FUTA denies SB’s claim dons are returning to work

October 2, 2012, 12:57 pm , The Island

by Dasun Edirisinghe

Conflicting claims have been made by University teachers and Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake over the strike by the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA)

While the striking dons maintain that no one has broken ranks, lured by Minister Dissanayake’s offer that their salaries for the past three months’ will be paid if they report for work immediately, the Higher Education Ministry said a number of lecturers had returned to their duties yesterday.

President of the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri told The Island that all universities remained paralysed and FUTA members were on strike.

"We were at the Jaffna University yesterday and not a single lecturer heeded the Minister’s offer," he said.

FUTA launched the strike on July 04.

Several discussions with Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, Presidential Secretary Lalith Weerathunga and the Labour Commissioner have so afar failed.

University lecturers held a protest march from Galle to Colombo last week to force the government to grant their demands.

When contacted for comment, Secretary to the Higher Education Ministry Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratne said that a number of lecturers had returned to work yesterday heeding the minister’s request.

He said that Science Faculty of the Colombo University and Medical Faculty of the Ruhuna University had re-commenced academic activities yesterday as lecturers had returned to work.

"A section of university lecturers requested their salaries for the last three months," Dr. Navaratne said, adding that they could not pay salaries while the dons were on strike.

Lecturers who returned to work from yesterday would be paid the salaries for the last three months, he said.

Dr. Navaratne said that they felt the situation would improve and 80 per cent of lecturers would be back at work by the end of this week.

FUTA takes their case to Mahanayakes

October 1, 2012, 11:00 pm

By Cryil Wimalasurendre, The Island

KANDY – The most venerable Mahanayaka Theras of Malwatta and Asgiriya, who met a delegation form the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA), yesterday afternoon expressed their willingness to forward the striking dons’ demands to President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Malwatte Mahanayake Tibbatuwawe Sri Siddharatha Sumangala asked the FUTA delegates to send the prelates a written request containing the demands that should be forwarded to the President.

He asked whether FUTA whether some kind of compromise was not possible.

The prelates told the FUTA deputation that they were willing to mediate in the issue particularly because the trade union action of the university teachers affected the children who were seeking higher education.

A majority of the entrants to the universities were underprivileged children. They were affected by the strike of the University teachers, the prelates said.

The FUTA delegation was led by deputy president of the association Ven. Dambara Amila Thera, who told Mahanayake Theras that the dispute had dragged on for over three months without a solution because the Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake remained intransigent.

The deputation told the prelates that FUTA preferred to hold talks with Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa since he had come out with proposals that could be agreed upon for a negotiated settlement.

Even the Secretary to the Finance Ministry Dr. P. B. Jaysundara had been flexible during talks the FUTA held with him previously, the FUTA delegates said.

The figures of salaries paid to the university dons, claimed by Higher Education Minister were wrong, the deputation told the prelates.

They said that FUTA did not demand the allocation of six percent of GDP for education overnight.

The deputation added that the university teachers were not ready to return to work or evaluate the GCE A/L examination answer scripts while they were on strike.

Prof. Ven. Hanguranketha Dheerananda Thera together with Ven. Dr. Dambara Amila Thera, Prof. Nawaratne Bandara, Prof. Rohan Fernando, Dr. Terrence Madujith, Dr. Jeevaka Samankumara Dr. Anurakumara, Dr. Rangana Alwis and several others represented the FUTA.

Dons who helped MR become President led FUTA protest – UNP

October 2, 2012, 1:03 am , The Island

by Zacki Jabbar

University teachers who had publicly campaigned to elect Mahinda Rajapaksa President had been in the forefront of last week’s protest march from Galle to Colombo by the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA), the UNP said yesterday.

Gayantha Karunathillake MP, told a news conference in Colombo that the academic community, which once believed and campaigned for the ‘Mahinda Chintana’ had walked over a 100 km from Galle to Colombo, to protest against the indifferent and step motherly treatment meted out to a vital sector such as education.

The ‘Mahinda Chintana’ which pledged to make education one of its main priorities had obviously been eaten by the very "rats" that had helped draft it, he noted.

Karunathillake said that the education system from Grade one upwards was faced with some crisis or the other resulting in teachers and students being subjected to mental degradation.

The Ministers of Higher Education and Education, ably assisted by the state media, were insulting FUTA for its reasonable demand that six percent of the GDP be allocated for education, the MP said adding that it could easily be done, if waste and corruption in the State sector, from the top downwards, was weeded out.

President Rajapaksa had appointed people such as Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, alias Pillaiyan, as Advisors who are unable to make a worthwhile contribution. The huge cost of maintaining his army of advisors had to ultimately be borne by the poor, Karunathillake, observed.

He said that the UPFA government having accused the SLMC of being a racist party during the recently concluded Eastern Provincial Council Election, had now teamed up with it to form the administration in the Council, without any respect for the people’s clear verdict rejecting the UPFA by 400,000 votes to 200,000.

The Rajapaksa regime was pandering to the wishes of the IMF and World Bank which it not so long ago berated. It would come as no surprise if the prices of electricity and gas are increased further, now that polls are over. This would be a huge blow to the poor masses, who only last week, were told to pay 20 percent more for water, the MP noted.

