Dinesh shows Boralugoda mettle in degree debate

Minister Dinesh Gunawardena has shown the same determination of his father the late Philip Gunawardena in the face of a major political challenge.

Long after his battle with the British colonial rulers, Philip Gunawardena put up a massive fight to get the Paddy Lands Bill passed, albeit with some key amendments, which he blamed on the pressure of feudal landlords, while being in the MEP government elected in 1956.

The Paddy Lands Bill was one that appealed to the masses, and had much popular acceptance. However, the issue over which son Dinesh has stood firm in the face of so-called popular opposition is the right to permit private educational institutions to award degrees.

While his father Philip was hailed by the masses for his unswerving position on the Paddy Lands Bill, Dinesh appears to have done better than his father in standing firm by what many protest is an anti-people move and the privatizing of university education.

All the din and demonstrations against the approvals given to two private educational institutions to award degrees, is mainly led by the Inter-University Students organization, who oppose it as the death knell of free university education, and the path to the privatization of university education.

The level of protest is so loud, fiery and threatening, that not many are ready to state the facts on this matter, allowing the average citizen to take a dispassionate view about the entire issue. We have for too long seen the sad consequences of ill-informed, populist interference in education, and we do not need more of it.

Little do those who oppose giving degree awarding status, under the purview of the University Grants Commission, consider the actual situation regarding free university education in Sri Lanka. Of nearly 90,000 students who have qualified to enter university, only about 17,000 can gain admission, due to the limited facilities available in the state universities.

In fact according to non-contradicted reports 80 per cent of those who qualified for entry to university on the results of the GCE A/L examination is compelled to be out of universities.

Not one word is uttered in favour of this silent majority, of whom only a few have the opportunity to obtain some training in technical skills, or travel abroad to obtain foreign degrees.

It is time to champion the cause of this large number shut out of universities, than give in to the downright selfish motivations of those creating a bogey of university education being privatized. Dinesh Gunawardena has demonstrated his support for this silent majority.

There is a great deal to be said on the policy of free education that was first advocated by the late Dr. N. M. Perera, and steered through the State Council by the late C. W. W. Kannangara.

Free Education

However good N. M. Perera and Kannangara were in their intentions, the educational landscape has changed today from the days they saw the need for universal free education in the country. There should be no threat to properly managed and administered free education to all those who deserve it.

However, this does not mean that due to lack of facilities in the universities that provide free tertiary education the vast bulk that are qualified for it are shut out of the benefits of university education.

It is strange that those so vociferous about safeguarding free education make no protest against the huge private sector in education found in the wholly uncontrolled tuition class system that is virtually choking out free education.

How much of the hard-earned money of parents are spend on private tuition classes, which lack in discipline, do not provide the best supplementary education, and are even increasingly becoming the breeding grounds of vice?

Why are the great defenders of free university education not protesting about the private tuition system? Is it because most of them entered university thanks to the cram-shop approach of these tuition classes, which is continued in the free university system as well?

International Schools

How can these great defenders of free university education in the State sector be so blind to the existence of International schools, many of which are regular tuition houses, charging a much higher fee with a new rank and status in society?

There are many parents who today prefer to send their children to these International Schools, which they believe, provide a better education than the free schools of the State and even the so-called popular assisted schools managed by religious organizations.

There is no protest about International Schools that operate outside the pale of the law in their educational content.

Those shouting themselves hoarse about safeguarding free university education for a now privileged few, are surprisingly dumb about these International Schools that are mostly direct channels for university or any other higher education abroad.

There are contradictions galore in our educational system, but all that matters to those with the herd instinct about free university education is the so-called danger of privatizing university education.

There are many parents who do not wish to send their children qualified for university admission to the State universities, even for free education; because they do not wish to see their children undergo all the humiliation and trauma of crude and violent ragging. Why should there be no places in the country where such parents can send their children for higher education, if they can afford it?

Why should a student who has qualified for higher education be prevented from entering a private institution approved to award degrees, which one knows can be gained in three years, instead of lingering for at least one more year in a "free university" because of the many unwanted strikes, boycotting of exams and campus shut downs that are the order of the day in these universities?

The real reason for the objection of these private institutions with degree awarding status, conferred by the UGC and closely monitored by it, is the fear that in the competition for jobs after graduation, those from these private institutions will have a better chance.

This is a genuine fear, but one cannot blame the institutions or the students who go to them for such a situation, The fact is that these institutions will produce more disciplined graduates, and those who have obtained degrees in skills required by society and employment market.

One fact cleverly hidden by those supposedly protecting Free education in the universities, is that there will be as many additional places in these universities for qualified students, corresponding to the number of those who enter private institutions of higher education.

Those who are demanding a halt to these new degree awarding institutions do not accept the fact that they would do better if they campaign to change the curricula in the State universities, make a greater effort to study English while at university and seek to pass out as graduates who are also in demand for employment.

Meanwhile kudos and all strength to Minister Dinesh Gunawardena for standing firm by the Government's policy on tertiary education, which involves authorizing suitable private institutions to award degrees.