A JVP affiliated education sector union yesterday condemned principals and education administrative officials who had accepted military ranks and said if the government wanted to give management training to them there were several state institutions whose services could be obtained for that purpose.
General Secretary of the Ceylon Teachers’ Service Union (CTSU) Mahinda Jayasinghe told The Island that some principals wanted to flaunt their military ranks.
According to the government programme of commissioning school principals and education administrative service officials as Brevet Colonels, more than 4,000 had been called for interviews for the second batch to be commissioned, he said.
Jayasinghe said that under the first batch, 23 persons had been commissioned as Brevet Colonels, including an Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Education, the Commissioner General of Educational Publications and 21 Principals of leading schools around the country.
They had been called for a training in the National Cadet Corps again, he said.
“After getting the ranks some principals have the audacity to paste their photos in military uniform in several places in schools,” he said.
The trade unionist said that if there was a need to give management training
to principals there were several government institutions, including the Management Training Institute at Meepe and the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration, but the government select military training instead.
Due to the military programme the cordial relationship between the principals and schoolchildren would be ruined, Jayasinghe said.
By Dasun Edirisinghe
IS