Sunday, January 19, 2014

JUSTA Faults Selection Procedure For Academic Positions On Campus

Filed under: Colombo Telegraph,News,STORIES |
The Executive Committee of the Jaffna University Science Teachers’ Association (JUSTA) has issued an appeal to the University’s Vice Chancellor and Members of the Council with regard to selections to Academic Positions in the University.

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JUSTA claims it is troubled by decisions of senior academics holding administrative responsibilities to overlook candidates with superior certified academic performances in favour of those with inferior records.
“The major criterion for selection to an academic post is academic excellence. This is because University is the highest seat for learning and its teachers do not teach from text books alone,” JUSTA said in its appeal.
JUSTA warns that selection on subjective criteria such as interview and performance easily becomes the means of abuse to favour those with superior connections and influence at the expense of persons from humbler backgrounds who have shown superior ability.

“Once this abuse takes root, the character of the University suffers, as those selected become increasingly beholden to those in authority,” the appeal said.

The Appeal to the Vice Chancellor has the support of 86 persons of the Jaffna University, including 69 members of the academic staff.

We publish below the letter in full;

University of Jaffna,
4th December 2013.
To:The Vice Chancellor, Members of the Council and Well–wishers of the University,

Selection to Academic Positions in the University

Selection to academic positions is the task of mainly senior academics holding administrative responsibilities: the university community and the public rightly expect that this obligation is discharged conscientiously. Regrettably, we are more and more troubled by justifications from these same senior academics for overlooking candidates with superior certified academic performances, in favour of those with inferior records. The reasons frequently given – the selected candidate performed “superbly” in the interview or the candidate’s presentation was “superb” – point to the selectors trying to cover up something seriously amiss that troubles them. Current selections will determine the academic standing of the University, and its intellectual environment, for many years to come. It is now time to refresh our minds on the criteria for selection to academic positions.

The major criterion for selection to an academic post is academic excellence. This is because University is the highest seat for learning and its teachers do not teach from text books alone. They should continually update their knowledge and prepare their students accordingly. They should capture new outcomes in their research fields and apply them in their own work. A person who had absorbed what was taught over four years and applied it well in answering questions regularly set at examinations should be most suitable for the purposes given.

Hence as the first category for selection to the post of Lecturer (Probationary), the UGC has specified a First or Second Class (Upper Division) specialization in the relevant subject. Other categories are considered only when candidates in the first category are not available. When selections are made from other categories, the Council must justify it to the UGC.

UGC circular 935 states that “If the Selection Committee is not satisfied with the performance of candidate/candidates, but otherwise well qualified, such candidate/candidates be appointed as Temporary Lecturer/Lecturers for a period of one year and at the end of such period of such period they may be appointed as Lecturer (Probationary) having subjected to another interview and presentation”.

The Circular makes it clear that the certified record is the decisive criterion for selection. The presentation and interview are only to ensure that the selected candidate will not be a disaster as a teacher. It further makes it practically mandatory that the candidate having the best certified record be appointed in a temporary capacity, when there is some doubt about his capacity to teach and interviewed a year later. That makes plain the weight placed on qualification as opposed to presentation.

A Special Degree candidate has been tested in 120 credits using some 50 end-of-semester question papers (and numerous in-course assessments) by several tens of examiners. Each answer script has been marked twice by experienced examiners. The candidate had spent several hundred hours answering question papers in the examination hall. A first class is awarded based on this performance. In the selection board only Head of the Department is, in most cases, an expert in the subject. Is it that easy for such a board to reject the result obtained in the above manner and stamp a candidate as being unsuitable on the basis of a few questions fielded inadequately by the candidate during a brief interview lasting a few minutes?
To put it in another way: Whom should a board select to an academic post? A brilliant fresh graduate who did not do well in the presentation or one with an inferior record with better presentation skills?

We must further keep in mind that many years of war and migration have lowered the kind of exposure where students would pick up better English and present themselves more attractively. Under these circumstances it is incumbent on us to give students who have worked hard to overcome some of their handicaps and perform well during their four years at the University, their due opportunity to rise further. Selection on subjective criteria such as interview and performance easily becomes the means of abuse to favour those with superior connections and influence at the expense of persons from humbler backgrounds who have shown superior ability.
Once this abuse takes root, the character of the University suffers, as those selected become increasingly beholden to those in authority. 