Editorial

The FUTA Protest

September 29, 2012, 6:36 pm , SUNDAY ISLAND

FUTA put up a good show on Friday, as well it might, given the support it drew from disparate opposition forces hoping that the long-drawn struggle of university academics would be the incubus of regime change. Many motorists and other commuters in the city cursed the disruption and the traffic jams caused as a result of the several processions converging on Colombo from different directions. The police unsuccessfully sought a court order to ban a procession in the interest of preventing the inevitable chaos but most people, even those worst affected, were glad that the right to protest was upheld. Given that the police never invoke judicial intervention when incumbent regimes have their various carnivals to the detriment of the general population, it was refreshing that opponents of the government were granted the opportunity of having their say.

Most people do not believe that the demand that six percent of national GDP be spent on education is FUTA’s primary objective. That demand was cannily attached to the salary increase the academics are pushing for themselves to ensure wider support for their cause. They’ve certainly won a level of public support they might not have anticipated given the pathetic state of so-called free education in the country today. Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake claims that the total education spend is a much higher proportion of GDP than commonly believed. He is right if expenditure by non-State actors including various private participants like international schools, the various organizations offering higher education in a multiplicity of disciplines, what is drawn into the monolithic private tuition industry and daham pasalas, Sunday schools and Madrasas are all taken to account. The ``pearl of great price’’ that Dr. C.W.W. Kannangara bequeathed this nation is now old hat. Education is anything but free with many parents, particularly those aspiring to send their children to university, having to cough out rupees they can ill afford to pay for their children to go from this tuition class to that. Even a few of those university dons, striking for higher salaries, are part of that industry with some reportedly earning very big bucks from their `private practice.’

It is not only education that is no longer free in this country which once prided itself on a well-funded free education system from primary schools right through university. We once boasted the highest level of literacy in the region but today many rural schools are being closed and admission to the better equipped and funded schools has become a racket about which the less said the better. The once vaunted free health care is today anything but free with patients in government hospitals being compelled to obtain drugs, tests etc. from outside. We allowed our English language skills to be severely eroded; well-run State assisted denominational schools providing a useful service were undermined. It is clear that the FUTA struggle has resonated in the public mind the way it has largely on account of the progressive deterioration of welfare services, particularly education and health, in recent years. It is true that we are not a resource rich country and some economists believe that we have paid a heavy price in the lack of development by adopting unaffordable welfare expenditure. These are all matters that are debatable but it is inescapable that what is offered to the people today, especially in the spheres of health and education, is but a shadow of what was previously available; and the increase in population by no means tell the whole story.

Although the war ended three years ago, we continue to incur huge defence expenditures ostensibly for security reasons. While infrastructure must undoubtedly be developed for economic advancement, there are questions on whether mega projects like the Hambantota port and the international airport at Mattala will yield the anticipated returns. The money poured into Mihinair is a scandal and there are strong doubts on whether the airline will ever earn its keep. The people are not blind to the money the political establishment spends on itself with a jumbo cabinet of over a 100 ministers in office and more to come as various political arrangements are finalized. It is difficult to determine how well money has been spent on various mega projects and whether the cost-benefit ratios make sense. Public dissatisfaction on several fronts has resulted in the FUTA demands getting wider support than they otherwise would have.

The government says that university dons will get higher salaries from October but the figures released for public consumption lump salaries and allowance together. The Mahanayakes of Malwatte and Asgiriya have offered to mediate and there is yet no word either from the government or from FUTA whether this offer would be accepted. Meanwhile the strike has dragged on for over three months and the marking of GCE `A’ level answer papers have not begun. With academic activities disrupted, delays in students completing their course will be inevitable. The feisty Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake says there were more university students than academics in Friday’s protest. He alleges that the whole business is politically motivated and claims that senior professors are among the best paid public servants in the country with some drawing more than the chief justice. He says that talks are possible once the strike has ended. Given the tone and tenor of the speeches at Friday’s protest and the dons’ perception that they enjoy public support, the signs are than an early end to the deadlock is unlikely. The academics have already forgone three months salary and though the minister says that he’s received letters from many expressing a desire to return to work, it looks very much as though they are willing to go on longer.

The Long March To Nowhere

By Dinidu de Alwis, The Sunday Leader

T-shirts, caps and placards in black and orange
carry a figure – 6%., Sri Lanka’s education spending is low: no question can be raised about it. and University students, academics, civil society activists and politicians congregated at Lipton Circus

Thousands of university students, academics, civil society activists and politicians congregated at Lipton Circus on Friday, marking an end to a long march which university teachers began just a few days prior. The Federation of University Teachers Association (FUTA) was the driving force behind the entire movement, and they have been – for the last months or so – calling for increased spending by the government on the education sector.

The t-shirts, caps and hundreds of placards in black and orange carry a figure – 6%. For the academics, the fraction 6% marks the amount from Sri Lanka’s Gross Domestic Product that they want spent on education. This represents around USD 3.8 billion for this year, considering Sri Lanka expects a 6.8% growth over its 2011 GDP of US$ 59.2 billion.

