FUTA vows to go ahead with strike despite fruitful talks

January 13, 2012, 9:42 pm , The Island.


by Dasun Edirisinghe

University teachers, who met officials of the Higher Education Ministry last evening, for about three hours, to discuss outstanding issues, expressed satisfaction at the outcome but said they would go ahead with the scheduled token strike on January 17.

President of the Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri said that the ministry officials accepted their demands, including a wide ranging discussion on ‘the private university bill’.

"However, we will go ahead with our scheduled trade union action on Tuesday," he said adding that they would reverse their decision only if an assurance was given by the minister that it would be withdrawn.

Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake did not attend the meeting as earlier scheduled but Higher Education Secretary Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratne chaired the meeting, which was attended by seven FUTA officials, at the Higher Education Ministry auditorium.

Dr. Devasiri said that ministry officials agreed to discuss the proposed bill and the FUTA proposal to discuss it with all stakeholders including university teachers, experts, parents, undergraduates, etc.

The ministry officials also agreed to other demands such as increasing salaries of university teachers according to earlier accepted methodology and allocating six per cent from the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to the higher education sector.

However, they agreed to discuss further the private university bill and FUTA demanded that the proposed bill be withheld until the discussions were over, Dr. Devasiri said.

When contacted by The Island, Higher Education Secretary Dr. Navaratne too said that the discussions were fruitful and the next meeting would be held on January 20.

Jaffna uni students jeer at SB

Friday, 13 January 2012 23:00, Dailymirror.

First year students of the Jaffna University had started jeering at Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake recently when he remarked at a function that there were LTTE activists within the university, a students’ right activist said today.

Former convener of the Inter University Students’ Federation Udul Premaratne told journalists today that there is an attempt by the government to brand political opponents as LTTE supporters.

“Once someone is branded as an LTTE activist, it is easy for the government to suppress his or her rights. The government tries to brand us too as terrorists,” Mr. Premaratne said.  

Also, he said that Jaffna undergraduates had started jeering when the Minister started speaking in Sinhala without a Tamil interpreter.

“After jeering by the students who were present, a Tamil interpreter had been brought,” he said. (Kelum Bandara

JVP wants to know govt. policy on private universities

January 13, 2012, 9:55 pm , The Island.


by Dasun Edirisinghe

Despite President Mahinda Rajapaksa directing Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake to put on hold the ‘private university bill,’ the JVP yesterday urged the government to reveal its policy on higher education.

Addressing a press conference at party head office at Pelawatte, JVP Parliamentary Group Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that several times in the recent past, Minister Dissanayake had said that establishing private universities was the government’s policy.

Minister Dissanayake and Ministry Secretary Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratne insisted that setting up private universities here was the government’s policy, he said adding the people could not trust President Rajapaksa’s order to suspend the bill.

"President Rajapaksa must announce his government’s policy on higher education immediately," Dissanayake said.

He said that according to the draft aimed at establishing private universities, the minister of higher education could interfere in the activities of the universities at present handled by the University Grants Commission, university Senate and the council.

"The government wants to create an environment to promote private universities by creating trouble in the existing state universities," Dissanayake said adding "but authorities are blaming students when they are protesting against privatization of free education system".

He claimed that according to the new bill, private universities would be established to earn profits, but private universities in other countries were not set up to earn profits.

However, the ministry would attempt to sneak in the bill by another name, but its sole purpose was selling free education, Dissanayake said.

According to him, the JVP already had discussions with the university teachers and would launch a collective protest in the near future against establishing private universities.

Former JVP MPs Ramalingam Chandrasekar and Wasantha Samarasinghe also attended the press conference.

Dean’s appointment application rejected

January 13, 2012, 9:52 pm , The Island.

By Chitra Weerarathne

The Court of Appeal recently refused to issue notice, in respect of a writ application filed against the selection and appointment of Professor D. D. S. Kulatunga, as Dean of the Faculty of Science, of the Kelaniya University.

The Court of Appeal order, by Justice S. Sri Skandarjah, said that the petitioner had failed to establish any illegality in relation to the third term, the respondent, Professor Kulatunga, was supposed to have been holding, as a Head of the Department of Mathematic, to qualify himself as a candidate for the post of Dean of the Faculty of Science.

The petitioner, Professor M. D. Amerasinghe, Head of the Department of Botany, had said that Professor Kulatunga was charged in a criminal case in the Magistrate’s Court and he should have been interdicted from service forthwith. But Deputy Solicitor General, Arjuna Obeysekera who appeared for Professor Kulatunga, had submitted that an internal inquiry was held in respect of that matter, and it had been summarised that there was insufficient material to charge him in the Magistrate’s Court. Hence, the University had used its discretion under rule 18/1 and not interdicted him. Therefore it cannot be considered as a violation of the rules or unreasonable in the given circumstances.

The two main grounds that were raised by the petitioner to disqualify Professor Kulatunga to hold office of the Dean of the Faculty of Science was not properly substantiated before the Court. The appointment was made by the University Board, and the University Board was not made a party to the application. The maintainability of this application was questionable, the Court held.

K. N. S. Kodituwakku, instructed by Sampath Vijitha Kumara, appeared for the petitioner.

Arjuna Obeysekera, DSG, appeared for first respondent, the Vice Chancellor Professor Sarath Amunugama and the Second respondent, Professor Kulatunga.

Experts want wide, careful consultation on Z score formula

No fault in answer script evaluation

January 13, 2012, 9:39 pm , The Island

The expert committee, appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to probe the 2011 GCE (A/L) examination results mix-up, has said in its report that given the reliance of the UGC on the results of the A/L examination for University admission, the formula to be used in determining the common indicator (the use of the z score calculation) should be decided by the University Grants Commission after careful and wide consultations.

The report has been submitted by a committee of learned persons comprising the Secretary to the Ministry of Technological Research Mrs. Dhara Wijetillake (Chairperson) Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo, Prof Mrs. Kshanika Hiriburegama, Vice Chancellor of Moratuwa University Prof. Ananda Jayawardena, Vice Chancellor of Uva Wellassa University Prof. Ranjith Premalal De Silva and the Principal of the Royal College Mr. Upali Gunasekara.

The other findings of the committee are as follows according to a media release issued by the President’s office:

The error in calculating the district rankings had been caused at the last stage (processing stage), and not at the stage of entering data.

This processing error had been rectified by the Department of Examinations within a short period of time and the results released thereafter do not contain inaccuracies due to this processing error.

The officers responsible had not taken adequate steps to avoid the causes that contributed to the error.

An independent process Audit should be carried out to provide for continuous improvements of the entire examination process. This should ideally be carried out by the Ministry of Education.

Inquiries conducted regarding the specific appeals made by the candidates in response to the public call by the Committee have been examined. The Committee has found that there are no processing errors in those results.

There is a need to take several steps to enhance the capacity of the department to handle the technology related functions of the department. The Committee has identified what these are, specifically.

As an immediate measure, the services of a Consultant should be obtained to provide advice on technology related matters.

Matters relating to software improvements should be examined. In particular, every revision of a computer programme and data processing, should be double checked, verified and validated before implementation.

Implementation of recommendations of previous Committees as well as this Committee, should be ensured through an Action Plan with time targets for implementation. This should be monitored by the Ministry of education.

The cadre and financial provision required by the Department of Examinations should be provided to ensure optimum efficiency.

Complaints with regard to the 2011 G.C.E A/L examination should be addressed by the department with extra concern and caution to restore the credibility of the department. A special help line should be established to receive all the complaints and these should be responded to.