File photo of undergraduates’ protest
We again read (March 3rd) that a university in Sri Lanka is closed due to student protests. This time it is the Sabaragamuwa University, and the closure is the response of the authorities to the demand by the students that the suspension order handed out to their colleagues for alleged ragging should be withdrawn. Incidentally, the fact that those who do not support these strikes and protests, presumably in the majority, too are punished through not being able to continue with their studies, does not seem to be an issue of concern to anyone.
Read moreOn the previous day, the BBC website, under the heading "India: The next university superpower?" reports on ambitious plans by the Indian government for increasing university enrolment rate from 12% at present to 30% of the population by 2025". And, this is in a country, unlike in Sri Lanka, where the students, except those given concessions under special considerations, pay tuition fees for university education. The report adds that the private education sector too is expanding rapidly, particularly in engineering, medicine, information technology and management.
When there is talk of making Sri Lanka the ‘Wonder of Asia’, an obvious route that the authorities should take to reach that goal is to make the country a powerhouse in education in the South Asian region. This is not mere wishful thinking: there was a time when Sri Lanka was known in the affluent countries for its high standard of English and the capabilities of those who had graduated in professional courses as well as of those with liberal arts degrees. Offering the present day undergraduates adequate facilities for their studies, providing the university academics salaries that reflect the inputs that they had made and the qualifications they have obtained, and promoting research, local as well as with international collaboration, are a few of the essential measures that need to be taken. If the fervour with which Sri Lanka had established institutions to encourage and facilitate foreign employment – which opened the floodgates for unskilled labour to seek low-paid employment in the Middle East - could be duplicated in the field of higher education, Sri Lanka could easily match India in its proposed endeavour. Hand in hand with this, action needs to be taken to enlighten the current university students that they are a privileged lot in South Asia, in spite of all the inadequacies that they face once they embark on university studies. They should be told in no uncertain terms that it is to their advantage that they complete their undergraduate courses within the stipulated time and venture out into the wide world armed with marketable qualifications.
The writer is not completely averse to the position that university education should not be job-oriented – a task that some would say should be left to the polytechnic or the vocational training school. The majority of the undergraduates of today, unlike those who came from the English-educated upper middle class social stratum of the 1950s and the 60s, take up university education with the hope and expectation that it would help them secure decent employment. It is the moral responsibility of those who hold the reins that the aspirations of the youth who invest their future in education are not dashed.
The Island By Gamini Premadasa