The 6% figure which FUTA speaks of stems from the repeated commitments that Sri Lanka has made over the recent past to increase the island’s education spending. Whilst Sri Lanka’s commitment has not been met – ever – Sri Lanka’s education sector spending has been suffering over the recent past as a result of increased expenditure on the defence sector. However, even following the end of the war in 2009, expenditure on the defence sector has risen, and education spending has continued to decline.

But this was not the initial demand of the university teachers. Academics demanded a hike in their pay, citing regional and international salary structures. In a comparison that FUTA made, Sri Lanka ranked among the lowest in academic salaries, and FUTA warned that unless the salary structure was given a complete overhaul, the education sector would continue to suffer.

Sri Lanka’s education spending is low: no question can be raised about it. Whilst the United Kingdom spent 11.3% of its public expense allocation  on education in 2009, the United States spent 13.1%, Singapore spent 11.6%, Pakistan spent 11.2% and Cuba a whopping 17.5%.

Even comparing the spending as a portion of the GDP, Sri Lanka still ranks quite low. The United Kingdom’s figure stands at 5.6%, US’s at 5.4%, Singapore’s at 3.1% and Pakistan’s at 2.7%. Cuba again ranks highest at 13.1%, compared to Sri Lanka’s fractional 2.1%.

When FUTA started their union action however, this was not the cause, nor was it the demand. The demand for higher pay shifted to a demand of increased spending on education when the academics’ union began to take flak from the government about their demands, considering the body was given a healthy pay rise just the previous year.

Sri Lanka’s education sector spending priorities are however, a bit skewed. Even though the number of state funded schools dropped from 9,723 in 2005 to 9,714 in 2011, the number of Pirivena’s rose from 653 to 716 over the same period. The number of teachers grew from 189,234 to 271,112 from 2005 to 2011 marking a 14% increase, but the number of Pirivena teachers grew from 5,481 to 6,457 – marking a dramatic 18% increase.

The World Bank, in a report on Sri Lanka’s education sector, also noted that Sri Lanka has been spending only around 2-3% of the GDP on the education sector, compared to a 3.5% average in the rest of the region.

Whilst Sri Lanka had 85 private schools in 2005, this number grew to 97 in 2011. The number of students who are attending private schools too grew from 106,000 in 2005 to 120,000 in 2011. As the state education sector drifts slowly into chaos, the private sector – as the market usually does – moves in to fill the gap.
It is the same private sector that FUTA is now also opposing. Among FUTA’s demands is one to abolish private sector universities in the country, the controversial South Asia Institute of Technology and Medicine being the poster-child villain of the movement. Even though FUTA has not been able to rationally argue out why the private sector is the enemy of free education (and it has to be noted that the term free education does not refer to free as in state funded, but free as in free to choose – the Sinhala word, Nidahas as opposed to Nomile, encompasses the spirit with which the sector was founded in modern history).

The state-funded education system has however, helped Sri Lanka attain an adult literacy level comparable to those of developed nations. “However, literacy alone will no longer suffice in the knowledge era. It will be increasingly important for educated individuals to supply the workforce with market-oriented skills needed to create rapid economic growth and national development,” the World Bank stated in a report.
This mismatch between the education system’s outputs and the employment market in Sri Lanka was highlighted during a recent panel discussion held at the economic issues think tank, the Institute of Policy Studies. During a discussion on education and employment in Sri Lanka, the general opinion that prevailed with the private sector employers who were present at the discussion was that the island’s education system – specifically the tertiary education system – does not produce the necessary skills required for the booming private sector in Sri Lanka.

As a country develops, both in its basic social indicators and on the economic front, more money is pumped into the market by the private sector. Even in Sri Lanka, the private sector has been booming – despite flawed macroeconomic fundamentals such as widespread graft, corruption, nepotism, energy instability and relatively high inflation – after the three-decade war came to an end. The private sector however, is still struggling to find individuals who are both knowledgeable and skilled, and the finger is invariably pointed at the government.

The unemployment levels are disproportionately divided between the various sectors, and whilst unemployment for medical, engineering, computer science and technology-based graduates are almost unheard of, it is the more abstract study areas that see graduates who are without jobs. The responsibility – after truckloads of water and numerous canisters of tear gas – shifts to the government, and due to political pressure, thousands are absorbed into the state sector, oft into positions specifically created for the purpose.
It is the same students which the private sector refuse to accept due to lack of employability who oppose the move for private universities. In their eyes, the charity and foundation driven model of private universities will not work in Sri Lanka, and they see the private sector’s entry into the education system as one that will harm the state education structure.

Following FUTA’s call for the abolishing of private universities, the academics’ union has cozied up to the Marxist-party backed Inter-University Student Federation, who also oppose the move for private universities. Along with them, various opposition parties, including the idealistically-capitalist United National Party, have also joined the movement. Many tend to have politically-left leaning tendencies, including Dr. Wickramabahu Karunaratne, who joined the march during its final stages.

After months of protest, the long march by the FUTA has now come to an end. Their spokesman, Dr. Mahim Mendis from the Open University of Sri Lanka, as a passing remark says that even though the march has finished, their movement will not. They have successfully managed to shift attention from the salary hikes that they requested to the fact that Sri Lanka’s education is broken. Large scale overhauls are required and Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, an academic-turned politician with the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance, accepts this fact (see inset).

