Rohan MathesCOLOMBO: The new recommendations of the National Education Commission (NEC) on admissions to Year One, following the recent Supreme Court decision, was handed over to President Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees yesterday. Thereafter, a lengthy round of preliminary discussions took place between President Rajapaksa and the representatives of the NEC including NEC Chairman Dr. A.V. Suraweera, Vice Chairman Lal Perera and the Secretary C.

(LeN-2007 June 18, 7.50 pm) The Ordinary Level examination is one of the crucial examinations in the country which decides the future education of the children but it is sad to note that 52.7% of the applicants who sat for the exam have failed it. According to statistics issued by the Examinations commissioner General Anura Edirisinghe 21,813 students have not passed a single language. But the latest information is that Education Minister’s daughter has also failed the examination.

ඉකුත් ඔක්තෝබර 4 වැනිදා ශ්රී ලන්කා පදනම් ආයතනයේ කෙරුනු පලවන සන්වාදය ඉතා සාර්තකව පැවැත්වුන බවද, ඒ සදහා පැමිනි සැමගේ නොමද උනන්දුව සහ සන්වාදීය දායකත්වය ඒ සාර්ථකත්වයට හේතුවූ බවද මම ඉතා සතුටින් වාර්තා කරමි. එම සන්වාදයට අද්ධියාපනයේ අර්බූදය පිලිබඳ විශ්ලේෂනයකින් දායක වූ අන්තර් විශ්ව විද්යාල බල මන්ඩලයේ සිසුන්ටත්, නව අද්ධියාපන පනතක් සඳහා යෝජනාවලියකින් දායක වීමට සූදානම්ව පැමිනි විලුඳු ආයතනයටත් මම විශේෂයෙන්ම ස්තූතිවන්ත වෙමි. සන්වාදයට සහභාගි වූ හෝ වෙනත් වගකීම් නිසා සහභාගි වීමට නොහැකි යයි දැනුම් දුන් අයගේ ලැයිස්තුවක් ලිපිය අවසානයේ ඔබට දකිය හැක. ඉදිරි සන්වාද පිලිබදව බහුතර මතය වූයේ ඒවා විවිධ මත දරන අයගෙන් සමන්විත පැනල ලෙස පැවැත්විය යුතු බවය. ඊට අමතරව නිශාන්ත කමලදාසයන්ගෙන් ලැබුන අනගි අදහස වූයේ අප සැම ප්රශ්න දිහා බලන්නේ අප එකිනෙකාට විශේෂ තැවුල් (concerns) පදනම් කර ගෙන නිසා ඕනෑම සන්වාදයක් ඒ තැවුල් පිලිබද සන්වේදිතාවෙන් කල යුතු බවත්ය.

Nishantha KAMALADASA LITERACY: Computer literacy and English language skills are necessary to build a competent employee required by the corporate sector. However this competency is absent in many educated youth. This is in spite of increased Government and parental spending. These two important subject areas have not reached the expected level of achievement because they also have been taught by teachers at classes but not been learnt by the students. They did not learn English or ICT because they had not used either, in the process of learning.

Information Communication Technology (ICT) will be included as a subject in the Advanced Level examination curriculum from 2009, said Secretary to the Ministry of Education Ariyarathne Hewage. He said approval for the ICT policy for education will be obtained soon and it will help develop capacity, train teachers, set up ICT centres and build private public partnerships. Ariyarathne was addressing the academia career guidance pre meet organised by the Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) which will host the National ICT Capacity Summit and National ICT Career Fair (NICS 2007) from September 1-2 in Colombo. Ariyarathne said information technology and computer science has grown at a phenomenal rate to a US$ 1 trillion industry but the country has not been able to keep pace with developments due to the lack of skilled IT personnel. The challenge today is to get IT professionals for the market.

By circular 890 dated June 07th the University Grants Commission has ruled that all employees who do not report to work due to trade union action be treated as no-pay absentees. http://ugc.ac.lk/policy/circulars/MainIndex/MainPage.htm.

Education authorities in Sri Lanka have denied the right of a girl to education after she was raped, a rights watchdog said. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) said the principal of a school in Galle has refused to allow the victim to resume her education in the school. “The Principal has stated that the girl denied entry because she is now a disgrace and a bad example to the other students,” a statement issued by the watchdog said. Nadin Ishan Chandika, a resident in Ahangama, is accused of raping the 15-year old girl on 29 December 2006, according to the AHRC. Nadin and his friend, Nuwan “recorded her semi-clothed body on their mobile phones.

  Unemployment is an issue in most of the countries, developing or developed. ‘Graduate Unemployment’ is perhaps a burning issue unique to Sri Lanka. Many, not just the unemployed graduates, think we should treat that issue with utmost importance. Ethnic issue or inflation can wait, but not graduate employment.   Any idea why the issue assumes such a high priority?

Prof. Wisawa Warnapala, minister for higher education, was invited to say a few words at the University Librarians Association annual conference on June 8th and he took nearly one hour to reminisce about the good old times, complain about the non-academic staff, faculty and lack of scholarship, students and lack of love of learning and many other ills of the university system. Then he went on (again*) to stress the need for a vision, mission, goals objectives etc. This is coming from a man who, on his own admission, has been in positions of power in the academia for decades, and then since 1996 or so, in politics. He is not the only one in power to complain and not to do anything.

A speech made by Prof. Wiswa Warnapala – Minister of Higher Education at the Conference of Vice Chancellors held at the University Grants Commission on May 4, 2007 SPEECH: The purpose of this meeting is to enter into an active dialogue with the Vice Chancellors of the Universities of Sri Lanka, and the primary aim of the dialogue is to make use of the experience of the distinguished Vice Chancellors in formulating a new Higher Education policy for the country. The objectives of Higher Education, due to a wide variety of reasons, have undergone a change, and the university system, which came into existence in 1921 with the establishment of a University College which was later elevated to the status of a fully-fledged University in 1942, fulfilled its tasks and the system expanded to such an extent that Sri Lanka has a fairly developed university system which has had a considerable influence on the intellectual life of the country. With this expansion and the nature of its contribution, no proper policy perspectives have been advanced to bring about changes in the system to make it more meaningful and relevant. In other words, the system did not expand in relation to […]