A few months earlier I mentioned the plight
of the graduate physiotherapists who are still awaiting appointments to the Govt.
Health Service as they have not been assigned a pay grade and are therefore in limbo.
The Universities produce 60 graduates p.a in areas of need and they are not getting
appointments due to the lack of decision makers willing to go out on a limb and
give them a fair wage. A fare wage is one between what they are currently requesting
and what is currently being paid to the Diploma Holders coming out of the School
of Physiotherapy.
In the same vein, the Radiographers are also
crying foul saying that at the behest of the new couses, they got degrees in the
Allied Health Science Faculties of State Universities, this time from Peradeniya
where over 80 await positions. It is a field with acute shortages, but find themselves
without appointments. The School of Radiography is training diploma holders who
continue to get appointments under the old scale. Due to the need of over 1000 in
this field it is essential that both diploma and degree holders are recruited but
at different pay scales to reflect their qualifications and knowledge. The problem
is graduates do not like the diploma holders considering them inferior beings and
wish those programs abolished, where as I believe there is a place currently for
both until we can produce the annual requirement of degree holders, which is not
in the near future!
The Education department is also faced with
the same issue of Teacher Librarians who have got the qualifications but who do
not have appointments as their grade is still not recognized. At present there is
NO teacher librarian carder in the Department and so these people, who are qualified
in a much needed area of teaching professional, end up as mere teachers and are
accordingly disgruntled that their positions are not recognized as a separate category
and salary scale.
What does all this mean? It simply means
that there is no relationship between what the Universities have been asked to train
and the Govt. health and education service to employ them. It is an elementary error
that must be resolved equitably and these qualified people MUST be given appointments
to carry out the much needed tasks in their respective sectors that will enhance
both Health Care and Education in Sri Lanka.
The lack of direction or vision in the Government
to consider the importance of these positions is a detriment to the desired objectives
of the nation. It is time parliament is made aware of all these anomalies and action
taken to resolve them.
1 comment:
Perhaps the govt feels that now these fellows have been educated they should go abroad and practice. The govt doesn't like educated chaps being around; they cause trouble. The uneducated masses; that's who the govt loves.
Post a Comment