An urgent appeal has been made to President Mahinda Rajapaksa by the All Ceylon Union of English Teachers (ACUET) requesting him to consider the feasibility of granting double pay to all public sector employees and pensioners for the month of December. The reasons for the appeal are that: Most private sector employees get double pay and bonuses for the month of December; parents are expected to buy books (other than those issued by the government), stationery, clothes shoes etc. for their children for the new school year; all consumer commodities and other items have gone up in price. Source: http://www.dailymirror.

එක්දහස් නවසිය හතළිස් හයේ වර්ෂයේ වයඹ පළාතේ බිංගිරිය ප‍්‍රදේශයේ දැදුරුඔය අසබඩ පිහිටි අති දුෂ්කර පාසලක සේවය කළ අප්පුහාමි මුල්ගුරුන්නාන්සේ හා උපගුරු පුංචි බංඩේ ගුරුන්නාන්සේ නතර වී සිටියේ ගුරු නිවාසයේය. මේ ප‍්‍රදේශයේ දිනපතාම රාති‍්‍ර කාලයේ ගොවීන්ගේ වගා පාළු කරමින් පළාත දෙවනත් කරන වල් අලි බොහෝ සිටියහ. ගම්මු පැල් රකිමින්, වෙඩි පත්තුකරමින් තම වගාවන්ට වල් අලින්ගෙන් වන හානි වළක්වා ගැනීමට මහත් වෙහෙසක් දැරූහ. අලුතින් පාසලට පත්වී ආ ගුරු නිවාසයේ නතරවී සිටි පුංචිබංඩේ ගුරුන්නාන්සේ තමා අලි මන්ත‍්‍ර හොඳ හැටි දන්නා ඒ පිළිබඳ හසළ පළපුරුද්දක් ඇති අයකු බැව් නිතර දෙවේලේ ගමේ නොයෙක් දෙනා සමඟ පැවසුවේ මහත් ආඩම්බරයෙනි. රාති‍්‍රයේ පාසල අවට ප‍්‍රදේශයට එන වල් අලි සිටින දෙසට මහ හයියෙන් මතුරමින් රතිඤ්ඤා පත්තු කරමින් දුව යන පුංචි බංඩේ ගුරුන්නාන්සේ අලි පන්නා දැමීමෙන් පසු ගුරු නිවාසයට විත් නිදා ගන්නේ තමාගේ මන්ත‍්‍ර බලෙයන් අලි දිවගිය බැව් පවසමිනි.

The controversy-plagued Year-One admissions policy delayed by a series of legal battles is being further hampered by the lack of senior education officers to sit on proposed admission committees and fears are being expressed that even the start of the new school year 2008 may be delayed. Education Directors in the Western, Southern, Central and other provinces said they were facing difficulty in forming interview boards due to the lack of Deputy Education Directors who in terms of the new guidelines need to head the interview boards. Western Province Education Director D.M. Chandrapala said the interview boards of 302 schools in the Province should be formed with 40 Deputy Education Directors.

Fancy having city kids go into the village to learn? Usually it’s the other way around. But the Horizon Lanka IT village at Mahavilachchiya in Anuradhapura plays host to students from the cities and towns keen on learning IT and this small hamlet has taken Sri Lankan skills to a different plane on this planet. Sri Lanka’s first IT village, Horizon Lanka, where a group of youth processes data for a fee has given city folk and policy planners many lessons. The first and most important lesson is that English is vital in a globalised world and for those education planners who think they should disturb the current English language education stream in government schools and provide a mix of English and Sinhalese subjects, the message from this small village is don’t!

“Had Sir Ivor Jennings been Vice Chancellor now we would be very happy”, said former president of the students’ council of the Peradeniya University, Udul Premaratne. Speaking at a media briefing yesterday to explain the students’ position on the present controversy, surrounding the naming of a hostel, he said they did not have any problem with Sir Jennings who had rendered an immense service to the University. He said the students have the right to name the hostel building after anyone they like because it was built following appeals made by them. In 2003 Cabinet approval was given for a new hostel for the students to be built and the plan was to build it by 2005 but due to bribery and corruption which took place the date of completion was extended to 2007 Premarathne alleged. The students in 2005 they requested the Board of Directors to name the hostel after Rangitham Gunaratnam, who was a student leader during the 1989/90 insurrection.

