Exam Dept has still not paid teachers who 

marked O’ level answer scripts - JVP union 

By Dasun Edirisinghe-April 9, 2014, 10:23 pm

Teachers who evaluated the answer script of the G.C.E. Ordinary Level examination three months ago yesterday accused the Examinations Department of so far failing to pay their remuneration for the work they did even after releasing the results of the examination last week.

General Secretary of Ceylon Teachers’ Service Union (CTSU) Mahinda Jayasinghe told The Islandthat nearly 40,000 teachers engaged in answer script evaluation fromDecember 31 to January 24, during which they even met their expenses out of pocket.

"Some of our teachers went to answer script evaluation while in difficult circumstances, including breastfeeding or being pregnant due to lack of teachers for the paper marking," he said adding but the department had still not done its duty.

GCE (O/L) examination was held from Dec. 10 to 20 at 4300 centres countrywide. Answer script evaluation was held in two stages, from Dec. 31 to Jan. 07 and fromJan. 16 to 24 at 103 centres in 51 towns. Nearly 40,000 teachers had evaluated nearly 11 million answer scripts.

Jayasinghe said that some teachers came for the marking from long distances to the evaluation centres, but the department did not pay even their bus fare at the time.

"We sent a letter to the Examinations Department asking payment at least before the Sinhala and Tamil New Year," he added.

When contacted for comment, Commissioner General of Examinations W. M. N. J. Pushpakumara said that there was a delay, but the department was in the process of posting the payment cheques.

"We already sent cheques to 80% of the teachers who evaluated papers and the rest would be sent shortly," Pushpakumara said adding that sometimes there might be delays in the postal service if teachers had not received cheques so far.