Let’s Unite to Recognize and Campaign for Pre School Educators’ Rights
Sri Lanka

The National Pre-School Teachers’ Union (NPTU) together with the National Workers’ Congress is commemorating World Day for Decent Work on the 10th of October 2011, from 2.30 p.m. to 5 p.m. at St Mary’s College,Trincomalee.

The Chief Guest at this event will be the Chief Minister for the Eastern Province, Hon. S Chandrakanthan. Special Guests will include the Director, ILO Colombo and others.

The main objective at this program will be to share the concerns of Pre-School Educators in the Eastern Province with the Chief Minister and the Eastern Province Education Ministry, on the need to formalize the Pre-School Education Sector. At this event, the President of the National Pre-School Teachers’ Union will present the Chief Minister with a Petition for Formalization of the Pre-School Education Sector which is signed by both Pre-School Educators and beneficiary stakeholders such as the parents of children passing through the Early Child Care Development system.

This petition calls for the formalization of the Pre-school Education sector.

Since Pre-school Educators are not recognized formally as primary level educators, they are often voiceless both individually as well as a collective, as their rights and obligations are not legislated.

Pre-school Educators play a key role in the early childhood development of Sri Lankan children, and as such they and the process they employ to facilitate the cerebral and biological development of very young children, needs to be standardized and monitored closely for effective results.

As such it is of paramount importance that the Pre-school Education sector is legislated, in order to ensure that:

1. Pre-school Educators receive the same benefits of leave with pay, maternity leave and holidays, social security benefits and insurance schemes and workmen’s compensation and all other protection mechanisms afforded to public service sector educators in Sri Lanka.

2. Pre-school Educators and the Early Child Care Development (ECCD) sector should be recognized under the Ministry of Education (MOE). As such they should be registered with the Ministry; so that a record of all Pre-school Educators in Sri Lanka is maintained with the Ministry and this factor also contributes to their personal record of employment.

3. Pre-school Educators should be afforded the same opportunities for skills development and capacity building that are made available to educators in the government sector.

4. Pre-school Education Sector strengthened, standardized and monitored systematically.

Pre-school Educators especially those who are employed by own-account employers, should be covered by the Minimum Wages Ordinance at least, and any increments in wages should be applicable to ALL Pre-school Educators across the board. All Pre-school Educators must receive a mandatory training and Diploma in ECCD through the Government Teachers College before they engage as Pre-school Educators.