According to a report in Financial Times “Despite the rapid depreciation of the Sri Lanka rupee, more and more students are seeking a foreign professional qualification which require costly foreign cash.” http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070729/FinancialTimes/ft326.html Interestingly, most CVs we see these days cite a local degree and CIMA as qualifications, both completed at about the same time.
(Lanka e News – 2007 July 25, 4.30 PM) A student monk and few more students were injured and hospitalized due to a clash between JVP led Students’ Council and the Science Faculty Council of the Kelaniya University yesterday (24). Registrar of the University Mr. Karunarathna said that the authorities decided to close the university after a discussion between the Vice Chancellor and the Police. The date of opening is yet to be announced.
HSBC recently launched an educational environment programme for 400 schoolchildren in five schools, namely Weddagala Maha Vidyalaya, Pothupitiya Maha Vidyalaya, Kudawa Maha Vidyalaya, Gamini Maha Vidyalaya and Thiriwanaketiya Vidyalaya, which are situated in and around the vicinity of the Sinharaja forest. The need to conserve the Sinharaja rainforest is becoming increasingly important to Sri Lanka with climate change being seen as a serious threat to the world. Therefore, HSBC, together with Field Orthinology Group (FOG) attached to the University of Colombo, took this initiative in order to sensitize students to the environmental issues facing the Sinharaja rainforest and to create a core group of school children dedicated to the cause of environmental conservation. The school environmental programme will comprise an intensive one year course on environmental issues, a schools beautification programme, a schools libraries programme and many nature outings. HSBC has always been committed towards the preservation of the environment, with HSBC staff being sent on the Homestay Programme.
Teachers of Dhaka University on Saturday took classes wearing black badges as a sign of protest against the harassment of and repression on the two former prime ministers—detained Awami League president Sheikh Hasina and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia. The DU teachers will also observe half-day work abstention today as part of their two-day protest programmes and decide on their next course of action depending on the government’s response to the five-point demand they made at an emergency meeting of the Dhaka University Teachers’ Association on Thursday, leaders of the association said.   ‘All the teachers irrespective of their political belief took classes wearing black badges and we will make the two-day protest programme a success,’ the general secretary of the DUTA, Professor Anwar Hossain, told New Age. Theachers belonging to to allgroups—the blue panel supported by the AL, the pro-BNP white panel and left-leaning pink panel carried out the association’s decision.    A few teachers, however, took classes without wearing black badges.
COLOMBO: President Mahinda Rajapaksa affirmed his commitment to provide equal educational rights and opportunities to all, sans racial, religious, castes or other prejudices. President Rajapaksa made this affirmation on Tuesday when he presided at the annual 2005/2006 prize giving of his Alma Mater, Thurstan College Colombo, to distribute prizes and special merit and skills awards to the winners. “I have allocated Rs. 70 million in the last budget, a sum never allocated in the past, intending to provide quality education to all, based on the premise that it is the onus and obligation of the Government to do so,†he said. The President pointed out that teachers always seek transfers and strive to serve in urban schools where all facilities are provided.
This unedited and apparently amateurish video clip available in You Tube shows Mr. Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the President speaks to a group of villagers and teachers at Mahavilachchiya on the issues related to school education. Gives a good idea about the type of problems at the village level. We will be glad to know how or whether the things changed after this discussion. http://www.
Universities, from Nalanda in present-day Bihar to those in Bologna and Harvard, emerged from religious contexts. It is therefore appropriate to look to religious context for guidance on how to reform the university system. The solution to our problems lies in the bringing of upasampada from Thailand (Siam) in the 18th century and from Burma (Ramanna and Amarapura) in the 19th century. The problem Sri Lanka’s universities no longer qualify to be called universities. Some say the cause is students; others say it is political interference.
University non-academics have been on and off strike for quite sometime. According Ministry estimates the lost working days amount to an unproductive expenditure of RS: 2540 lakhs or a quarter of a billion. The total operating budget for the university system is about Rs: 8 bilion. It is easy to blame the non-academics, but as correctly pointed out in an editorial in the Lankadeepa, many days of work were lost also due to students attacking each other and other miscellaneous misdemeanors. It is about time we put a ruppee value on these disturbances and attach a name to each loss–the name of person at whose desk the buck stops.
Anisha Gupta Senior Communication Associate School Choice Campaign http://schoolchoice.in/campaign/campaign_updates.php School Choice Campaign is directly addressing parents through mass outreach programmes and organising their inherent demand for school choice. We are also taking school choice ideas and ways to implement them to all levels of the government through our political outreach programmes. CCS is also initiating school choice projects to test and demonstrate the scope of school choice.
 A comment by one of our readers in another thread prompted us to bring this sensitive issue for discussion. This input (text and cartoon) is from Tamilnation.org is just to start the discussion. We not necessarily endorse it or otherwise. ___________________________ “Everyone has the right to education… higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit” – Article 26.