A manual on Sri Lanka’s tertiary education
Dr. S. B.Ekanayake
Dr. S. B.Ekanayake
Publication - Tertiary Education in Sri Lanka - Relevance in the
Global Context
Author - Professor Wiswa Warnapala
Printer/Publisher -Lassana Printers & Publishers (pvt) ltd.
The publication on tertiary education in Sri Lanka, with relevance in
the global context is a follow up of the author’s previous publication
titled ‘Higher Education Policy in Sri Lanka: New Perspectives and
Change’. Like the previous publication this too is based on a lecture
series, numbering twenty two, delivered by Prof. Wiswa Warnapala on
Higher Education in Sri Lanka. The focus of this publication relates to
three important issues that confront higher education in Sri Lanka: (a)
Technical Education (b) Higher Education Policy and (c) Unrest in the
Universities.
The focus on Technical Education is very appropriate and timely since
it has a direct bearing on the development aspects of the country, as
well as, assuring avenues for employment for the large numbers that come
out from universities and other higher educational institutes.
Competencies in technical skills have been part of the history of the
human kind and their development which is now pronounced more than ever
before. Today development of a nation is logically associated with the
technical know how. Hence, the importance of this area in the context of
modern development in Sri Lanka.
Attempted approaches
In the first of his lecturers speaking on “Technical Education Needs
and a New Approach” he traces the modest approaches attempted by the
governments since 1956 to foster technical education (TE) at various
levels with little success. By and large, the universities had neglected
TE as a matter of policy although the Ten Year Plan in 1957, the first
of its kind in Sri Lanka, had been very specific on the importance of
technical and scientific education in the development of the nation.
He traces the history of TE from the 19th Century which saw the
establishment of the Ceylon Technical College in 1883, on a very modest
footing, to the current well organized umbrella organizations, namely,
Sri Lanka Institute of Advanced Technical Education (SLIATE) and
Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission (TVEC). SLIATE provides
many needs of the industry in the country through provision of skills
and courses catering to the needs of the region and keeping abreast of
the new millennium development goals. All institutions dealing with
technical and vocational education have to register at this apex body,
TVEC However, there is much to be desired in the connections between the
industry and training programs.
Professional lapses
Professor Warnapala laments on the flaws and draws attention of those
responsible professionals to look into these lapses. Realising the
urgency Prof. Warnapala proposes the need for (a) modernization of TE
(b) provision of facilities and expansion of TE to rural areas (c)
collaboration with the needs of the industry (d) moving away TE from the
traditional elitist higher education policies and practices and (e)
encouraging private sector organizations to assist in developing TE, as
is seen in the current policies of many of the Asian countries.
Professor Warnapala very eloquently argues the need for change in the
directions of education in general and higher education specifically.
“Free Education” was the need of the hour in the 1940’s and this has
resulted in an upsurge of more students receiving education over the
years. But he rightly questions the wisdom of this policy in the present
context and strongly advocates “education for development specifically,
development - oriented Higher Education Policy”. This, he argues, would
certainly augment and underscore our system to be competitive
internationally. Thus the current “social demand model” of education has
to be transformed into a “development-oriented Higher Education Policy”.
Arguably this is very sound and far thinking approach to development.
Higher education policies
Prof. Warnapala laments that the present day evils in Higher
Education are possibly results of (a) over expansion of universities
without quality (b) focusing only on undergraduate programs (c) lacking
focus on the post-graduate education sector, (d) over politicalization
of student community and (e) the absence of relevance of the curricular
to social and development needs of the country. Hence he suggests the
need for the establishment of a policy unit on higher education at the
MOHE to rectify these anamolies.
This publication provides insights to the pitfalls of following
policies without planning and provides the policy makers” guidelines as
to how these gaps could be avoided. The ideas expressed in this series
of articles do expose the follies of the general educational system as
well.
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