FUTA’s struggle for better pay, even though now sugar-coated in a call for educational reforms, has brought this issue into the spotlight. Their demands however, cannot be flimsy and short-sighted like Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri’s remarks made during a recent panel discussion.  If fundamental changes are to be made, they have to also be supported by FUTA, and for FUTA’s call for higher spending on education to be taken more seriously by the current government, the demands should be accompanied by a detailed plan of where they want the money spent. Long walks would otherwise only take the academics’ union so far.

The long march for education isn’t over

By Mirudhula Thambiah and Aanya Wipulasena report, Sunday Times

Academics and others determined to twist arm of the Government in a bid to ‘Save State Education.’ 

The long march, conducted over five days by academics and teachers from state universities across the country, climaxed when the protestors converged on Colombo on Friday evening. Joining the university teachers in a show of strength and support were hundreds representing student unions, trade unions, political parties and clergy.

Ready for action: A policeman on full alert as protestors converge on Hyde Park in Colombo on Friday. Pic by Mangala Weerasekera

The protestors and their supporters, who set out from Galle and Kandy on Monday, September 24, marched under the slogan “Save State Education”. They are calling on the Government to allocate a minimum 6 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) to education.
This 6 per cent demand tops an agenda of nagging issues in local education.

In Galle, some 3,000 persons, including members of the Federation of University Teachers Association (FUTA) and academics from the South, started their march at the Dutch Fort. Travelling at a rate of 25 kilometres a day, and braving the elements – heavy rain in Hikkaduwa and sweltering hot days the rest of the way, they reached Colombo on Friday evening, where they held a mass rally at Hyde Park, Colombo.
UNP Kurunegala District MP Dayasiri Jayasekera, who joined the march at Kosgama, told the Sunday Times that he endorsed the university teachers’ demands. “If countries like Bangladesh can allocate more than 6 per cent to their country’s education, why can’t we? We joined the protest march to compel the Government to give a decent amount to education,” he said.

Along the way, several UNP and JVP Members of Parliament and members of the clergy joined the march. Among them were UNP MPs Kabir Hasim, Akila Viraj Kariawasam, Sujeewa Senasinghe and Lakshman Kiriella, John Amaratunge and JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti.

“This protest march is highly significant,” said FUTA media spokesman Dr. Mahim Mendis. “People from a variety of backgrounds have come together for a common cause, and that is to save state education. The State is obliged to protect education. The Government elected by the people should keep in mind that education is of supreme importance.”

In Kandy, the Inter-University Students Federation (IUSF) led a march that began on Monday the 24th and ended at the Lipton Circus, Colombo 7, on Friday the 28th. The students protestors and FUTA members led jointly addressed a public rally.IUSF convener Sanjeewa Bandara told the Sunday Times that the student union would continue its protests until the Government showed that it was serious about sustaining free education.

A face of determination. Pic by Indika Handuwala

Former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, who also took part in the rally, told the Sunday Times that he endorsed FUTA’s demands. “The Government is cheating the people, there is corruption all over the country. This generation and future generations of students are entitled to a good education,” he said.
University students accompanying university dons at the rally said the protest would continue until the Government took remedial action.

University of Peradeniya engineering student Prabashana Priyantha said “the struggle will go on until the Government looked into the issues and started providing substantial and lasting solutions.”
University of Jayawardhanapura arts student Kamal Shashendra said he was against giving priority to private universities. “Those with minimal qualifications but with money attend these private tertiary institutions and graduate with degrees. The Government talks about admitting more students to state universities when the existing facilities are inadequate for the current students,” he said.

300 Kelaniya campus lecturers keen that classes continue

Not all academic staff at state-run higher education institutions are involved in the islandwide protest action, say members of the academic staff of the University of Kelaniya. Participation is not 100 per cent, they point out.

One non-participant is the Venerable Embogama Wimalagana Thera, a senior lecturer in Sanskrit at the Kelaniya campus. “We are concerned about the students and their future, and that’s why we have not interrupted classes,” the Thera told the Sunday Times. Our first responsibility is to give students an education.”

Every year, according to the Thera, about 600,000 students sit for the GCE Ordinary Level, and of these only about 275,000 go on to take the GCE Advanced Level. Of these 275,000, only about 20,000 qualify to enter state universities. Getting a university place is a huge challenge for Sri Lanka’s educated young people who seek higher education credentials, he said.

Of the 535 Kelaniya campus lecturers, only 231 are involved in the strike action, said Prof. Mahendra Gunawardena, head of the Department of Science, University of Kelaniya. “A majority, 304 lecturers, are not involved,” he said.

Education sector gets 14 percent more next year

SundayTimes

The Government allocations for both the education and higher education sectors in the country for 2013 have increased by close to 14 per cent over the previous year, according to the budgetary estimates that are to be presented to Parliament on October 9.The Ministry of Education has been allocated Rs. 37.9 billion, up by nearly Rs. 3.43 billion over 2012 while the Ministry of Higher Education has been allocated Rs. 27.9 billion, up by over Rs 4.1 billion allocated for 2012.

