Minister vows to end ragging

Rasika Somarathna

Higher Education Minister S.B.Dissanayake yesterday vowed to put a full stop to ragging new student entrants at universities. He said that authorities would not hesitate to take tough action including possible expulsion of students found guilty of ragging in order to protect new entrants.

The Minister said that since of late, ragging had become abusive in nature with new entrants being subjected to both physical and mental torture.

‘Today ragging targets to destroy students’ personality, confidence and skills. We would ensure that this would not happen in the future” the minister said addressing the inauguration of a three-week in-house program to develop leadership abilities and positive thinking among new university entrants.

During the launch of the programme at Temple Trees under the auspices of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, a three-month pre-orientation non-residential course in English, IT and soft skills which follows the above too was introduced.

Commenting on future plans the minister said that the higher education system in Sri Lanka would be upgraded in order to improve the employability of under graduates. He said that authorities would strive to enhance University education in line with the best global practices.

The minister said that the intention of the three-week course was to develop leadership abilities and positive attitudes among the new entrants.

He also rubbished claims made that this was a military training and said that this was done by vested interests with malicious intent.

Explaining reasons behind choosing military training facilities for the programme, the minister pointed out that the only institution which had the capability to provide in-house training to over 10,000 at the same time was the military and thanked them for coming forward to help the students. The minister laid special emphasis on improving IT and English skills of the students. He said that all Universities would be made wi-fi zones and students would be provided with lap tops. He also noted that the three-week course would be followed by a three-month pre-orientation programme in improving English, IT and Soft Skills of new university entrants in 300 separate locations throughout the country. Students can choose a location closest to their home, he added.

Speaking on plans to establish non-governmental international universities the minister said these could help the large majority of Sri Lankan students who fail to enter State Universities due to the lack of a few marks.

He said that the government would lay down a rule which stipulates the private Universities to reserve 20 percent of its allocations to eligible Sri Lankan students free of charge.

He was of the opinion that with the advent of non – governmental international universities, Sri Lanka would be able to increase its student intake from 22000 at present to 32000 in the next 2-3 years.

He also said that a small amount of overseas students would be accommodated at Sri Lankan state universities for a fee. He was of the opinion that if state universities could allocate 10 percent of its intake to foreign students for a fee they could meet all their maintenance expenses.

In turn we could use the money we spend at present to establish new universities and enhance education facilities, the minister opined. He also noted that plans were afoot to encourage wider use of English in University education curriculum.

If one is to look at the world above one’s horizon, he or she should fly in intelligence. For this purpose we should encourage the wider use of English to enable our students to work anywhere in the globe with confidence. Also they need to, cultivate physical and mental discipline. We would provide all assistance to students to achieve the above, the minister said.