicine from private pharmacies.
Hundreds of patients have already been turned away, reported the media.
***
in September
2018, Health Ministry officials said
that a crisis is looming in the health sector due to the Treasury not releasing
more than Rs 20 billion to settle bills for essential items, including
medicines, it is the first time such a
large amount has been outstanding. Of this, Rs 10 billion is owed to the Health
Ministry. Another Rs 10 billion is due to the State Pharmaceuticals
Manufacturing Corporation (SPMC) which has not been paid up to five months for
production of essential medicines. Arrears to the tune of Rs 450 million are
owed to one supplier.
The SPMC
takes out loans to manufacture close to 200 pharmaceuticals. When Treasury
reimbursement is delayed, it is forced to reduce the quantity of drugs it
produces or cease manufacturing completely. This is because it costs money to
import the raw material required to make the medicines in Sri Lanka. All these
medicines are for Government hospitals,” said the official. If the outstanding
amounts are not settled soon, manufacturers will refuse to provide medicines,
plunging the free health service into crisis.”. There is also no money to
advertise tenders, meaning those that are in the pipeline will be delayed.
***
In 2017 Yahapalana government purchased two clinically untested cancer
drugs Trastuzumab and Bevazizumab, produced
and imported from Russia. In 2016, 25 oncologists wrote to the Health Ministry
advising it not to import these two drugs. The drugs were of low quality and were not
used even in Russia. Their price was higher than other drugs which have US Food
and Drug Authority (FDA) approval.
The drug was
hurriedly registered in the NMRA and tenders called. There were no Oncologists
in the technical committee which approved the tender. The tender was floated by the State
Pharmaceuticals Corporation of Sri Lanka (SPCSL). (Tender No. LP/MSD/CPU –
DHS/RQ/016/018). The five
shortlisted bidders submitted quotations for Rs. 64,700, Rs. 93,950, Rs.
109,000, Rs. 135,900 and Rs. 190,000 per vial, respectively. The second highest
bidder wasawarded thetender, despite a substantial price
difference of Rs. 39 million for the whole stock of 557 vials.
The company which submitted the lowest bid wrote
to the authorities, complaining about the unjust manner in which it was elbowed
out and the tender awarded to the second highest bidder. The lowest bidder said that he too was able to supply 100 vials
ex stock (with three vials free of charge) and the balance within 14 working
days on receipt of the confirmed order.
A second purchase order was placed on October 3, 2017 with the
local supplier for another 2,500 vials of Trastuzumab at a staggering cost of Rs.
360,250,000, despite a competitor offering a time-tested, FDA approved product,
at a competitive price. The move to purchase another 2,500 vials of a product
which has generated much controversy is beyond belief, said critics. Somebody
is making a big kill on the bid. Otherwise, why opt for a higher price when a
better, time-tested drug is on offer.
After the
appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister and Chamal Rajapaksa as
Health Minister, in October 2018, the SPC
had ordered a better and cheaper drug, but when a court order preventing the
Prime Minister and the Cabinet from functioning was made, the SPC cancelled the order and again ordered the Russian
drug.
The SPC bought 557
vials from this company at the second highest bid price of Rs. 135,900 each at
a total cost of more than Rs. 75 million. The lowest bidder had offered the
stock for Rs. 36.37 million which meant that the government had spent an
additional Rs. 39 million.
analysts said this was done to prevent losses to the local importer of this
drug. The importer was holding large
stocks of this very expensive drug. It had known that the Ministry will definitely purchase the drug from them. These
three purchases have resulted in a colossal loss of more than Rs.
108 million to the country, said critics.
**&
The
Commission of Inquiry (CoI) appointed by the President to investigate and
inquire into serious acts of fraud, corruption, and the abuse of power, state
resources and privileges by the present
the government, issued summons on the
current and former chairmen of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority
(NMRA).This was regarding the import of the Russian-made cancer drug Herticad
by the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) for the Maharagama Cancer
Hospital.This drug is deemed to be of an inferior quality, and can only be used
on patients with stage two cancer.
SPC had
decided to import a drug that couldn’t be used for all stages of the disease in
spite of paying such a high price for it. Furthermore this drug lacked the
approval of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Medcines
Agency (EMA).Several Oncologists in the country had objected to the use of this
drug said the Attorney General’s department .
Those summoned before the Commission stated
that Government hospitals do not have proper supplementary medicines that are
used with chemotherapy for early stage breast cancer patients. Currently Sri
Lankan government hospitals only had the drug, Herticad and that it was not
suitable for treating early stage breast cancer patients. “Herticad is
good for treating patients with advance cancer.
