U’grads campaign to force govt. solve  education problems

September 13, 2012, 10:16 pm, The Island 

by Dasun Edirisinghe

Undergraduates yesterday launched a protest against the government’s failure to solve the ongoing crisis in the education and higher education sectors.

As a part of the protest, they launched a signature campaign on a 100m long banner at the Badulla town on Tuesday.

Convener of the Inter University Students’ Federation (IUSF) Sanjeewa Bandara told The Island that they had collected signatures for the banner-petition in the Bandarawela town too.

He said that they would go to the Kandy and Anuradhapura Districts next week.

"We will go around the country with this banner," Bandara said, adding that they had delivered leaflets to educate the public on the issue.

The government had failed to grant the demands of university teachers and it had led to the disruption of work in universities for over two months, he said.

Undergraduates demand that the government solve the problem and re–commence the academic activities.

Bandara said that they also demanded that the government allocate 6 per cent of the GDP for education.

Bandara said that their other demand was to stop the leadership training programme introduced for prospective university entrants.