The biggest allocation from the 2013 Budget will go to the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development as in the previous year with nearly Rs. 290 billion. This amount shows an increase of nearly Rs. 60 billion from what was allocated to the Defence and Urban Development Ministry in 2012.
Over Rs. 248.1 billion from the Defence Ministry’s budget will be for recurrent expenditure much of which is for the operational activities of the Sri Lanka Army, Navy, Air Force and Police and the Department of Civil Security.

The allocations made to the Office of the President has also seen a rise with the allocations going up from around Rs. 6.1 billion to over Rs 7.4 billion while allocation to the Ministry of Economic Development have taken a dip, down from Rs. 104.57 million in 2012 to around Rs. 88. 9 billion for 2013.
The budgetary allocations to the Ministry of Resettlement has been slashed from Rs. 481 million in 2012 to Rs. 437 million in 2013 while Transport Ministry allocations are down from Rs. 53.54 billion Rs 44.7 billion.The estimated total Government expenditure for 2013 is Rs. 1,189 billion.

Meanwhile President Mahinda Rajapaksa will present the Budget to Parliament on November 11. Seven days have been allocated for the debate on the second reading of the Budget while 16 days have been allocated for the Committee Stage debate. The month long budgetary session of Parliament will end on December 8.

FUTA and the survival of democratic dissent

The suffocating grasp of an emergent dictatorship

September 29, 2012, 6:38 pm , Sunday Island


Kumar David

"Where they burn books, they will afterwards burn people" - Heinrich Heine (German Poet 1821)

The madness fanned by Goebbels and fired by Nazi student organisations, reached a frenzied climax on the night of 10 May 1933 when the nation’s great libraries were stripped of radical, socialist, pacifist, culturally alien and Jewish books, and piled on bonfires, lit as Germany careened to censorship, culture control and eventually the most naked of all Twentieth Century dictatorships. No nation that permits the state to crush its knowledge workers can long survive. The FUTA strike is no longer about academic salaries, long ago it morphed beyond that, it is no longer about securing a fair deal in education for the nation’s children, that Rubicon has also been crossed. What are at issue in Sri Lanka are the last two surviving outposts of democracy. Can the independence of the judiciary and the academic right to dissent survive, or will they perish? It’s no longer about whether you agree with the 6% or not, it’s about shackles of a more menacing nature. Dear god, not even Hitler made Martin Borman, leader of the brown-shirted fascist SA street thugs, the minister of higher education!

If the FUTA strike is crushed it will resemble the crushing blow that JR inflicted on the working class and independent political activity in July 1980. I do not want to over dramatise, it is only in retrospect that we can make secure historical judgements, but it is possible that this is one of the final chances the nation will get to throw back the executive power of an authoritarian menace. The state is primed for the offensive, but public opinion, the working class and trade unions, and the educated classes and left opinion are half asleep, but fortunately, also half awake.

The FUTA strike is no longer about FUTA, it’s about you and I and what we do to bring to a halt the caravan of state as it rumbles on to total control of public life. Total is totalitarian; totalitarianism is the natural culmination of the authoritarian state. Just as nature abhors a vacuum, so authoritarianism abhors all things it cannot subdue. It moved heaven and earth, and cash and threats, to abort a Muslim-Tamil power centre rising outside and beyond its control in the Eastern Province – and Muslim leaders, as habituated for decades, betrayed their community for the umpteenth time. It will not permit an elected provincial council in the North unless international pressure compels it to; it will muzzle the judiciary and harness the police.

The forcing out of Frederica Jansz from Editorship with the instruction that "The first family was not to be criticised in the pages of the Sunday Leader", and the role of Executive Power in arranging for the purchase of the newspaper, is further evidence, if needed, that dictators abhor dissent and the Rajapaksa Regime will pound alternative foci of power or influence. That is the nature of dictators because just as the nature of democracy is to muddle through diversity and wallow in dissent, the necessary condition for the survival of autocracy is the opposite. A house of cards tumbles if one is moved.

The 6% demand is justified

If the call for 6% GDP allocation for education had remained a FUTA slogan bereft of public support it would have fallen away; instead it has been taken up by society, so let us stop referring to it as a FUTA slogan and call it a public demand, a demand by many sections of society. I have heard it described as a bargaining position which we the public are advancing for tactical purposes and will compromise in the bargaining process. Without attempting to tie anybody’s hand in negotiations that are inevitable in the next period, I do insist that 6% is not a bargaining chip; it is a sound and serious proposal. In any case, while I thank FUTA for introducing and popularising the matter, it now belongs to us the public, as it must be, if it is to have legitimacy. How we prosecute the matter after the FUTA strike is over is also a matter in the public domain.

At an excellent presentation supported by a mass of empirical material Professor Dileepa Witharana, on behalf of FUTA, at gathering at the Town Hall on September 19, claimed that about 60 countries allocate 5% or more of GDP for education. These countries do not belong to any particular category by stage of development or region; they include high, middle, low and very low income countries, they are to be found in several continents. There is recognition across the board that human development is the key to all development. There is an understanding that human development incorporates both nurturing more aware, imaginative and cultured humans, as well as human resources development in the narrower sense of imbuing young people with skills that contribute to national development. The pity is that in Lanka the state, and to a degree sections of society, have lost sight of both objectives.