Herticad saw clinical practice in Russia,
where the drug originates, only in March 2016. The NMRA had registered the drug
in Sri Lanka in February 2016.The reasons given was that NMRA only registers drugs
and the decision to import them or not is decided by a tender committee.
Herticad was introduced in 2016 by the
Ministry of Health that insisted that the drug is a cheaper alternative to
Herceptin. However oncologists have been critical of the drug stating that 80%
of Sri Lankan breast cancer patients are detected at an early stage and that
Herticad is not suitable for treating them.
the oncologists on the tender committee,
objected to Herticad stating that by allowing this drug, NMRA has failed to follow
guidelines set by WHO and European Medicines Regulatory Authority. ‘This product is not suitable to be used for
adjunct use (during early stages of cancer.
A number of oncologists have written to the
Ministry of Health about the dangers of Herticad. But the response from the
Ministry has not been positive. Four oncologists had to face a disciplinary
inquiry due to their objections to using Herticad. “The inquirer wasn’t
even a technical person. When oncologists had sent letters complaining about it
to the Ministry it has responded by saying that this is the only drug available
and that they better use it,”
***
From the time Yahapalana government took
power, the GMOA has been actively opposing the government on economic issues such as ECTA. They antagonized the government and the
government retaliated . In November
2016, the tyres of cars belonging to doctors has been deflated at the Ministry.
Doctors
at Kandy, Kurunegala and Matara had suspended work for four hours as protest.
There were
several disagreements between the doctors and the Health Ministry. GMOA said government has cut
down vehicle permits, their children were not given good
schools when transfers were made
and did not grant schools to their children
when they returned from abroad, Government said schools had been given. Doctors
said , no. Not all children had got
schools. only 20 out of 138 children
had got schools. Doctors
were contemplating trade union action
doctors also complained of an inordinate delay in
the implementation of enhanced transport allowance as well as the amendments in
respect of duty free vehicle scheme. They
objected to the way they were taxed in
Budget 2017. they staged a lunch hour protest demanding that
the government solve several issues of the Budget 2017. Western province
doctors would stop private practice
for a day, against the budget proposal to tax government employees private practice.
Association of
Medical Specialists said in June 2018 they would refrain from private practice in protest over the new tax policy for doctors
All specialists doctors will strike
if the
discussion with the Finance Minister
fails. Yahapalana gave in and said they would give
the disturbance, availability and transport allowance. and allowances will be
increased. Also
doctors private practice will not be
subject to tax.
In 2017, the Ministry said that GMOA was
preventing the routine transfers. GMO said
that was nonsense. The GMOA has always participated in the transfer process for
years and it is only in 2017 that GMOA has
clashed like this with the Health ministry. The ministry has still not got the
transfer list ready, they said. The list
should have been published in December last year and by now the doctors would
have been in their new stations.
EDUCATION
The Ceylon
Teachers Union (CTU) said in 2018 that though around 7,500 candidates qualified
for promotions, only 700 were promoted Principals. That is due to a circular issued by the Ministry of Education (MoE) in 2015,
that all teachers to be eligible for the Principal’s post should have a Simple
Pass in Sinhala or Tamil at their Ordinary Level (O/L) exam. A Sinhala medium
teacher have a Pass in the Tamil Language, while a Tamil medium teacher have a
pass in the Sinhala Language. Of those
eligible for promotion to the Principal grade, only 4% possess Language
proficiency.
This has
resulted in about 4,000 Grade 2 teachers and 3,500 Grade 3 teachers stagnating
without their due promotions. Minister Mano Ganeshan
granted a solution by diluting the clause, stating that teachers over 50
year of age, instead of the Pass at O/L, could follow a 100-hours course in
Tamil/Sinhala, to qualify for promotions. However, the
Ministry has this concession and granted promotions only to those candidates
with Passes in Sinhala/Tamil in their O/Ls.
The Ceylon
Teachers Unions stated that teachers in class III and II unable to acquire
proficiency in Sinhala and Tamil are
stagnating in their grades and unable to get promotion. According to Public Administration circular 1/2007 all
officers recruited to the public service and provincial PS should acquire proficiency in the other
official language within a period of 5 years of their recruitment. This
includes a pass in S or T at O level, and speech test.
When the
matter came up in 2017, they granted concession to all teachers who had reached
the age of 50, they were allowed to follow 100 hours of Sinhala or Tamil course
conducted by the Ministry of National Integration and Official languages.
