Vishaka Vidyalaya told not to force students to sell raffle tickets

Sri Lanka Education Forum > Blog > General

Posted on August 30, 2007 / 12 Comments

The Secretary of the Ministry of Education informed court that Visakha Vidyalaya had organised a raffle at Rs. 200 a ticket and issued ticket books to the current students to be sold at Rs. 4000 each failing which they had to pay Rs. 4000 on their own.
Court observed that the past pupils could donate what they wanted to the school but the school could not force the current students to make such donations.
If they do organise a raffle should first must get prior permission from the Education Ministry authorities.
This recommendation was also was to be added to the circular.

Source:http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/08/30/news/18.asp

12 Comments

Dilrukshi
August 30, 2007, 8:43 am
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This is the plight of the government schools today. Government does not provide enough money to run schools and (especially in case of popular schools) expects the principals to find money on their own. Principals in turn put the pressure on the past pupils, parents and current students. The last category is the most vulnerable, because they can be subjected to immense pressure from their teachers. This might even affect them psychologically.

Rs. 4,000 might be a significant amount even for middle class parents in this era of inflation. Most of these parents send their children to government schools because they do not have money to pay school fees. If government schools too start collecting money that will be the end of free education.
Justmal
August 30, 2007, 10:45 am
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If they can’t pay 4000 rupees for the development of the school, they should send their children to the local kanishta vidyalaya. The Ministry of education has no right to get involved in national school matters.
Maxxa
August 30, 2007, 11:49 am
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Yes this is indirectly influencing the spirit of free education. There are student who can’t afford to donate 4000 even though they go to popular schools like visakha. Putting the burden on current students to riase funds for the welfare of school is not at all acceptable.
Anon
August 30, 2007, 6:06 pm
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@Justmal
‘Ministry of education has no right to get involved in national school matters.’ – Who exactly has the right then? The statement is of course not much of a surprise because it comes from a country where chief justice thought that more ‘educated’ parents should have more rights over the less educated when it comes to getting their children to a school.
Justmal
August 30, 2007, 7:22 pm
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The government or these saviours of free-education have done nothing to develop these schools, so how dare they claim a stake? All the money has come from past pupils, parents and other voluntary donors. Every single one of these “national schools” were established by private religious/community organisations. We don’t want slum dwellers getting into our schools.

I think these national schools should be administered by an independent body (as the Theosophist society did with Ananda, Visakha etc) and the politicians or bureaucrats should not be allowed to get involved at all. The school should have the final say on who gets admitted to grade one, and CJ’s blueprint is based on the unstandardised procedures and criteria used by the schools at present.

If these students (ungrateful scholarship holders I assume) can’t even pay a measly sum of 4000 rupees for their school’s development, why don’t they go back to their “gamey kanishte”? Why should they get a free ride on us when we spend so much time and money on our schools. Roll up your free education and stick it in your collective madya maha vidyala behinds. Who said you have a right for free education at our schools if you can’t pay your due?
Anon
August 30, 2007, 7:29 pm
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‘Who said you have a right for free education at our schools if you canâ€™t pay your due?’ – Interesting thought. Any sources for this or is this like a general rambling?
Dilrukshi
August 31, 2007, 8:43 am
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Justmal,

Let us starts the things from the scratch.

The government boasts it gives ‘free education’. According to the government students do not even have to pay even a cent, all, including text books and uniforms are given FREE.

So if this claim is correct, the students and parents have every right to object any requests for money.

Those who pass Grade 5 scholarship goes to Colombo schools, because government guarantees ‘free education’.

Government cannot both eat the cake and have it.

If it wants to maintain its populist stand it has to stand up to its promise of free education.

Otherwise it should admit that it cannot provide ‘free education’ and ask students to pay. That will be much better than these indirect and unethical means it is using today.
Justmal
September 2, 2007, 5:56 am
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The government may do what it wants with their schools and cakes, but Visakha and Ananda weren’t built by them. The state expenditure per student in these schools are substantially less than that for a regional central school. Much of the funds come from private sources. These stakeholders have – and should have – a bigger say than the government in how the school is run.

There’s no free education in Sri Lanka to start with. Almost every student attends private tuition classes.
Anon
September 2, 2007, 12:54 pm
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‘Visakha and Ananda werenâ€™t built by them’ – There are quite a lot of other schools that weren’t built by them.
And as for the rest of the rant, the schools you mentioned are state run schools whether you like it or not. The teachers in the schools are paid by the government. The so-called ‘donations’ run to mutual benefit. School gets better, old boys/girls have more things to brag about.

‘The state expenditure per student in these schools are substantially less than that for a regional central school. ‘ – Again do you have numbers on this or a general rant? Cos for all I know, all the best performing teachers are deliberately put to these schools by the government. And if you run through the newspapers for the past year or two you will find what happens when attempts are made to change this. (But this will require some skills. Such as reading and comprehension.)

‘Thereâ€™s no free education in Sri Lanka to start with. Almost every student attends private tuition classes.’ – You must be among the top philosophers of the century if not the millennium.

The point is that you cant be under government and do as you like. If they want to dance by their own rhyme, then they can become privatised. However this will never happen because a considerable number of best performers in these schools are in fact grade 5 scholarship holders (Not all of them and not a majority either, I cant grant you that.). Without them the schools would be nothing more than a few fall outs who haven’t even figured they fell off.
Devanampiyatissa
September 3, 2007, 2:14 pm
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Irrespective of who built them, the teachers’ salaries of ALL government schools (and few ‘private’ schools as well) are borne by the state. The simple reason why schools like Ananda and Vishaka wanted to be under government because BTS, which ran them till late 1960s was so bankrupt that they could not go any further. So definitely the state should have a say in these schools.

I do not buy the argument that state spends more on regional schools on per capita basis. Even in case of national schools state spend some money in buildings etc. Of course I agree that the additional facilities like swimming pools and gyms were provided largely by old boys.

I agree with Anon completely when he says when you are under government you cannot do whatever you like. If these schools want to do whatever they like, the logical course of action would be to ask state to stop funding them.
Rashan Zackwan - Matara
October 10, 2008, 11:19 pm
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Hey Students of SriLanka – I have started a Educational website. This is the First IT website in SriLanka. Everything Free. Specially for GIT & ICT Students in SriLanka.

Browse – http://www.zonematara.com
Cars
April 18, 2015, 2:08 am
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Who said you have a right for free education at our schools if you canâ€™t pay your due?â€™ â€“ Interesting thought. Any sources for this or is this like a general rambling?