A prudent move

The decision by the Higher Education Ministry to seek the views of University academics and Vice Chancellors on the on going leadership training programme is a move in the right direction. This is particularly so given the recent strained relations between the Higher Education Ministry and the academics over pay and other demands.

It is hoped that such coming together in a common cause by the protagonists would heal the wounds and lead to a rapproachment on all sides for the greater good of the student community who had already been penalized for no fault of their own having to forgo a good part of the University academic year during the strike. The move while thawing relations between academics and authorities should also pave the way for the active involvement of academics in the affairs of the University administration which was one of the main demands by FUTA.

According to Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayke this can be a fruitful measure to create a perfect programme. Our report also goes on to state that the ministry will make appropriate changes to the leadership and positive abilities development programme in accordance with the proposals and ideas of the academics and VCs. It also says that several changes will be made in this year's programme considering the feedback from students, parents and university academics.

This too is a positive development that can lead to a thawing of hardline positions and clear all misunderstandings and fallacies associated with the leadership training porgramme. Particularly the co-opting of parents and students into the programme as stakeholders is to be appreciated to rid them of fears and doubts regarding the programme. It was the claim of critics of the leadership training programme that it was an arbitrary exercise introduced at the behest of the highest in the Defence establishment and was military in nature. Now with close supervision and direct involvement of the parents in the matter, all such fears and misunderstandings could be laid to rest.

The involvement of the relevant stakeholders will also permit all to get a better perspective of the bigger picture of the leadership training programme. We say this because the academic world had been meandering along in a strait jacket for too long oblivious and out of touch with realities outside their cocooned existence. University students were devoid any other orientation save for their own charmed circle in the groves of academia. This is in contrast to most developed countries where university students are given regimentation courses outside the strict academic milieu.

As a result they are able to adapt to all situations and meet the challenges of life with better perspective and understanding. Above all, such training would allow them to assume leadership roles and be more practical and productive in their chosen endevours or callings which a strict academic immersion would fail to provide. This is why today in most instances university passouts with paper qualifications alone fail to fit into the challenging roles thrown out by the modern world and end up stagnated in their routine jobs or as misfits in society. In short, we have been producing academics who are distant and aloof from all things other than their own cloistered academic world which would ill prepare them for the challenges and leadership roles in society and ending up as misfits.

Hence, the need for a programme removed from a strict academic milieu to train and prepare the cream of our youth to take up leadership roles in the future.

Now that the Higher Education Ministry has called for all stakeholders to join in, it is hoped that the academics who are calling for a revision of the on going leadership training programme would provide their own inputs to make the exercise a success. As mentioned, such a liaison would also go a long way in easing tensions between the academics and the authorities leading to the promotion of a healthy dialogue that would redound to the benefit of the student population.