Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake yesterday told Parliament that the government has drawn up a new salary structure for the academic staff in universities, thereby placing their upper limit at Rs. 200,000 and lower limit at Rs. 72,000/= per month.
Minister Dissanayake was responding to DNA MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who said that low salaries had caused a brain drain.
Minister Dissanayake admitted that Sri Lanka was losing her valuable human resources to other countries which paid much bigger salaries to attract Sri Lankan academics.
Minister Dissanayake said that it was difficult to retain academics. `I wish to salute those who remained despite shortcomings on our part,` he said.
Dissanayake said: `The minimum salary of an academic is Rs. 57,755/= while that of a probationary lecture is Rs. 20,750.`
He said that whenever the salaries of the academics were increased, the non-academics in universities resorted to trade union action demanding an immediate increase for them too. He said: `This has to come to an end now. A clear line of distinction must be drawn between the two categories, academics and non-academics.` Acknowledging that the JVP had power and influence in universities, Minister Dissanayake urged the JVP to help solve the problems in universities.
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