ECONOMYNEXT- Sri Lanka will start recruiting unemployable graduates to the state service from March 01, though how many will be recruited this year has not been revealed.
“We will start giving these jobs before March 01,” State Minister for Development Banking Shehan Semasinghe said.
“It is the intention of the President and Prime Minister to give state jobs to unemployed graduates.”
Critics say unemployed graduates represent a crisis in the tax-payer funded university education system where degrees are given which have no quality to be useful to productive sectors or the society.
However some state universities including the Moratuwa University, produce graduates that are useful to productive sectors and contribute to society, instead of using tax-payer money to get salaries and pensions.
Sri Lanka’s current administration has also promised 100,000 jobs to those who have weak education qualifications and come from poor families.
They would be paid 30,000 rupees each, officials had said costing about 36 billion rupees a year, when all were employed.
Sri Lanka’s last administration also promised high salaries going up to 600,000 rupees for senior state workers, but that increment has not yet been granted. The hike was expected to cost 50 billion rupees a year.
The last administration while giving a 10,000 rupee salary hike to state workers, also increased their pensionable salary, which had been kept under limits until 2015.
From 2014 to 2018 Sri Lanka increased the taxes collected from the people by 715 billion rupees to 1910 billion rupee and the salary and pension was raised to 820 billion rupees from 567 billion rupees or 44 percent not counting tax free cars and other benefits.
The current administration has slashed value added taxes. (Colombo/Jan21/2020)
The future of the country looks bleak, what with these unemployable graduates becoming future stool warmers in the government sector.