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| Wednesday, 13 November 2002 |
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Letters | |
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Please forward your letters to [email protected] in plain text format within the e-mail message, since as a policy we do not open any attachments.
We have just enjoyed three week's sojourn in your beautiful country. We have appreciated its scenery and its gentle people. However, we are most surprised at the discriminatory treatment meted out to foreign tourists. Entrance to National Parks, gardens, museums, etc. quote two prices - one for locals and one for visitors. The prices are exorbitant. We are not all rich American tourists and feel we cannot recommend our friends visit your country under these circumstances. On top of these prices, we are charged 30% extra on our meals and hotel rooms. We pay taxes in our own country where we are able to enjoy their benefits. We object to paying for improvements we cannot share, already our country sends aid, in the form of money, to help Sri Lanka. We already contribute by taxes to this aid. In spite of this, we wish Sri Lanka a more prosperous future. HM, National policy in early childhood care The word 'implementation' seems to be the most difficult word in the vocabulary of the early childhood establishment owner. Whatever ideas a government comes up with it would be good to remember not to leave any loopholes where unscrupulous business people WILL wriggle their way through by means of clever legal eagles. Once again we appeal to the Hon. Prime Minister, the Hon. Minister of Education and the Hon. Minister of Social Welfare to bring about a change to the present chaotic state in ECCD. It is rather shocking to visit schools run by the "auntie Jane's" of this world. Many excuses have been made as to the deplorable situation of the premises, the non-qualified staff, and indeed the lack of training and qualification of the owner herself, but nothing has been done to repair the damage. Indeed when damage is done to a child's education any right-minded educator knows it is irreparable. What Does Research Say About Early Childhood Education? It is believed that from the time of birth, all children are ready to learn. Learning does not mean the three 'R's. Learning does not mean sitting for elocution exams. Learning does not mean competition at academic levels. Learning at this stage is the development of the social being. To get on with peers and the adults he comes into contact with at this stage in life. However, what we do or don't do as individuals, educators, and collectively as society can impede a child's success in learning. For example, if we do not provide adequate health care and nutrition for our youngsters, those children entering the public schools will already be behind their healthier, properly fed peers. Properly fed does not imply a diet of processed foods. This means the awareness of eating well-balanced meals at a tender age and growing up with this thought process. Curriculum development should take into account the many sources of curriculum: * Child development knowledge * Individual characteristics of children * Knowledge base of various disciplines * Values of our various cultures * Parents' desires * Knowledge children need to function competently in our society How can so called "educators" know what's best for the children when they themselves have a doctored qualification or lack the experience of handling issues of parents and children in this new age? How can an educator teach other educators without the use of teaching aides? Trainees have complained that no material is used but they have to sit round a dining table and learn the art of guiding the destinies of little children - all for a smacking Rs. 25,000 (or more) for 6 month course. What horrors await the new child entering an early childhood classroom in the New Year? Parents beware. The Association of Montessori Directresses does not arbitrarily give out membership to Directresses. They have to fill in a certain criteria in order to be fully-fledged members. Therefore before you admit your child to a centre ask to see the following: The qualification of the Directress (one year Diploma) The qualification of the teacher (one year Diploma) The membership card of the Association for the current year. Do not say we did not warn you. Avoid unpleasantness in early childhood before it is too late. SHANTHI WIJESINGHE, Suicide is often a solo behaviour and no empirical solution has yet been found to prevent such an unfortunate ending of life. We often read in the newspapers that people have committed suicide by drinking liquid pesticides, which is a poisonous organic compound easily available as an agro-chemical. This toxic fluid is found in homes of farmers who use it to protect their crops from insect manifestation. There are various motives to commit suicide, the most common being frustration and lovelorness among the youth, who see it as the only solace to end their mental agony by drinking pesticides, from which the recovery is very remote. As a precautionary measure, the sale of agro-chemicals must be controlled as is found in the Poisons and Dangerous Drugs Act, so that they are not freely available in the open market, e.g. nitric acid is being issued under a permit since it is a strong poison resulting in instantaneous death. Since agro-chemicals have become useful to farmers, its availability at home may pose a risk to anyone desirous of ending his life voluntarily. ARYADASA RATNASINGHE, Business development with Taiwan It was heartening to read in the Daily News of 5/11 that the Taiwan government had extended an invitation to open a Sri Lanka Trade Office in Taiwan. Many countries are eager to open such offices in Taiwan but the Taiwan authorities do not allow all of them to do so. It was only recently that we read another news item where a Sri Lanka traditional dance troupe performed continuously for over 6 months in Taiwan. It is, however, sad to note that Government agencies fight shy to promote Sri Lanka in Taiwan. It is understood that even Tourist brochures in Chinese when requested are not dispatched. Let us hope that the EDB, Tea Board and other agencies seize this golden opportunity by helping open a Trade office in Taipei. LALITH PERERA, The tragedy of Faculty of Applied Sciences This Faculty of Applied Sciences is one of the Faculties of South Eastern University of Sri Lanka, situated in Sammanthurai, at Ampara District. The learned