However government failed to extend this concession in 2018 and 2019 which
resulted in several teachers retiring without achieving class I status, and
have gone on pension without this.
***
The Ceylon
Teachers Union (CTU) charged that the Education Ministry, which failed to
distribute free copies of the Teacher’s Guide Book for the Year 4 syllabus, is
now selling the books to teachers. The syllabus for Year 4 had changed, and teachers
were inconvenienced as there was no guide. The Education Publications
Department (EPD), which is responsible for distribution, was now selling the
Guide at Rs545 a copy and teachers serving Year 4 classroom had to buy them.
The Teacher’s Guide Book for Year 13 has also not been distributed for the last
six years. Stalin pointed out that the Advanced Level syllabus was changed in
2012. The National Institute of Education was releasing the syllabus in
sections to teachers via the internet.
***
In May 2019,
Cabinet of Ministers approved a proposal by the Minister of Education, to
purchase 160,000 laptops to develop IT facilities in secondary schools across
the country. A previous attempt by the Minister to purchase Tab computers in
2017 for AL students and teachers had created controversy. Presidential
Commission investigating frauds under the Current Administration found that
Education Ministry officials had inflated the number of AL students and
teachers eligible for Tab computers in 2017, in the first estimate officials
stated that 113,340 students, 2820 principals and 5000 teachers were eligible
to receive Tabs. These numbers were gathered from a census of schools conducted
in 2016. A later estimate, three months after the first, stated that 159,786 students,
2820 principals and 31,459 teachers were eligible to receive Tabs.
***
Cabinet
approval was obtained in January 2019 to appoint 3,850 Sports Instructors to
schools island wide. salaries are to be paid by the Central Government, a
training programme was to be arranged for those selected, and the chosen would
be individuals who had proved their sports abilities at provincial or national
levels. 850 individuals were already selected and awaiting appointments said
Yahapalana.
Ceylon
Teachers Services Union is opposing this. When there are vacancies for some 4,000 Sports
Teachers, why is the government trying to introduce Sports Instructors instead,
asked the teachers. The Ministry was trying to provide employment to party
loyalists. Due to this, persons who had no sports qualifications had been
selected.
Ceylon
Teachers Services Union is also opposing the government’s decision to recruit
Sports Instructors to government schools in violation of the Teacher Service
Minutes. TSM requires candidates appointed to the teaching post have sports
qualifications in one of five National Colleges of Education (NCOE). Sports
Instructors can be selected from NCOE graduates and the Sabaragamuwa
University. The NCOE at Vavuniya and Batticaloa conducts Diploma courses for
Sports Instructors in Tamil, and Bandarawela, Ruwanpura and Milwela NCOE conduct
Diploma courses in Sinhala. The Sabaragamuwa University conducts degree
programmes in Sports Training. Instead, there were moves to recruit persons
with GCE Ordinary Level qualifications with a sports background. Further these instructors are not teachers
and have no responsibility towards students.
***
The Ceylon
Teachers Union (CTU) claims politicians are changing the name boards of schools
in the Western Province to include their own names, in alleged gratitude for
the work they do for the schools. It is claimed Madiwela Sri Rahula Vidyalaya
has been renamed Isuru Maha Vidyalaya after Western Province Chief Minister
Isuru Devapriya. In a similar move, Provincial Council Chairman Sunil Wijeratne
has proposed that Bulugahagoda Maha Vidyalaya in the Gampaha district change
its name to Sunil Wijeratne Maha Vidyalaya. Another school, Kiridiwela
Sangamitha Balika Vidyalaya, also in the Gampaha district, has a three-storey
building named after Provincial Council member Upali Wijeratne.
Chief
Minister Devapriya told the Sunday Times he had no
hand in the change of name of Madiwela Sri Rahula Vidyalaya to Isuru Maha
Vidyalaya and that it was the parents of the school’s pupils who had decided on
the move. He said this had been done as a token of appreciation for the work he
had done for the school. The school was in a bad state, almost on the verge of
closure, and I took it upon me to reconstruct and rejuvenate it,” he said.
.Meanwhile,
he noted, this issue was nothing new as a playground in Mirihana had been named
Isuru Devapriya Sports Pavilion. Western Province Education Minister Ranjith
Somawansa said protocol should be followed in changing names of schools. There
was no provision to change the name boards and if at all there were to be a
change a school could not be named after a living person, he said. (Sunday
Times 7.4.19 p 11).
