Striking university teachers of Sri Lanka agree to step back

 Oct 01,Colombo: As their prolonged strike is dragging in to the fourth month this week, the union of Sri Lanka's striking university teachers, Federation of University Teachers' Associations (FUTA) has expressed willingness to step back from their unyielding demands.
As the union is facing criticism from several segments of the public including the parents and students affected by the strike for failing to reach a resolution with authorities due to their unwavering stance, FUTA secretary Terrence Madujith said that the university teachers were ready to compromise the demand of government allocating 6 percent of GDP for education.

Admitting that the union knew it was difficult to allocate that amount of money for education instantly, the FUTA secretary called on the government to promise to grant their demand within a certain period by gradually increasing expenses for education.
A group of FUTA representatives met the chief incumbents of the Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters today on an invitation.
The Buddhist leaders have promised to mediate the problem to find a solution to the problem.
The government's 2013 appropriation bill, which last week received cabinet approval, has increased the funds allocated for the education and higher education sectors in the next year's budget.
Allocations to the Education Ministry has been increased by Rs. 3.43 billion from last year to Rs. 37.9 billion while the Higher Education Ministry has been allocated Rs. 27.9 billion, which is an increase of Rs 4.1 billion from 2012.
The government has also responded to FUTA's demand for a pay raise increasing the university teachers' salaries effective from October 1.
You can watch discussion about university teachers strike, that broadcast on television yesterday(05/10/2012)

watch here