HNDE students agitate over shortcomings

COLOMBO: The Higher National Diploma Course in Engineering (HNDE) course conducted by the Sri Lanka Institute of Higher Technology studies has deteriorated due to the lackadaisical attitude of the relevant authorities, alleged the HNDE Students' Union in a press release yesterday.

The release said the hostel problem was one of the most acute problems affecting students following this course. Of a total of 600 students only 20 per cent are provided hostel accommodation at present.

The Mahapola Scholarship award is restricted to a monthly payment of Rs. 1,000 which was a meagre amount in the context of the present escalation of living costs and had not been increased for the past several years.

Furthermore the HNDE Institute was facing a severe manpower crisis and there was a dearth of lecturers due to the wide disparity between the salary scales of HNDE lecturers in comparison to lecturers in the Engineering Faculties although both categories are recruited in an identical qualification process.

The Union had made written representations to the authorities on these issues but all their appeals had fallen on deaf ears. The release said the Union held a protest campaign opposite the Mattakkuliya HNDE Institute on September 05 and a media conference on September 20 to draw the attention of authorities to the crisis facing the HNDE course.

If their pleas went unheeded they would be compelled to launch a more vigorous mass students agitation campaign in the future to win their demands, the release says.