The Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Sri Lanka yesterday (29) urged authorities to reopen schools and take drastic measures to stop the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the poor. “The children will be able to learn not only the sciences but also achieve emotional, psychological and spiritual health, interact with their teachers, their fellow students and friends, and engage in extracurricular and sports activities with their peers in order to achieve a sense of emotional balance,” said Bishop Winston S. Fernando, head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Sri Lanka, in a press statement. Addressing the teacher salary anomalies which have resulted in mass protests, the Conference appealed to the government in the interests of the children to be flexible and agree to rectifying the long-standing salary anomalies as the teachers. They also stated that teachers matter the most in the moulding of our future citizens and leaders. “We also call upon the teachers to consider it their sacred duty to form and mould the future citizens and call off their strike action to return to school for the love of the children they look after,” the statement further read.

Source: The Nation July 30, 2021 11:37 UTC