{"id":133840,"date":"2023-04-19T15:46:54","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T22:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=133840"},"modified":"2023-04-19T15:46:54","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T22:46:54","slug":"i-will-not-allow-the-education-of-children-to-be-taken-hostage-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/04\/19\/i-will-not-allow-the-education-of-children-to-be-taken-hostage-president\/","title":{"rendered":"I will not allow the education of children to be taken hostage &#8211; President"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Adaderana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>President Ranil Wickremesinghe today refused to allow the education of children to be taken hostage and said education would be made an essential service under emergency law if teachers refuse to return to paper-marking by next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No one is going to hold the education of children as hostage. That I am not allowing. That can\u2019t be allowed,\u201d he emphasized, addressing the progress review meeting of the Education Ministry at the Presidential Secretariat this morning (19).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"I will not allow the education of children to be taken hostage - President\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UEOqg8YgTts?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The President said he is thinking of making education, especially examinations, a compulsory service or to also establish an examinations committee for the General Certificate of Education (GCE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The President\u2019s discussion with education officials focused on the prevailing issue concerning the delay in paper-marking of the 2022 G.C.E. Advanced Level examination due to teachers and university lecturers deciding to withdraw from those services.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The President instructed the officials present to inquire from the Education Minister as to whether the university lecturers are willing to correct the papers or not. Why can\u2019t you mark it with all the teachers available? Look if they don\u2019t come they don\u2019t come. That\u2019s not an answer I can give in parliament. I am asking you give me an answer that I can tell the country and parliament,\u201d he told the officials.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He further said: Now if it\u2019s marked by the teachers and not marked by the dons, what happens? Anyway the minister has now said there is a political force behind it. So now you have to go from there. If the FUTA says they are not a political force then it\u2019ll get dragged on some more.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One is, I am thinking of making education, especially examinations, a compulsory service. Other can shout, in the country it will be the most popular thing. And then secondly, an exams committee. A G.C.E. exams committee. Both those I will put it by emergency and then you can bring the legislation.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So one of the two, tell me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All those who marked the papers last time must be available for service now. If not I will prosecute them and take their property off. So it\u2019s not a question of moratorium, you\u2019ll be bankrupt. That\u2019s all.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can\u2019t stop the education of children, no? What nonsense is this?\u201d&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So anyway work out one of the two and tell me. That\u2019s all. By next week I must tell the AG to be ready with the emergency regulations. Let\u2019s see which MP is going to vote against it. I\u2019ll ask for a vote by name.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, tell them these are the two options. If you don\u2019t come back and want to have a confrontation, we are willing to come for a confrontation.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But no one is going to hold the education of children as hostage. That I am not allowing. That can\u2019t be allowed.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Forget the labour law. Don\u2019t worry of those. I want to start the exams and the schools, so don\u2019t talk to me about the labour law. That\u2019ll come later. Y\u2019all must come up with a solution end of this week. If you don\u2019t have one, I will take it up in Cabinet and then we will decide what to do.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speak to the Minister. Then we will have a meeting this week and decide. Now the minister has also made a statement, we can\u2019t go back on it. And we can only go forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Adaderana President Ranil Wickremesinghe today refused to allow the education of children to be taken hostage and said education would be made an essential service under emergency law if teachers refuse to return to paper-marking by next week. No one is going to hold the education of children as hostage. That I am not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}