With some changes:

Leadership training programme in May

Ridma DISSANAYAKE

The annual leadership training programme for students who have qualified to enter the universities will commence on May 20 with a number of changes.

The first programme of the “Leadership Training” for students was conducted last year. A number of allegations were made by some students and certain parties with vested interests who are against this training programme. All measures are in place to commence the leadership training programme this year with several changes done while paying attention to those allegations, Higher Education Ministry Secretary Dr. Sunil Jayantha Nawaratne said.

“Measures have been taken to reduce the rigourous physical training exercise programme. Accordingly, the morning physical training prgramme has been toned down,” he said.

“Measures have already been taken to increase the interval period between training periods and to assign university lecturers as much as possible to conduct lectures which had thus far been conducted by Army instructors,” he added.

The students who have qualified to enter the universities will be divided in to two groups and leadership training will be given in two phases. Training for the first group will commence on May 20 and conclude after three weeks. The training period for the second group will commence after the vacation.

All measures are in place to hold the Leadership Training Programme at 28 army camps islandwide and over 10,000 students will participate in the training programme this year.

The students who have received the best G.C.E (A/L) results will qualify to participate in the leadership training programme. The university cut-off marks will be released at the beginning of May and the students will receive the letter containing information on the training after release of the cut-off marks, the secretary stated.

“When this training programme was introduced, certain parties, such as, student activists, lecturers’ unions and several political parties tried to create a conflict situation in the university system. That type of situation will not arise again as necessary changes have been effected prior the commencement of the new training programme”, Dr.Nawaratne said.