***
The
Presidential Commission of Inquiry to investigate Corruption of the current Administration
was informed that there was a misuse of Rs. 2,430 million due to the re-insuring
the funds allocated for the ‘Suraksha’ insurance policy for schoolchildren with
a reinsurance company in India. Reinsurance is the practice whereby insurers
transfer portions of their risk portfolios to other parties by some form of
agreement to reduce the likelihood of paying a large obligation resulting from
an insurance claim.
The Ministry spends approximately Rs. 285
million per year on the insurance cover for all students in the country.
However, the Ministry obtains public funds amounting to around Rs. 2,700
million for the insurance scheme said an
officer giving evidence before the Commission.
He said he was employed at the Health and Nutrition Division of the
Education Ministry and the insurance scheme was handled by that
division.”We had several discussions with Director of Health and Nutrition
Division and Chairman of Suraksha Committee. We pointed out that there was no
need to re-insure this with an Indian company. We were told that they were
working according to the Minister’s orders. Wijeyadasa
Rajapakshe when he was Education Minister had submitted a Cabinet paper to
establish a fund at the Education Ministry that can re-insure the ‘Suraksha’
insurance scheme.
**&
The
Ministry of Education had made seven appointments to top positions without
following proper procedure,
They
have got covering approval for these appointments from the Education Services
Committee of the Public Services Commission, said the Ceylon Teachers Union
.These seven positions are Additional Secretary – Establishments, Chief
Commissioner of Colleges of Education, Education Director – Technology, Education
Director – Research, Education Director – Human Resources, Education Director –
Teacher Training Schools and Education Director – Extra Curricular Activities.
However, nine
other top positions have been vacant
in the Education Ministry for an extended period of time and that had caused a
serious crisis in the education sector. The vacant positions are Director of
Sports and Physical Education, Director – Primary Education, Director – Private
Schools, Director – Science, Director – Aesthetic Studies, Director – Estate
Schools, Director – Languages and Humanities, Director – Teacher Transfers and
Director – Informal Education.”
these are vital positions and due to this
lapse these sectors not functioning
properly,”
these positions have been left vacant to be
filled with those who say they have been politically victimized, said the
Ceylon Teachers Union. The Yahapalana government has been turning the education
sector into a job bank for UNPers.
The
government has attempted to fill important positions in the Ministry with UNP
henchmen who claim that they have been politically victimized. “About two
weeks ago they appointed 3,850 sports instructors. They are also appointing a
large number of watchers. Last week the Ministry of Education has sent a list
of 217 ‘political victims’ to the Public Service Commission seeking permission
to give them appointments. Last year the government tried to promote over 1,000
UNP supporters who claimed to have
been politically victimized, the Teachers Union complained in May 2019.
***
One
of the main issues in the education sector was that there were 302 acting
principals in national schools. “These appointments were made for the most
part by old boys/girls associations and/or regional politicians to exercise
control over institutions by having persons dependent on them for survival
appointed as acting school heads. In 2012, there were 96 vacancies for
principles in National Schools. That number has risen to 302 in2019. In 2017, there
was an attempt to select principals but because the process was so corrupt, the
Public Services Commission (PSC) canceled the recruitments and asked the
Ministry to stick to rules and regulations. Nothing has been done so far.
***
Ceylon Teachers Union complained in June 2019 that the
Ministry of Education was planning to appoint registrars to all schools with
over 1,000 students at a time when there were vacancies for principals in 302
out of 353 national schools. There were 984 schools with over 1,000 students
and depending on the number of students in a school, the grades of the
Registrars would be determined. schools with over 4,500 students will get
Senior Registrars. The work that is to be assigned to the registrars is
currently done by vice principals.
So, essentially, the Ministry is creating positions in 984 schools to give jobs
to UNP henchmen.
The teachers summarized the various grievances, in a statement to the media in June 2019. “The government has been turning education sector into a job bank for UNPers. Such attempts have been ramped up in recent months as national elections were fast approaching. In mid May, the government appointed 3,850 sports instructors, the CTU said.”They are also appointing a large number of watchers. Last week, the Ministry of Education has sent a list of 217 ‘political victims’ to the Public Service Commission seeking permission to employ them. Last year, the government tried to promote over 1,000 UNP supporters who claimed to have been politically victimized. The government has left nine top positions vacant in the Education Ministry for an extended period and that has caused a serious crisis in the education sector and made seven appointments to top positions without following proper procedure. These actions are creating a lot of issues, they said.
