Teachers involved in the marking of the GCE O/L and A/L answer scripts and examinations officials have threatened to boycott duties connected to the GCE A/L examination scheduled for August.

The warning has been issued owing to the failure of the examinations authorities to pay them their dues for the GCE O/L examinations conducted in December last year.

However, they have given the Examinations Department time till the April school vacation to settle the dues.

Teachers said they had not been paid even for the GCE A/L conducted last year. Payments for the examinations conducted during January and February of this year, too, had gone into arrears, they said.Examination authorities blamed the Treasury for not allocating funds for paying teachers.

Teachers said the payments were usually made well ahead of the April vacation but this year there was a delay. The Examinations Department had not yet given a proper explanation for the undue delay, they said.

Commenting on the delay, Commissioner General of Examinations Anura Edirisinghe said that the Secretary to the Ministry of Education had informed the Treasury that Rs 360 million was needed to make the payments and as soon as the funds were received, all dues would be paid.

Source: The Island Online