Problems stick out on every side. Village schools are starved of resources; students learn little, run around and sometimes run amok. No rural schools can prepare candidates for admission to university engineering and medical faculties, and only 10% nationally, all in urban areas, are able to do so. School teachers have lost respect in their communities and schools are shells where students sit out a part of the day in preparation for ubiquitous tuition classes where the real learning is done. The less said about English, Science and IT teaching in rural schools the better since there is nothing to say; it’s a Torricellian vacuum. English language competence even among young people coming out of the so called elite Colombo schools is putrid since none can escape the pervasive social ethos whose tone is set by blithering idiots ranting about Greek-Judeo-Christian culture allegedly polluting science and breeding the evils of internationalism and plurality.

Three graphs are reproduced here from the FUTA presentation to drive home several points. Figure 1 shows the amount spent by the government on education as a percentage of GDP from 1980 to 2010. Even during UNP times (these are UGC statistics) it was well above 2.8%, but a steep decline set in with Chandrika and plummeted after Mahinda Rajapaksa assumed the presidency. Far from being people friendly this regime is hostile to public welfare. Figure 2 shows that universities have been hard hit during the Rajapaksa period; this government has starved the universities and driven them to the wall. Now it is ready to privatise university education. No wonder students and teachers cannot stand it any longer.

The third illustration compares Lanka with 16 countries, including Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and India all of whose per capita GDP is less than ours. Lanka comes out abysmal rock bottom. Yes we are the wonder of Asia! Believe it or Not!

Reform will not stop at education

Substantial enhancements to the education budget and reform of education practices to deliver a more meaningful outcome cannot and will not stop at education. The overflow will reach public health, public works, transport, energy and the media sectors, and then the issue will not be about 20% of the government budget, but all 100% of it. According to the budget allocations for 2012, the top five ministries in order of funding are Finance and Planning (47%), Defence & Urban Planning (10.5%), Ports & Highways (6.6%), Public Administration (6.3%) and Local Government & Provincial Councils (5.9%).

About 40% of the 47% swallowed by the Finance Ministry is for debt servicing. Conditions are worsening as the government is getting deeper into debt by the day; it is into the business of acquiring more debt to service unsustainable existing debt. This is aggravated as the regime runs amok with vast and wasteful white-elephant show case grandiosities. In the circumstances not only is the government unwilling to improve provision of public goods like health, education, transport and energy, it is also readying to crush dissent since that is the only way it can forestall capitulating on its right-wing economic policy framework. The government is in a dilemma, the regime cannot back out in the face of public demands for substantially enhanced education funding without shattering its economic programme. This very knowledge places FUTA too on the horns of a dilemma.

UPFA mouthpiece and MP, Rajiva Wijesinha, lauds the militarization of education in Pakistan and commends the same practice to us (Island, 25 September). The slip is showing! The second biggest item in the budget lays bare the nature of the regime; three years after the end of the war, militarization suffocates the Tamils and intimidates all dissent, the university sector, thanks to the boldness of intellectuals and the volatility of students, is a pesky irritant inviting suffocation by the regime. Thanks to the momentum it is gaining and the public and trade union support it is winning FUTA has the potential to trigger a mass movement. It is difficult to predict how things will turn out in the next two or three weeks but the public’s responsibility is unambiguous. If we want our democratic rights it is we who have to stand up for it; it is not a subcontract we can pass on to FUTA.

Education; learning through the crisis

A Reflection – Bishop Duleep de Chickera

September 29, 2012, 6:41 pm


by Bishop Duleep de Chickera, Sunday Island

Two repeatedly used words in formal and informal conversations in several parts of the country today are education and the acronym, FUTA (Federation of University Teachers’ Associations). Where people gather with seriousness; clarification, explanation and interpretation of the current educational crisis takes place. The media has kept the debate alive with extensive coverage.

The very good thing about the three-month long FUTA action is that it is educating the people on education. People are learning that free, quality education from the primary to the tertiary level is a fundamental responsibility of the State ; that good university teachers must be employed, retained with contentment and provided security of tenure if our universities are to flourish; that a governments seriousness in this task is measured by the money set aside for education and the degree of independence that educational institutions are given; and that there are worrying gaps between these primary obligations and existing realities.

Another welcoming feature about the FUTA action is its rare island-wide collaboration. In embracing academics of all communities from north and south, east and west it has demonstrated that the people of our country can rise above sectarian agendas in pursuit of a common cause.

Lessons in democracy

But the learning curve is not limited to education only. The issue is becoming a profitable case study in the pros and cons of democratic governance in Sri Lanka today. For instance, there is a relearning that governments are formed by the people and exist for the people; and that an important test of democratic governance is the extent to which governments are accountable to the people and willing to hear public opinion. People have also been reminded that it is their money (taxed and repayable loans) that governments use to run a country and that this task must be exercised with prudent planning. And many understand that there is therefore a breach of trust if governments stand outside the circle of accountability and arbitrarily reduce expenditure on essential welfare services such as education and health, which impacts initially on those already and most deprived.

