The tragedy of Universities

September 25, 2012, 7:41 pm , The Island


It is an unbelievable tragedy that in a country such as ours where education is highly valued, that the universities have remained closed for almost three months, without causing a public outcry. It reflects the new apathy of our people.

Since we are now approaching budget day and since there are persistent rumors of a cabinet reshuffle, I would like to make a few simple suggestions which may offer some hope of a settlement, even though they will be nowhere near the aspirations of FUTA and way above what the governments seems to want to do. It is more to do with reallocation of resources for more efficient use, rather than increasing resources for education in the immediate future.

1. Bring ALL of central government activity in education under one ministry – The Ministry of Education – as it used to be. This will include Universities, National schools, Vocational education (including technical education, agriculture, nursing, teacher training etc), Examinations, NIE and other similar institutions. There will be just one minister and one parliamentary secretary (junior minister). This will release a reasonable amount of resources now wasted in salaries and wages, rent, transport (vehicles) etc.

2. Effect similar economies in the Universities (abolish posts of Deputy Vice Chancellors etc) and in schools (abolish the myriad of non-teaching Deputy Principals etc.) releasing more staff for academic activities.

3. Items 1 and 2 above would be feasible if the policy makers do keep to their function, which is to formulate broad policy, without getting themselves burdened with unnecessary day-to-day activities.

4. Increase the salaries of all academic staff (in the Universities and schools) by a nominal 10%, with effect from 1st January 2012, with another projected increase of 10% from January 2013.

5. It should be possible to achieve all this if the government expenditure on education is increased to 3% of GDP from the present 1.9% with the next budget. There should be a simultaneous long-term commitment to increase it to 4% in 2013, 5% in 2014 and 6% in 2016.