people say that A Science Faculty is a heart of particular University. But this South Eastern University does not take any care on this Faculty of Applied Sciences. This means, among the thirteen Universities in Sri Lanka, this South Eastern University receives a lot of money from the University Grants Commission every year. But this money usually uses to that Arts and Commerce Faculties. Even a single amount of money is not been used to this Faculty. The Administration is also very keen on the development of those two Faculties and they neglect this Faculty of Applied Sciences in each and every moment. The Administration and the Academic staff of the Science Faculty also have no interest to improve this Faculty. The Administration members are involved in improving and holding their positions and their chairs. They do not know the lack of facilities of the students. The Faculty of Applied Sciences does not have the following facilities: 1. No proper well organized lecture halls. 2. No sufficient amount of lecture halls. 3. No proper walking path. 4. No Internet facilities. 5. No Auditorium for students. 6. No hostel facilities for the outstation students. 7. No well-qualified lecturers. But these facilities have been given to Arts and Commerce Faculty students. Why this Vice Chancellor and Administration neglect them? Why hasn't the University Grants Commission not taken any action against this matter? So many intelligent and well-qualified students are in the Faculty of Applied Sciences. But their intelligent and skills are wasting due to this lack of facilities. I would like to bring this matter to the authorities, and would like to request them to take necessary steps in order to save the Science Faculty students. K. Samalleen Recently we read some comments about certain accents of English used by some Sri Lankan newsreaders on television news. We know this caused much concern among certain English speaking sections of the society. Whatever the critics it has, no doubt, this is a matter of becoming more 'Suddha' (English man) which is an ornament for many people. It is true that if the news reader is incomprehensible to the listener it does not serve any purpose. But we need to know that these comments are dominated by certain sections of society which represents a few who are averse to certain accents existing in the world. What we hear as accepted accent is naturally spoken nowhere in the English speaking world, perhaps we can call it Sri Lankan English. I do not think even in England, you can hear accepted Sri Lankan type of accent is spoken even by 1% of the population. We have to accept the fact after being subjects of British monarchy we have deployed our own style of speaking English which is neither English nor American. Also we see that, some people in the same family speak with different accents, which they developed in different situations. If we want to have a certain accent which has similarities to a spoken language in a ceratin land, it is only to show our submission and obedience to them, putting aside our main object which should be: to use English language to gain and impart the information and knowledge. If we still want certain accent of English for prestige, it is inevitable that Sri Lanka is bound to step behind other countries in technology science and other fields. WALTER WIJENAYAKA, 'Allowing the horses to bolt before closing the stable doors' Central Bank of Sri Lanka is in the habit of allowing the horses to bolt before the closing the stable doors. The recent advertisements by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka alert the general public as to the entities that are authorised to accept deposits. It could be too little too late. Now that the Central Bank of Sri Lanka has taken control of the Pramuka Bank, their customers are inconvenienced to the extent that, no withdrawals could be made for 60 days. People save money not for the sake of saving alone, but also to be withdrawn whenever they need for occasions such as weddings, funerals, children's education, etc. Is the Central Bank of Sri Lanka telling the Pramuka depositors to wait for another 60 days to attend to such urgent requirements? Central Bank of Sri Lanka stepped into regulate the finance companies after a lot of depositors lost a lot of money in mushrooming finance companies. Finance companies with best of names went to the wall. Central Bank of Sri Lanka never anticipated the collapse of several finance companies. Government had to pump in funds to save the depositors in some cases. Similarly there are rumours about the viability of some commercial banks and specialised banks due to bad loans and mismanagement. Is the Central Bank of Sri Lanka waiting till one of these banks go down to bring in further controls and monitoring? Central Bank of Sri Lanka cannot be unaware of the fact that there are several companies outside the published list accepting deposits from the general public. What have they done to stop them? Most of these unauthorised institutions creep through the weak legal framework governing deposits. So far authorities have failed to define clearly what a deposit is. Most of the unauthorised deposit takers interpret the laws to suit their activities and continue in business. Now that the stamp duty is abolished, it has become easier for them to accept deposits against pronotes and call them borrowings. Also the Central Bank of Sri Lanka has allowed uncontrolled advertising to licensed deposit takers that banks are fast becoming institutions offering lotteries allowing huge prices to attract depositors. Bank must attract customers using their financial stability and strength, quality of service and sound management practices and not by employing cheap advertising gimmicks. Central Bank of Sri Lanka must compel the banks calling for deposits by way of expensive advertisements to simultaneously tell the general public how viable they are by publishing their vital statistics such as capital adequacy ratios, bad debt provisioning etc. Further the Central Bank of Sri Lanka should ensure that top executives of banks are qualified to hold such positions, have the necessary experience and are of undoubted honesty and integrity. In Singapore it is a Monetary Authority requirement that senior executive appointments should have their approval, especially recruitment from other banks. In Sri Lanka, we have seen executives discarded by banks being recruited immediately by other banks." A. G. WEERASINGHE, |
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