Lessons in solidarity

Increasing sections of the people are also learning that if the various issues raised by FUTA are resolved favourably, both, education and future generations will stand to benefit. It is for this reason that there is growing public endorsement of the FUTA action. But those who endorse must also empathise. Sustaining an action of this nature is costly. Those directly involved and their families have come under threat repeatedly. Public endorsement must also condemn these threats and offer moral support. Those directly involved and their families have forgone their salaries for almost three months. Public endorsement must find ways and means of offering appropriate support with respect for the dignity of the person and the person’s commitment to democracy. Those involved and their families continue to go through uncertainty, review and stress. Public endorsement must spill over to befriend, encourage and accompany these courageous but vulnerable persons.

A long term lesson

The crux of the FUTA action questions the assumption that politicians know best when it comes to education. It is the uncontested acceptance of this dangerous principle that has over the recent past led to drastic cuts in spending, inappropriate academic and administrative appointments, careless mistakes in educational routine such as assessments at public examinations, an arbitrary educational policy and the inability of those in authority to engage in self- scrutiny and healthy dialogue.

Consequently the long term lesson for us is the need to shift from this monopoly of education towards an independent and structured discourse on educational policy between policy makers, administrators, teachers and the public. Our most creative educationists drawn from the public and private sectors should be invited to participate. So must representatives of students and deprived communities and groups; who will offer pertinent insights into the harsh realities of life with which education is called to engage. The willingness to learn from creative global trends will further enhance the discourse.

Lessons in social justice

Such initiatives will undoubtedly be more sensitive and better equipped to address the discrepancies and discriminations in the current educational policy. For instance, the rapid closure over the last decade or so of primary schools will then be addressed and poor parents relieved of the extra burden of having to either transport their children to distant schools or be forced to have their children drop out.

Such initiatives are also likely to respond to the anguish of the Tamil plantation community which has had for decades to battle with scarce schooling facilities, especially in the Sabaragamuwa region; compelling this community to face the most unreasonable options of either forcing their children to study in the Sinhala medium or in a Muslim school, and thereby gradually lose their language and cultural identity, or simply foregoing their education to remain trapped on an estate for the rest of their lives.

Since educational challenges, like all social challenges will recur, initiatives of this nature will have to be mandated to continue to wrestle with the vision of an independent educational service which benefits the people most. Such a discourse will do well if it sees itself as a continuing bridge between the mess we keep returning to and the heights to which we are still capable of rising. Such a process will contribute in producing independent institutions and independent thinking persons, so essential for safeguarding the wider democratic ethos of a nation.

Lessons on closure,
continuity and change

At the end of the day however any organised action on public issues cannot go on forever. It is hoped that sooner than later this particular FUTA action will be successfully brought to completion. The repeated public position taken by FUTA that they are ready for a compromise through negotiations so long as there is respect and seriousness regarding the issues raised, is encouraging and can be built on.

In these circumstances the government must reciprocate with equal flexibility. To respond through negotiation and compromise when responsible persons from within the system call for just change, is not a sign of weakness. It is an intrinsic aspect of good governance and carries lessons beyond the current educational crisis. Its’ decline increases socio-political conflict; its’ growth reduces such conflict.

If such a negotiation takes place the government may contend that the 20% salary rise and the increase to 6% GDP spending on education demanded by FUTA, cannot be immediately granted since changes in the budget must be planned in advance. If FUTA accepts this position, it could consider an arrangement whereby these amounts will be increased on a staggered basis to reach a viable level over a period of time. This arrangement is likely to receive public respect and approval.

Whether or not this will break the deadlock, the other concerns raised by FUTA also demand attention and democratic change. They impact on the entirety of our educational values and services and cannot be set aside. These concerns include the autonomy of our universities, the empowerment of Faculty Boards and Senate Bodies with the most suitable and competent persons, the undermining of free education, leadership training by the military and improved facilities and accessible quality education for all.

But FUTA cannot be expected to work alone for these changes. The sustained collaboration of an informed, civic minded public is indispensable and will make a significant difference.

If this collaboration were to include academics and the wider public from all over the Island, its’ dividends could well bring a bonus far beyond the educational sector. There is every possibility that it could release a fresh energy for wider democratic change in the country.

With Peace and Blessings to all

The FUTA March and Pakistan’s Miracle

September 29, 2012, 6:42 pm


by Professor Priyan Dias, Sunday Island

As the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) march for education was wending its way from Kalutara to Moratuwa on Thursday 27th September 2012, a curiously parallel activity was taking place at the auditorium of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement Science (SLAAS), namely the delivery of a lecture by Professor Atta ur Rahman, FRS, on the transformation of higher education and science & technology in Pakistan, the lecture being arranged by the National Academy of Sciences, Sri Lanka (NASSL).

I went for the lecture because it was on higher education, which we all know is in crisis right now, with academics on strike without pay to demand better resourcing by the state; also because he was a Fellow of the Royal Society, a rare honour for any scientist. As I recall, the only Sri Lankan to have received this honour is Professor Malik Peiris who works out of Hong Kong and directed the isolation of the SARS virus. What I discovered at the lecture however was that Prof. Rahman was also a technocrat, who advised and persuaded President Pervez Musharraf to increase spending on higher education by 2400% and on science & technology by a whopping 6000%.

