The first discussion in the planned series on Education Reforms was held on October 4, 2007 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute was. It was quite a success judging by the energy and the enthusiasm demonstrated by the participants. I take this opportunity to thank the Inter University Student Federation for their presentation on “The Crisis in Education” and Viluthu for coming prepared for a presentation. A list of the all the participants including the names of those who sent their regrets are given at the end. The almost unanimous opinion of the participants was that we should continue these discussions in a panel format bringing different view points.
The government has appointed a committee of scholars for providing a resolution for problems existing in the education system including the admission of children to schools from year 2009 onwards. Can this committee do what the National Education Commission could not do with its recommendations to the President early this year? The new committee is made up of the academics and the government officials that typically make up these committees. If you take out DP Sumanasekera and DS Mettananda (both now in the Board of Vidura College), and HLB Gomes (former principal, royal College), the new committee does not look very different from the National Education Commission that came up with the first set of recommendations early this year. The NEC’s recommendations are not even available to the public today, being confidential apparently.
The Education Forum held the first of its discussion series on education (in Sinhala and Tamil) yesterday, Oct 4, 2007, at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute. The first featured presentation (Presentation_IUSF) was by Duminda Nagamuwa of the inter University Federation of Students. He gave a succinct presentation about the crisis in education cutting down an original 48 slides to 12 , respecting our request to limit the presentation to 20 minutes. There was agreement that we have a crisis in education, although we did not have time to debate the statistics presented. More important was the lively debate that followed on the roots of the crisis.
Viluthu is a center for human resource development focusing particularly on the HR capacity in the North and the East (www.viluthu.org). When the Education Forum held its first discussion on the proposed new education act, the featured presentations were by the Inter University Federation of Students, but the first presentation by the students about the Crisis in Education generated a lively discussion leaving little time for presenting Viluthu’s work on education reforms. We will post Viluthu’s recommendations separately but more important is the effort by Viluthu to raise the qualty of education in the Tamil medium.
The Education Forum together with the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute is initiating a series of discussions on new education legislation. The objective of the series is to maximize the participation of civil society in the education policy process — from making submissions to the expert committee at the ministry of education to informing and educating parliamentarians. Date and time:   October 4, 3:30 – 5:30 Place:                 Sri Lanka Foundation Institute Language:          Sinhala with Tamil and English translations as needed Following is the program for meeting #1 1. Introduction, 10 minutes    (Sri Lanka Foundation Institute and The Education Forum) 2. Education Reform Process, 15 minutes    (Ministry of Education) 3.
Said the Minister of Higher Education unveiling the “Strategic Plan For Higher Education: Laying The Foundation Beyond 2020â€, medium to long term plan and the National Higher Education Action Plan 2007-2010 is a short-term plan. No it was not minister Wiswa Warnapala on the occasion of fifty years since independence of Sri Lanka. It was Datuk Mustapa Mohamed, Minister of Higher Education for Malaysia. On the launch of the National Higher Education Strategic and Action Plans, Minister Mohamed said that the plans are comprehensive and involved the public and private sectors. “The outcome of these plans will become the foundation of the efforts in building a model of first-class individuals and making Malaysia a progressive, prosperous and competitive country by 2020,†he added.
The cover story on Montage Magazine(Sep/Oct) is the Worsening Crisis in Education. This monthly news magazine does a good job Of picking the right theme at the right time and hitting hard where it should. The contributors to the latest issue are: Victor Ivan (The Travails of School and Free Education), Kabir Hashim, MP (The Mess Gets Worse); Sunil Jayanthe Navaratne (University Education: An Obsolete System) and; Prof Lal Perera (School Admissions: A New Crisis in Education) Overall it is a good read covering the current state of affairs, although I felt the higher education piece could have been a little more than an extract from a management text book, and Kabir Hashim could have given us a sneak preview of what education policies would be like in a UNP government, but those shortcomings should not take away the value of this issue. Please buy the magazine, read it and tell us what you think.
According to recent news, University Grants Commission in collaboration with the Ministry of Vocational and Technical Training is to set up a University of Vocational Technology. The public university system is in crisis. Funding is in adequate and/or is mismanaged. Students are protesting about lack of facilities. The Technical and Vocations Education system is in no better shape.
Last week TNL ran a good lengthy discussion on Grade 1 admissions with Premjayantha, the education minister, from SLFP, Maddumabandara from UNP, Bimla Dissanyake from JVP and the priest who looks like ET representing the JHU. The priest kept to his one-track argument that thius whole thing is a conspiracy against Buddhists and Premjayantha and Maddumabandara tossed political footballs about who did what when. Bimal Dissanyake was the only one who seemed to talk sense. Dissanyake started by saying anything we do at this point should give priority to the humanitarian issue of parents caught in the crossfire. From the chief justice down we are yet to hear anybody making a strong argument for a short term solution to relieve the burden on families.
Yesterday the leader of the opposition raised talarm about the proposed criteria for admissions to schools and accused the minister of trying to hide behind the courts without carrying out his manadated responsibility of drafting an admission policy. Right on Ranil. Keep the pressure on but please don’t make this a political football. I have seen first hand your legislative skills and your commitment to education in, for example, the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission Act and the accompanying National apprentice and Industiral Training Act. Please stay away from the streets.