Private educational institutions playing vital role in nation-building

Shirajiv Sirimane

EDUCATION: Sri Lanka's private education institutions are playing a vital role towards nation-building, the Minister of Education Susil Premajayanth said.

Speaking at the launch of the Imperial Institute of Higher Education (IIHE) BSc (Hons) with computing with software engineering and BSc (Hons) computing with management degrees at Trans Asia hotel on Wednesday, he said these institutions also help to save foreign exchange.

"Private institutions offer acclaimed education degrees and locals do not have to travel overseas to obtain them," he said.

As the Minister of Education, I am facing the challenge of providing tertiary education to large numbers who are successfully completing secondary education. In Sri Lanka about 200,000 sit the A levels annually and about 120,000 qualify to enter university.

However, only about 20,000 are accepted to national universities. "What happens to the rest? Those who can afford to go overseas and enter foreign universities and these reputed universities are the answer to others," he said.

In the recent past new opportunities have emerged for those seeking higher education. A large number of private higher education institutions like the Imperial Institute of Higher Education have emerged offering undergraduate courses in business management, computing, law, economics and more," he said.

"Today the world is now in an information technology era. In the context of demands of industry I think it is very appropriate that IIHE is launching such relevant programmes. These two degrees therefore will certainly contribute to the national and global needs.

"It is also very important that private tertiary education institutes offer high quality education to serve the national and global needs.

CEO Imperial Institute of Higher Education Rohan Wijeratne said there is an acute shortage of high quality IT professionals in Sri Lanka and this was the reason for them to launch these two courses.

"Though there are many courses offered in IT, most of them do not give practical experience and this is a problem IT firms would face in Sri Lanka," he said. "It is estimated that Sri Lanka has added 657 IT professionals last year," he said.

The IIHE was incorporated in Sri Lanka in October 1996 and is amongst the oldest institutions offering foreign degrees in Sri Lanka.

The University of Wales was founded by Queen Victoria in 1893 and is the second oldest and second largest Federal University in the UK.