Prof. E.O.E. Pereira - father figure in real sense

Jiffry Farzandh

The Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka (IESL), the apex body for the engineering profession in the country, will commemorate the 105th birth anniversary of the late Professor E.O.E Pereira with a memorial lecture at the Institution’s headquarters at 120/15, Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo 7, tomorrow September 13, 2012 at 5.15 p.m.. This year’s memorial lecture will be on 'Challenges Facing Public Universities in Sri Lanka' to be delivered by Eng. (Dr) Nihal Somaratna, Senior Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Peradeniya.

A great son of the soil, Prof. E.O.E Pereira is considered as the father of modern engineering education in the country for his unwavering resolve in putting in place the foundations on which higher education in engineering in Sri Lanka is built up on today.

Peradeniya University

Called upon to provide leadership when the country decided to educate its engineers in its own soil he had to literally start from scratch in establishing the first Faculty of Engineering in the country, at first in temporary settings starting at the Ceylon Technical College at Maradana, and then in a shed at Thurstan Road premises of the now University of Colombo before it found permanent accommodation at Peradeniya at the now Faculty of Engineering premises of the University of Peradeniya.

The fact that the University of London, decided to withdraw its external BSc Engineering Degree being conducted up to that time at the Ceylon Technical College made the task entrusted to him all the more daunting.

Engineering education

Not only did he have to hurriedly scramble the necessary academic staff but also attend to the acquiring of the most appropriate equipment for the laboratory that was being built at the new faculty while also overcoming the administrative hurdles thrown across his path.

That he achieved his goals successfully and reigned as the Dean of the Engineering Faculty for two decades before he was given the Vice Chancellorship of that university as a crowning glory speaks volumes of his greatness. The title Vidya Jyothi was conferred on him in 1986 in due recognition of his services to the nation.

Many are the stories and anecdotes revealed by his students and peers alike of his human side in his day-to-day dealings with them. That the students considered him as a father figure in a real sense was reflected by the remorse they admitted to have automatically felt when they had to deal with him face to face, in the course of the awakening of students rights movements in the new faculty, only to be subsequently treated with his usual kindness as if nothing happened.

This was more so as the students rightly realized that this fatherly figure who acted with such firm resolve in overcoming the many administrative hurdles to making the first engineering faculty in the country an institution of excellence in engineering education was, as one writer put it, literally ‘the babe in the woods’ when it came to being confronted with the new phenomena of student activism among his beloved students.

The theme of this years memorial lecture, 'Challenges Facing Public Universities in Sri Lanka' goes to the heart of the problems faced by all stakeholders to the university education system in the country today.

Public universities

Today the crème of G.C.E Advanced Level students, around 1,400 in the physical sciences stream enter the portals of the Engineering Faculties of the state universities of Peradeniya, Moratuwa and Ruhuna, where degree courses in engineering are offered under the free education system provided by the government, to pass out four years later as engineering graduates in the many disciplines the profession has to offer.

The experience they go through in what has come to be accepted as the ‘tumultuous years’ in between invariably leave their mark in the fresh blood that gets added to the profession. Is being aggressive with their grievances and being aggressed upon in return to be the only experience through which to gain the much needed soft skills for their post university life and career is the natural question that arises.

The ‘other skills’ being looked for in new engineers by prospective employers have been understood by now by the universities and catered to by the universities and professional bodies such as the IESL through special courses.

However the edge that the non state universities that are increasingly penetrating the market for engineers in the country, with their focus on public relations, have over their state counterparts in providing soft skills couldn’t be denied, though perhaps academically they might be at a lower level in hard skills.

The relevance of the theme of this year’s memorial lecture with regard to the above aspects as well as many other challenges facing our public universities is thus obvious.

The writer is IESL Publiciy Officer