Monday, July 30, 2012


 Sri Lanka universities considering admittance of 3,000 more students as redress to Z-score issue
Sun, Jul 29, 2012, 08:09 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
July 29, Colombo: The Chairman of Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission Prathibha Mahanama Hewa says that the higher education authorities have agreed to consider taking in 3,000 more students in the next batch.
The Chairman of the HRC said that the move is aimed at redressing the G.C.E. Advanced Level examination students who claim they lost admissions to the universities due to change of Z-score results.
The Commission has also recommended to the Ministry of Higher Education to obtain legal advice from the Attorney General's Department to grant relief to the students who have lost chance.
The Commission says that this discussion was held since it is practically difficult to consider around 1,000 petitions that have been received from the Advanced Level students.
The students have complained that their rights have been violated by the whole fiasco over the national exam results which select the university entrants.

Ending FUTA strike: A shortcut

 , the island

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The FUTA strike has derailed higher education for the last several weeks causing serious dislocation to studies of youth who have entered universities in the face of severe competition and economic hardship. It is also posing a second hurdle to victims of bureaucratic bungling who are pleading and struggling to jump over the Z-score fence.

To my mind the FUTA dispute is being prolonged by a multiplicity of negotiators, statements, and centers of resolution. I remember reading a statement by one of the representatives of the FUTA that they would be satisfied if the Government responded positively to their demands that could be met without incurring expenditure, in case the economic situation did not permit accommodation of financial demands. I move that the FUTA makes a public statement specifying the minimum they need to end the strike, reserving of course, their right to negotiate the balance in due time.

If FUTA’s bottom-line appeared just and reasonable in the public eye, it would be difficult for the Government to resist it. The President is most likely to approve such a formula offhand, in line with his characteristic approach to dispute resolution. That should put an immediate end to the FUTA deadlock.

Somapala Gunadheera


FUTA says not informed about Minister’s call

 

by Dasun Edirisinghe, the island

Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) yesterday said that they had not been informed by official letter to report to work today (30) by the Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake.

FUTA spokesman Dr. Devaka Weerakoon told ‘The Island’ that even if they were officially asked to report to work, they would not do it until a permanent solution to their demands was found.

FUTA has been on strike from July 04 demanding an annual six per cent allocation of the GDP for education, that they be consulted when taking decisions on higher education and a pay hike.

Dr. Weerakoon said that Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga, too, broke his promise and they were not invited for talks at the Presidential Secretariat after the second round of talks.

"We will announce serious decisions next week on our strike," he said adding that those decisions were still being discussed by the FUTA executive committee.

The senior academic said that they conducted a seminar to educate school teachers on the matter last Saturday in Colombo.

More than 500 teachers countrywide participated in the seminar on FUTA’s invitation, he said.

Dr. Weerakoon said that their teams from Sri Jayewardenepura and Ruhuna Universities were engaged in collecting signatures for a petition against the government at Kataragama yesterday and it would continue during the Perahera season.

Secretary to the Higher Education Ministry, Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratne, when contacted by The Island said that they would inform FUTA officially to return to work soon.

However, FUTA had asked for a meeting with Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga and the ministry would coordinate it, he said.