SB blames JVP for student leaders not completing degree courses

February 17, 2013, 10:07 pm , The Island


by Dasun Edirisinghe

Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake yesterday blamed the JVP for the failure of student union leaders to complete their degree courses after 1985.

Responding to the JVP’s statements attacking him, the angry minister said that the JVP and its breakaway Frontline Socialist Party, were getting innocent undergraduates to carry forward their bankrupt political ideologies.

"After 1985, most of those who led the Inter University Students’ Federation and other JVP affiliated students’ unions in universities countrywide have not completed their degree courses," he said.

Dissanayake said a majority of them were from very rural areas and were obstructing other students from entering universities.

"We too were student leaders, when we were in the university, but all of us completed our degrees successfilly," the minister said.

Naming some now prominent figures, such as minister Chandrasiri Gajadeera, Mahinda Wijesekera, Minister Reginold Cooray, Ministry Secretary Willie Gamage, former UGC Chief Prof. Gamini Samaranayake, Prof. Navaratne Bandara of the Peradeniya University, Students Affairs Director of the Higher Education Ministry Keerthi Mawellage and former examination commissioner general Anura Edirisinghe, he said that they had also engaged in politics and student union activities in the university, but they completed their degree courses and now serve the country.

He said that JVP affiliated student leaders did not complete their degrees and sacrificed their higher education to fulfill an unrealistic dream of the bankrupt political party.