According to the association of unemployed graduates, 10,000 more joined their ranks since November 2006. Today (November 1, 2007) these people are poised to demonstrate in front of the Fort railway station. Who produced these graduates? If the social science and humanities faculties in our universities are responsible, why do we keep giving money to these faculties to produce unemployable graduates? Apparently Minister Siyabalapitiya had promised 19,000 more jobs.

The suspended students of the Peradeniya University were given bail on Friday after the University administration said in writing it would not ‘push’ the Police to proceed with the case against them though another blow for the students seems to be on the way. Peradeniya University Registrar Ranjith de Alwis told The Sunday Times that the Police may file another case in courts acting on the complaint made by the University administration regarding the detention of the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Registrar and three Faculty Deans in the Senate House on October 23 by the students.“We made the complaint to the Police so they may file another case in courts on that complaint,” he said. Mr. de Alwis said the case against the students was filed under the ragging and other forms of violence in High Education Institutes Act which was introduced in 1998.

Parents of Isipathana MMV students have strongly objected to a decision to give on lease a land opposite the college to the Milinda Moragoda Foundation claiming that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had earlier promised to donate it to the school. The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) under whose purview the plot of land comes has leased it to the Moragoda Foundation in late 2004 for at least 25 years while the students’ parents and Old Boys of the college had been kept in the dark about the deal.   President Rajapaksa – then the Prime Minister – had given an assurance while addressing a ceremony at the college in the same year in which the land was leased to the Foundation, that the land would be given to the college. Isipathana Principal P. Kuruppu confirmed that President Rajapaksa promised to donate the land to the school and said he was receiving many complaints from parents for losing it to the Moragoda Foundation.

Teachers are going ahead with a two-day strike in schools throughout the island as the dead-lock between the National Salaries and Cadres Commission (NSCC) and the teachers’ unions continues. The strike to be held tomorrow and on Tuesday is expected to cripple functions of most schools in the country, except in certain parts of the Northern and Eastern Provinces where the teachers would not be taking part in the protest campaign. However the unions have sent out leaflets calling teachers in the north and east also to join the trade union action. Salaries and Cadres Commission co-chairman Lionel Fernando said the NSCC is working on the matter though it does not publicize developments regarding the issue. “We are investigating the replies we received from the unions explaining their salary anomalies in response to the requests we made in accordance with the Cabinet decisions,” he said.

Sri Lanka on Thursday was elected to the 58-member executive board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Sri Lanka was one of six Asian nations elected in the vote held in Paris to replace 31 members of the board. The other Asian states selected to the board are Malaysia, Soth Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan and the Philippines. Sri Lanka’s permanant representative at the UNESCO, Chithrangani Wagiswara said, “its a victory for sri Lankan foreign policy “ She also said that this is the second time sri lanka has been able to retain its place in the executive council. The board consists of 58 Member States with a four-year term of office.

The government has stopped the distribution among school teachers in the North-East of a highly controversial booklet on children’s mental health.   Investigations have revealed that the book distributed by an NGO contains totally inaccurate interpretations of the Tamil separatist terrorism.  Even worse is that the publication carries an article by an LTTE leader. The Education Authorities have recalled the booklets that have already been distributed. Some officers of the Education Ministry and the National Education Institute are being questioned over the distribution of this anti-national booklet.

While assuring that the salary anomalies of the teachers would be resolved before January next year, the Minister of Education Susil Premajayantha yesterday called on the teacher unions which have planned a strike on October 29 and 30 to call it off and cooperate with the government. Minister Premajayantha told a press conference yesterday that a solution to the issue regarding anomalies should be based on the recommendations of the Salaries and Cadre Committee that is appointed to look into the anomalies of the entire state sector. He said the final report of this committee is due before December 31 this year and the matter would be resolved soon after.“We appeal to the teacher unions to bear with us for a short period for the sake of the children,” he said. The Minister said he has done his best to resolve the matter and had several rounds of discussions with the trade unions to resolve the matter.

ඔක්. 24 – ඊයේ රාත්‍රියේ සිට පේරාදෙණිය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ සිසුන් පිරිසක් විසින් බලහත්කාරයෙන් රඳවාගනු ලැබ සිටි නියෝජ්‍ය උප කුලපතිවරයාට පාලක සභාව සමග රැස්වීමකට සහභාගි වීමට අවස්ථාව ලබා දී තිබේ.  නියෝජ්ය උප කුලපතිවරයා පැවසුවේ, සාකච්ඡාවට සහභාගි වීමට අවස්ථාව හිමි වුවත් තමන්ව මුදාහැර නොමැති බවයි. නියෝජ්ය උප කුලපතිවරයා පැවසුවේ, ඊයේ පස්වරුවේ මහා ශිෂ්ය සංගමය සමග පැවති සාකච්ඡා අසාර්ථක වීමෙන් පසු     සිසුන් තමන්ව මෙලෙස රඳවාගෙන සිටි බවයි.   ඔවුන් අතර පීඨාධිපතිවරුන් තිදෙනෙක්, ආචාර්ය මණ්ඩලයේ දෙදෙනෙක් සහ කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයේ පිරිසක් ද වූහ.

රාජකීය කියූ සැනින්ම සිතට ගාම්භීරත්වයක් නැඟෙන්නේ එහි එතරම්ම අභිමානයක් ගම්‍යව ඇති බැවිනි. එවන් අභිමානයකින් යුතුව කි‍්‍ර. ව. 1835 දී එවකට ශී‍්‍ර ලංකාවේ ආණ්ඩුකාර ධූරන්දර ශී‍්‍රමත් විලියම් නෝර්ටන් උතුමාණන්ගෙන් ඇරඹි කොළඹ රාජකීය විද්‍යාලය, ශී‍්‍ර ලංකාවේ අධ්‍යාපන ක්ෂේත‍්‍රයේ නව නැම්මක් ලෙස හැ¼ඳින්විය හැක. 1963 කොළඹ රාජකීය ප‍්‍රාථමික පාසලට ඇතුළත්ව, 1976/1977 වසරවලදී රාජකීය විද්‍යාලයෙන් නික්ම ගිය 72 කණ්ඩායමේ සාමාජිකයන්ගෙන් බහුතරයකට අඩසිය වස පිරිපුන් වීම මේ ලිපියට හේතු පාදක වී ඇත.

Over 700 children of State transport sector employees will receive scholarships from President Mahinda Rajapaksa tomorrow in appreciation of their achievements at the G.C.E. Ordinary Level examination. Transport Minister Dallas Alahapperuma told the media yesterday that the scholarship programme titled ‘Sisu Diriya’ was launched with the objective of recognising the invaluable contribution made by the employees to uplift the State transport sector in the country.