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A.Nithlavarnan Education
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K.Sivarajah Marketing
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K.L.Ramanan ELTC
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J.Thevananth Financial Mgt
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S.K.Kannathas ELTC
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Mr.N.Pratheeparajah Geography
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Miss.S.Sithamparanathan Physical Education Unit
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Dr.C.C.A.Sivapalan Linguistics & English
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Mr.S.Wimal Linguistics & English
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Dr.V.Suntharesan ELTC
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Mr.S.Gobinaath Mathematics & Statistics
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Mrs.K.Hoole Library
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Dr.T.Kalamany Education
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Monday, January 13, 2014

SB reverses reason

Reducing of the duration of AHS degree

, the island

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By Dasun Edirisinghe

Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayakas yesterday admitted that his decision to reduce the four-year Allied Health Sciences (AHS) degree programme to three years had been made under pressure from the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GEOF).

Minister Dissanayakas told a public meeting in Kandy that the GEOF had opposed the four-year degree and did not allow AHS students to do clinical practices at respective teaching hospitals.

At present, AHS students from the Peradeniya and Ruhuna Universities are staging a Satyagraha at Galaha junction and Galle town respectively and boycotting lectures to protest against the reducing of the duration of the degree.

Minister Dissanayakas said that Vice Chancellors of universities, University Grants Commission (UGC) or Higher Education Ministry could not reverse the decision owing to pressure from the government doctors.

Dissanayakas told The Island few months ago that his ministry had consulted the University of Wales in the United Kingdom when designing the AHS course. The Wales course was also three years. Deaking University of Australia also offered a three-year nursing degree. The Singapore State University’s nursing degree was also a three-year course.

President of the AHS Students’ Union Ranitta Prasad yesterday asked the minister whether a trade union could meddle with the policies of the Higher Education Ministry and the UGC. He accused the minister of simply passing the buck to the GEOF.

"We will not give up our protest until winning the four – year period for our degree," Prasad said.

Meanwhile, Vice Chancellor of the Peradeniya University Prof. Athula Senaratne said that the Allied Health Sciences Faculty would be closed indefinitely if undergraduates did not return to lectures today.

The new degree courses started in 2006 in Peradeniya, Colombo, Sri Jayewardenepura, Eastern, Rajarata and Ruhuna universities were of a four year duration. The UGC and Higher Education Ministry decided to cut it down to three years from 2009, but it was delayed due to students’ protests.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

The Grade 5 Scholarship Exam and psychological stress What are the alternatives?

A psychiatrist’s point of view

, The Island

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By Dr. Sajeewana Amarasinghe

Psychiatrist, Base Hospital,Puttalam.

The Education Minister’s proposal to do away with the grade 5 scholarship exam created a huge uproar in the country. Apparently the National Educational Commission took this decision taking into consideration the psychological impact of this exam on primary school children. But many thought this was an attempt to block the only pathway available for a talented rural child to enter a prestigious school in a major city. As a provincial psychiatrist working in one of Sri Lanka’s most underprivileged districts I certainly agree that scrapping the scholarship exam will be a drastic step that will have serious socio economic implications. But I believe that we need to make some adjustments to this exam to reduce the immense psychological burden on primary school children.

Many children in grade 4 and 5 present to me with vague physical complaints like headache and abdominal pain. They have been investigated by paediatricians and no medical basis found for their symptoms. The parents will often tell how their easy going and lovable child has recently become irritable and moody. They throw temper tantrums at the slightest provocation. When I interview the child alone it becomes clear that most of them have got anxious due to the impending scholarship exam. Many parents have little idea of their child’s scholastic abilities and push children to achieve unrealistic goals. The child becomes worried that he or she will not be able to fulfill the parent’s high expectations.

During the last two decades the grade 5 scholarship has become extremely competitive. The huge media publicity given to the top scorers has made things worse. Most parents who have missed out at grade 1 try to use the scholarship exam to get admission to a popular school. One cannot blame them as it is the only mechanism available to an ordinary parent with no connections. But, a child needs to score at least 90 percent to enter one of the more popular schools. This is a big task for a 10-year-old child as it leaves very little margin for error.

Therefore, many parents push their kids to the maximum and send themto two or even three tuition classes. All extracurricular and leisure activities are stopped and thechild is forced to cram for long hours. Most 10-year-olds are naturally quite playful and not too keen on studies. Therefore this exam creates a great deal of anxiety and some may actually need psychological intervention. Of course, there will be some very mature kids who will study independently and get good results. But these children are usually the exception rather than the rule. Most children will have to be forced to study at this age!

I think the main cause of the stress for both children and parents is the intense competition to enter a popular school. An increase in the slots available in the popular schools will be a major step to reduce the competition. Most of the leading government schools have around 50 children in a primary class. Therefore, the number of places available for scholars in Grade 6 has declined.