Rahman was appointed Federal Minister for Science & Technology by Musharraf (2000-02) and then as the Head of the Higher Education Commission and the Prime Minister’s Science Advisor (2002-2008); and the unassuming Professor kept us spellbound as he described how both the President and Prime Minister helped him to cut through red tape and spend the allocated money. How was the money spent?

The majority of money (1 billion US dollars) was spent on sending the best graduating students (around 11,000 of them) to top Western universities for their PhDs. There was apparently a special Fulbright scholarship program to send students to the U.S., but Pakistan insisted on paying 50% of the costs, in exchange for deciding which universities they would be placed in. A year before their PhDs were to finish, these postgraduate students could apply for grants of up to 100,000 US dollars to be utilized on their first year of research (including their stipends) immediately they returned to Pakistan – what a way to get them back! This is because Rahman allowed for university procedures that could take up to a year for enrolling such returnees on the academic staff.

All new recruits such as the above had to be placed on "tenure track", which meant that they would get "tenured" or permanent status only after a rigorous review by an international panel after six years. Such appointees typically got paid around 5,000 US dollars per month, around five times higher than a Federal Minister (and their other academic colleagues as well, I guess). But failure in review meant that they were out of a job. The existing academic staff cadre at the time of the reforms was asked to choose between their "safe" job with less pay and the "tenure track" with high risks and benefits.

Generous funding was made available for equipment too, but in a strategic manner without too much replication. However, because of the lack of red tape, any institution could use the equipment of another, the generated bill being paid by the state. Access to online journals was mentioned too, something that academics and research students struggle with, but which any decent Western university provides at the click of a button. So most of us have to rely on our current postgraduate students overseas for getting us journal access – some of us can’t even access soft copies of articles that we ourselves have authored!! Not so anymore in Pakistan, from what we heard. Rahman was careful to mention that such promotion of scholars and scholarship was not confined to science & technology alone, but encompassed all disciplines.

So what were the improvements (from around 2002 to 2011)? The quantity and quality of returning academic staff made it possible to increase university enrolment from 275,000 to 950,000 and the number of state universities and degree awarding institutes from 59 to 137, with 3,600 PhDs produced. Pakistani publications in ISI journals increased from 500 to 8,000 per year, rivaling India on a per capita basis. (Sri Lanka’s own number is presently around 300 per year, which means that our current academic quality is not an impediment to take off like Pakistan). Pakistan’s silent revolution attracted editorial comment from the prestigious science journal Nature, i.e. "The Paradox of Pakistan" (29 November 2007), "After Musharraf" (28 August 2008), "Cash costs" (3 September 2009) and "Investment in Pakistan" (23 September 2010). Pakistan’s investment in higher education is also beginning to bear fruit now, with science & technology based companies beginning to create wealth.

At the question time, someone asked whether the universities should not seek to generate their own funds or create science parks and venture capital partnerships. Rahman was of the firm view that spin offs may come only 10 to 20 years after significant investment. He also said that even the best universities in Europe received 92% of their funding from the state – this received much applause.

He seemed aware of the FUTA slogan and declared that 6% of GDP was eminently possible and offered to personally convince H.E. the President himself. He said that the reforms were not universally popular but gained acceptance within two to three years. Although his personal prestige as a scientist would clearly have been a significant factor in both his influence and independence, he insisted that it did not need scientists to convince a head of state that investing in science, technology and higher education was the way forward in a knowledge economy.

I wondered (and still do) why and how Musharraf, himself a general, decided to spend so much on education – the defence budget would have suffered. Rahman did say that he may have asked Musharraf to reduce an F-16 or two from his arsenal to create the space for education. Contrast that with the Daily Mirror headline the day after the talk (and the same day as the scheduled FUTA rally following their five day march) – "Defence, Urban Dev. Budget tops Rs 290B". Is science funding as serendipitous as science itself? How was Anaximander able to say in 6th century BC Greece that the earth was help up on nothing, when his teacher Thales had said that it is supported on water, and others before that it was supported on a jar or a turtle? Is that the same kind of question as "How was Musharraf able to decide that science and education deserved massive funding"?

Towards the end I asked a question myself, as is my wont. I reminded the good professor that the last highly eminent Pakistani scientist we heard, Prof. Abdus Salam, complained that Pakistan was not friendly to scientists and ended up working at Imperial College London - from where he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics (1979) for his work in unifying the weak nuclear and electromagnetic forces. I then asked him how he himself managed to do science and achieve global recognition even before 2002, when Musharraf’s revolutions took place. His answer demonstrated his perseverance in the face of adversity, the true mark of a scientist or educator. He said he returned to Pakistan after nine years in Cambridge, which must have been a journey from the promised land to the wilderness (scientifically speaking). When he wanted an NMR instrument, he had written to around 350 grant agencies before he got one. When he wanted a Mass spectrophotometer, after 100 such letters he decided to approach the National Bank of Pakistan (I think it was) for a loan, which he got because he had armed himself with letters from 10 scientific institutions in Pakistan to cover the collateral.

I hope and pray that the day will dawn in a teardrop shaped island state not far from Pakistan when science, technology and education will be heavily invested in by the state, for the future of all who live in that state. If that day does not dawn, or is slow in arriving, I pray equally that her scientists, technologists and educators would strive against unimaginable odds to produce excellence out of adversity.