Not in Sri Lanka but in New York City, USA. (නෑ, නෑ, ඇමෙරිකාවේ, ඇමෙරිකාවේ) Bonuses are only for teachers at schools with high concentrations of children from poor families. The unions have agreed with the condition that the incentives are to be given to a school and distributed evenly to all the teachers. Here is the report: http://www.nytimes.

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 UNP charged yesterday that education had been extremely politicized under the present government with 186 posts in the 200-strong cadre of the Sri Lanka Education Administrative Service (SLEAS) being filled on political grounds. UNP Kurunegala district Parliamentarian Akila Virage Kariyawasam told a news conference yesterday that school principals without any qualification in the SLEAS, had been picked for these posts due to their political affiliations. Mr. Kariyawasam said teachers had also been appointed as principals to some schools in a similar manner, and the Education Ministry had no plan to improve the sector. He said the UNP would launch a signature campaign on October 20 for a petition to be handed over to Speaker W.

Peradeniya University’s Senate yesterday suspended eight students from attending lectures for five weeks after they were found guilty of removing the Sir Ivor Jennings nameboard and damaging university property, Registrar Ranjith Alwis said. The names of seven students suspected of being involved in property damage were handed over to the Kandy Magistrate by police yesterday. The Magistrate issued orders to arrest and produce them before Courts. The lecturers who boycotted lectures to protest against the students’ unruly behaviour, following the university’s decision to name the new hostel after its first Vice Chancellor Sir Ivor Jennings resumed lectures from yesterday. By R.

දිනෙන් දින ජනපි‍්‍රයත්වයට පත්වන ගොඩගම සුභාරතී මහා මාත්‍ය මහා විද්‍යාලයේ වත්මන් දියුණුවට ඇපකැප වූ විදුහල්පතිවරයා හිටිහැටියේ මාරුකර යැවීමට එරෙහිව ප‍්‍රදේශයේ මවුපියන් හා සමිති සමාගම් රාශියක් විරෝධය පළ කරති. හෝමාගම, ගොඩගම සුභාරතී මහා මාත්‍ය මහා විද්‍යාලයේ විදුහල්පති ලෙස කටයුතු කරමින් සිටි කේ. පී. සිරිසේන මහතා ඉකුත් සතියේ වෙනත් පාසලකට මාරුකර යැවීම සම්බන්ධව, පාසල් සංවර්ධන සමිතියේ සාමාජික මවුපියන්, ආදිශිෂ්‍ය සංගමය සුභාරතී විදුහල සුරැකීමේ සංවිධානය, ගොඩගම “ දීඝායු” ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ පුරවැසි කමිටුව, ගොඩගම ප‍්‍රජාමණ්ඩලය, ගොඩගම එක්සත් වෙළඳ සංගමය ආදී සංවිධාන බලවත් විරෝධය පළකරන අතර , ඒ සඳහා බැනර් ආදියද ප‍්‍රදර්ශනය කර ඇත. ගොඩගම සුභාරතී විද්‍යාලයේ වත්මන් දියුණුවට කලාපීය අධ්‍යක්‍ෂවරිය කෙනෙහිලිකම් කරන බව පවසන ඔව්හු, පසුගිය තෙමස තුළ ගුරුවරුන් 10ක් අඩු කිරීම, කී‍්‍රඩා උත්සවයට පෙරදින කී‍්‍රඩා ගුරුවරිය මාරු කිරීම, නියෝජ්‍ය විදුරල්පතිනිය මාරුකර යැවීම පසුව ඉකුත් සතියේ කිසිම හේතුවක් නොමැතිව විදුරල්පතිවරයා මාරුකර යැවීම යන කරුණු මේ සඳහා පෙන්වා දෙති.