Ceylon Teachers' Union secretary Joseph Stalin said that four students of Thalawakele Tamil School who were undergoing quarantine had attended school today.
He said that the government's unplanned re-opening of government schools had put the teachers in trouble.
Stalin pointed out that when re-opening schools after the first corona wave, the government issued a circular for the safety of the teachers allowing them to stay in the school only when they are required for teaching. However, although the government has no plan to re-open primary classes yet, the teachers of the primary sections have also been summoned to duty putting them in unnecessary risk. Those teachers have no work in the school but have to stay until school is over.
"The government's claims of successful re-opening and high percentages of attendance are fabrications," Joseph Stalin pointed out citing figures from some schools in Kandy town. "Today's attendance in some of the leading schools in Kandy are as follows:
Vidyartha - 54
Sumangala - 60
Sylvester - 60
High School - 74
Pushpadana - 64
St Anthony's Balika - 64
Seethadevi - 30
"All these schools have more than 3,000 students"
The Ceylon Teachers' Union leader further said that the Ministry of Education had failed to send guidelines to the principals to handle such situations. "The Ministry sent a letter dated on 19th November advising to set up advisory committees comprised of relevant officials before starting schools but the time was not sufficient for that because the schools were re-opened on 24th. Although the Minister of Education Prof. G.L. Peiris and Secretary to the Ministry Prof. Kapila Perera says they have allocated money for COVID-19 sanitary facilities, the schools have not received them."
Stalin further said that the Ministry had not consulted principals and teachers properly before the re-opening of schools.
Meanwhile, 30 students and the teachers of two classes of two leading schools of Ambalangoda were sent for quarantine today. The reason was that the parents of two students had been diagnosed positive for COVID-19. These two students who were from the same family attended their schools yesterday.
Soon after the schools were re-opened, the educational authorities of Northern Province decided to close all the schools in Kilinochchi district until further notice because of a COVID-19 patient who had travelled into many places was diagnosed.
