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by Chloe Griffiths and Hanna Jackiewicz

Ajith Colonne, Chairman of the National Apprentice and Industrial Training Authority (NAITA) told the Daily News that his suspicion is that a mass student protest last week in-line with other student university protests may have had an underlining political motive.

Over 300 angry students gathered on 7th and 9th of October to voice their dissatisfaction at NAITA's decision to hold a single, combined convocation ceremony for all the students of their three vocational training institutions.

The protesting group consisted of training students from the Technologists Training Institute in Katunayake. The 170 actual diploma recipients from that institution simply boycotted the awards ceremony, held at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH), and have since, failed to pick up their awards.

This 'no-show' however, also appeared conspicuous to Mr Colonne who suspects that they might have been threatened by the younger students. He said: "It seemed obvious they wanted to collect their awards but I believe they may have feared verbal abuse and physical intimidation if they attended the ceremony."

The combined ceremony, the first of its kind for NAITA was attended by the Minister for Tertiary Training and Education who was to award both national diplomas and national certificates.

The decision had been taken to hold a combined awards ceremony in order to: "elevate the status of vocational training, enabling NAITA to attract more students to the institutions whilst also making these student's convocation more prestigious" said Colonne.

However, the decision provoked strong reactions from the Technologists Training students, disappointed that a combined ceremony would undermine the importance of their achievements.

These students were due to receive diplomas after completing their four-year technical level course, whilst the other 300 plus students from the two other institutions, the Motor Engineering Training Institute in Orugodawatte, and the Apprentice Training Institute in Katubedda, were receiving only three year craft certificates.

This sparked the first protest on October 7. Negotiations between the students and NAITA began concerning the convocation.

To appease the students, NAITA agreed to allow the Technologist Training students to receive their diplomas first in the ceremony, to have the director-general of their institution speak, and allow them to bring both parents instead of one to the convocation.

Another protest on the day of the convocation was the result of failed negotiations between NAITA and the Student Association, when after their demands had been met, the diploma recipients still boycotted the convocation and the students still in training protested outside the building.

The situation had appeared resolved when 140 out of 170 of the graduating students picked up their gowns from the institute on the 8th, the day prior to the ceremony, and Ajith Colonne felt that, due to the concessions they had awarded, the students were now content and would attend the ceremony. Ironically however, despite all their demands being met by NAITA the student association then chose to reject the ceremony on the basis that it was discriminating against the parents of the other two institutions. This brought upon the suspicion that there might have been an ulterior motive for the student process.

Despite the notable absence of all the diploma recipients the ceremony continued to go ahead successfully but Colonne believes their boycott and protect could have serious repercussions. "It sets a very bad precedence and could have adverse consequences on the future development of the vocational institutions particularly as representatives from donor agencies who were attending appeared particularly displeased" he said. NAITA is now in the process of considering the ramifications of the protest. The department catered the event for over 500 people but due to such significant absences the leftover food was distributed amongst the Colombo orphanages. Now NAITA is considering reducing the student's monthly allowance to make up for the waste of public money and to force them into becoming: "accountable public citizens."

The students from the other two institutions under NAITA also held their own verbal protest as a result of the Technologist training students bad behaviour. Thus, further consideration is being given to whether the Technologist training students should be temporarily suspended from practical training at the other institutions.

Despite continuing dissatisfaction, NAITA and the ministry are categorical on their position regarding the ceremony. "We will not encourage negotiation regarding the ceremony, their demand is unreasonable. It has been agreed by the Minister, by the secretary to the minister and the advisor to the ministry that the combined ceremony will remain and awards will be given in student's absence if necessary."

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