July 13, Colombo: Minister of Education, Prof. G.L. Peiris said various requests are being received regarding the holding of the GCE Advanced Level Examination and the Grade 05 Scholarship Examination and a decision will be taken next week.

Participating in a media conference held in Colombo today (13), the Minister said the COVID-19 vaccination program for the school teachers which commenced island wide yesterday (12) is to be completed within 10 days.

As at 12 noon yesterday, 86% of the teachers in the Western Province (Colombo District 97%, Gampaha 81% and Kalutara 82%) 60% in Uva Province (Badulla 90%) and 47% of the Northern Province (Mullaitivu 67%, Jaffna 64%, Kilinochchi 64%) have been vaccinated.

Moreover, the Central, Eastern, Southern, North-Western and North-Central Provinces which also began the vaccination program yesterday have respectively completed 18%, 17%, 15%, 15% and 9% of vaccinations.

The Minister of Education Prof. GL Peiris said that it will be possible to complete the vaccination for school teachers island wide within 10 days.

The Minister said various requests are being received regarding the holding of GCE Advanced Level Examination and Grade 05 Scholarship Examination and after a discussion with the Provincial Directors of Education today, he would announce a decision on Tuesday next week that would be fair to parents, students, teachers and all stakeholders.

The National Institute of Education will also launch 16 educational television channels for all students in the country. The channels are expected to connect the most popular and talented teachers in the island. Programs are being prepared to provide the services of these teachers to the children of the entire island without restricting them to a single school.

The Minister said even when there is an epidemic in the country and discussions are to be held with the trade unions regarding the preparation of a cabinet paper, it would not be considered an appropriate decision to resort to trade union action regarding the long standing teacher salary anomalies.

The Minister further pointed out that it is the innocent children of this country who are becoming helpless through the trade union action.