The minister of Education hopes that with the development of 1,000 secondary schools the need to enter popular schools will not arise. But we need to remember the fact that only very few recently established schools have reached the level of the old traditional educational institutions. This too was due to the efforts of their pioneering principals. Many new schools started with much fanfare wither away after a few years. Therefore it is left to be seen whether any of these newly developed 1000 schools can match the old established schools.

I believe that the improvement of the well-established provincialcentral schools and semi urban schools to national standards may help reduce the high demand for city schools. In today’s context this will involve the improvement of facilities for education as well as sports and extracurricular activities. In this context a good example is Rathnavali Balika Vidyalaya, Gampaha which has consistently produced outstanding results at the national level at public examinations in recent years. Now many parents living in Gampaha opt to keep their children in this school even if they get the opportunity of getting admission to a Colombo school. I believe the establishment of around 50 well equipped provincial schools on par with the popular schools will lead to a reduction in the intense competition.

If the government gives continuous support these schools too will gradually develop their own reputations as centres of excellence and start their own old boy and old girl networks! This will probably be more practical than attempting to establish 1,000 popular schools when we consider the limited resources in our country.

The Education ministry decision to simplify the exam seems to be a step in the right direction. But it is left to be seen whether this will actually reduce the stress on children. Giving a very easy paper might result in the cut off marks to enter a popular school reach very high levels. (e.g. 99% or 100%) This will intensify the stress as there will be absolutely no margin for error! It will also make it difficult to pick out the really brilliant kids as many will score very high marks.

Instead the scholarship exam should be modified to reduce the amount of rote learning needed. It should be a test of academic potential rather than of knowledge. The focus needs to be on testing intelligence, language skills and mathematics. This will probably reduce the need for attending multiple tuition classes and long hours of cramming. It will also improve the identification of truly gifted children.

We have to accept that the selection at the current scholarship exam is by no means perfect. Many children who pass the scholarship with flying colours fail to perform well at higher exams. The obverse is also true as there are many who perform poorly at the grade 5 scholarship exam but do well at the Advanced level exam.A look at the top performers at the recent AL examinations will show that many children from rural schools have outperformed their city counterparts. Most of these children have missed out on entering a prestigious school at the grade 5 scholarship.

Some advocate a postponement of the scholarship exam to grade 8. This proposal has some merit as the child will be more mature and ready to face a competitive exam. Hopefully, the involvement of parents, too, will become less intense! Parents may also have a better idea of the child’s academic potential. This will prevent academically average children getting unnecessarily harassed to achieve goals that are way beyond their capabilities.

The education ministry should also consider introducing a formal pathway whereby rural school children who excel in sports and extracurricular activities too could enter a leading school. A certain number places in popular schools could be reserved for children who excel in sports and other extracurricular activities such as music and dancing. This probably needs to be done around grade 8 or 9 in order to pick out the really talented kids. It will create an alternative pathway for children who are not academically inclined. Of course, this already happens in an informal manner even now as some big schools recruit outstanding sportsman from smaller schools by offering scholarships. Even some of the exclusive private schools are known to do this. But it is unfortunately restricted to the glamour sports like Cricket and Rugby.

Although I don’t agree with the proposal to scrap the scholarship exam I am glad that the Education minister and his officials have some understanding of the psychological impact of this exam on children. I hope that they will modify this exam so that primary school children can enjoy their childhood without the undue burden of a highly competitive exam.

Friday, January 3, 2014

FUTA Media Statement on suspending Grade 5 Scholarship

The North’s AL ‘high’ and the ‘gratitude’ factor

 , The Island

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By Lynn Ockersz

May be, if Sri Lankans stop ‘honouring’ politicians and refrain from paying veritable ritual homage to them, politicians may get it into their heads not to expect the public to be beholden to them for whatever reason. An issue bedeviling the Lankan public is that they do not adequately exact accountability from those they vote into public office. May be due to a semi-feudal mindset, sections of our public hero-worship politicians who do not constantly remind them that they are public servants with the mandate to go the extra mile in serving the people. Politicians need to be judged on the basis of how effectively they carry out their duties and they must be seen as succeeding or failing purely on this foundation. None could be viewed even appreciatively merely because they hold public office.

Youngsters of the North are undoubtedly reaping a ‘bountiful harvest’ in these post-conflict times in the form of noteworthy academic achievements. As is known, the highest success rate at the latest GCE Advanced Level examination comes from the Northern Province and it is plain that this should be attributed, to some measure, to the stable law and order situation the military elimination of the LTTE by the Lankan security forces made possible.


But it would be relevant to remember that the youngsters of the North have always enjoyed a reputation for academic distinction. It is possible that they would have scored even more impressively at the AL examination if the ‘ground situation’ permitted unhindered academic activities over the years. These facts need to be borne in mind when assessing the causes that could have led to the Northern Province leading from the front as regards the success rate at the recent AL examination.

But it needs to be accepted that until recently, the highly volatile law and order situation in the North-East rendered sustained academic pursuits by northern primary and secondary students very difficult and credit must be given to the Lankan law-enforcement authorities for the effective management of the security situation in the relevant areas over the years. If not for the currently prevalent stable law and order situation, schools and educational institutions would have encountered continual difficulties in operating in the North, and the noteworthy successes achieved by the secondary school students of the North are substantial proof that a high degree of normalcy has been brought about in Northern civilian life since May 2009.

The right-thinking of this country, to be sure, need to be appreciative of the role the Lankan security forces and police played in improving Sri Lanka’s law and order situation, but it does not follow from this position that the security forces’ presence in the North should not be progressively reduced from now on. In proportion to which normalcy is brought to the North, the troop presence there, for instance, must be brought down and this point must be borne in mind by the authorities. Ideally, law and order functions must revert entirely to the police and it is such a situation which is fully synonymous with normalcy. Until then, it cannot be claimed that absolute normalcy has returned to the North.

Accordingly, the stark contradiction between militarization and normalcy must be recognized by the Lankan state. If ‘terror’ is no more in the North, a state military presence would be meaningless and superfluous. The state should draw the relevant inferences from this anomaly and do what is needed to further ease the lot of northern civilians.

Meanwhile, while it is only right that the state and the Lankan public should be appreciative of the role played by our law-enforcers in establishing internal law and order, it would be questionable, from an ethical viewpoint, to expect the people of the North to be ‘grateful’ to the law-enforcers and connected quarters, for discharging these tasks which they are obliged, in terms of their mandates, to accomplish. While the role of the law-enforcers must be appreciated, it would amount to demeaning any section of the Lankan public to expect it to be ‘grateful’ to an official quarter for services the latter is expected to perform, in terms of its responsibilities. However, the point is taken that most law-enforcers acted selflessly and courageously during the armed conflict in the North-East. Countless numbers of these personnel laid down their lives for the people and for this they must be saluted by the country.

These observations need to be made in view of the opinion in some sections that ‘gratitude’, rather than appreciation, is due to those who handled the law and order situation in the North over the past few years and who, thereby, enabled academic activities to be pursued uninterruptedly.

However, the same line of thought applies to those governmental quarters which wax lyrical about the relief they claim they have brought to the North. It needs to be understood that the governments of Sri Lanka were, and are, obliged to serve the public of this country, wherever the latter may reside. Governments are elected to office to do just that. They are expected to selflessly and impartially serve the public and cannot expect the people of this country to be beholden to them. The services of conscientious political leaders may, perhaps, be appreciated, if there are any among us. This is not synonymous with anyone being ‘grateful’ to them for functions they are duty-bound to perform.

May be, if Sri Lankans stop ‘honouring’ politicians and refrain from paying veritable ritual homage to them, politicians may get it into their heads not to expect the public to be beholden to them for whatever reason. An issue bedeviling the Lankan public is that they do not adequately exact accountability from those they vote into public office. May be due to a semi-feudal mindset, sections of our public hero-worship politicians who do not constantly remind them that they are public servants with the mandate to go the extra mile in serving the people. Politicians need to be judged on the basis of how effectively they carry out their duties and they must be seen as succeeding or failing purely on this foundation. None could be viewed even appreciatively merely because they hold public office.

We, the public, could make some changes to this political culture of near servility to the office bearer and the perceived top decision- makers, by giving them less importance in our consciousness and in our day-to-day lives. To begin with, the public could refrain from inviting politicians and others holding top public office, to our each and every function and public occasion, regardless of the nature of these events. Why, for instance, should politicians and numerous ‘hangers-on’ and officials be invited to religious and cultural events about which they may know nothing or very little? Why should they be asked to ‘sign’ at weddings? Why should they be invited to school events to which they may have no relevance?

Needless acts of this kind on the part of the public, which bespeak an attitude of servility towards politicians and the like, among other things, create an environment of impunity, wherein politicians engage in power abuse and other misdemeanours which progressively disempower citizens and render them pliant tools in the hands of those who are seen as powerful.

Hopefully, civil society would forthrightly address these issues and launch the necessary remedial action. We need to create a political culture which will enable the people to consistently empower themselves in relation to those who are bent on power abuse. However, those persons deserving public recognition and appreciation need to be always given their due. But being beholden to them is clearly an abnormal state of mind.