Let’s not allow the Pearl of Great Price to be destroyed
NOTEBOOK OF A NOBODY
September 28, 2012, 12:00 pm
, The Island
by Shanie
"There was once a beautiful apple tree,
who refused to shelter even the tiniest bee.
It was a vain and selfish tree,
It would say,"No one is mightier than me!"
One day, as it woke up from its slumber,
It was surprised to see a strange climber.
It saw an army of termites, all ready for a fight.
The tree trembled with fear,
and asked them the reason why they were there.
"You do not shelter the birds’ nests,
you sway in the wind and make them fall instead.
You are a selfish creature and as good as dead", said they.
The tree now fearfully called the birds,
"Help me, I apologise,
I promise I shall shelter you and do my best,
But please save me from these horrible pests."
The birds came, one and all,
for they could not ignore the plea of the tree forlorn,
From that day onwards it would to every passerby call,
for it had learnt a valuable lesson
That pride goes before a fall!"
- Poornima Kamath
For
centuries, Sri Lanka has placed great value on education. Buddhist
Pirivena educators, theosophists, Hindu reformers, Christian
missionaries and Muslim modernists have over the years helped to build
institutions of great learning. Compulsory education was introduced in
1911 but it became effective only after the wide education reforms in
the mid 1940s. The state provided free education from primary to
tertiary levels and also established quality secondary schools in all
the districts of the country – from Tellijawela in the south to
Nelliady in the north, from Ibbagamuwa in the west to Vantharamoolai in
the east, and in Nugawela and Welimada in the hill country. These
schools had some of the best teachers in the country. By 1950, there
were fifty such schools. There was consequently a quantum leap in the
country’s literacy rate from 58% in 1946 to 92% fifty years later. In
1990, over 95% of children of primary school age were enrolled in a
school. In 1942, we had just one full-fledged national university.
Today, we have universities in almost all districts plus an Open
University that has study centres spread throughout the country.
University enrolment increased from 2500 in 1950 to over 50000 about
fifty years later. The Kannangara reforms provided equitable access to
quality education up to the University level. It was the Pearl of Great
Price.
It is this Pearl that all right thinking people need
to safeguard from unthinking and arrogant politicians and their
sycophantic bureaucrats. Access to free education from the kindergarten
to the university must be available to all. That is not all. It must
be access to quality education. Quality education can only be provided
by top quality teachers at all levels. Such quality teachers need to be
retained and that would be possible only by the state providing
adequate resources for it. The trade union action by the Federation of
University Teachers’ Associations is all about providing such resources
to the Universities, safeguarding equitable access to education and
maintaining the University traditions of autonomy and academic freedom.
The need for a revision in pay
The
trade union action began with the academics requesting a pay rise in
keeping with their academic and professional qualifications and
positions. When this demand was made last year, the government accepted
this as reasonable and promised to deliver. But like many a promise
made to others and broken, the promise of a pay rise was contemptuously
ignored. But the academics would not take this lying down and
continued their agitation. They still had not launched on strike
action. The government’s response was typical. There was a volley of
abuse hurled at the FUTA and its leadership. Perhaps, it would not be
fair to say that the government as a whole was responsible. There were
many within the government and indeed within the cabinet who were
embarrassed by the shameless breaking of a solemn promise. Even among
the academics, there are many who have politically supported the
President and UPFA who were angry that the government had let them
down.
There were Ministers who were willing to negotiate
with the academics for a reasonable resolution to the pay rise demand.
They did talk to FUTA and agreed to convey this reasonable demand to
the government. But it appears that their efforts were scuttled by the
Ministers in charge of education who perhaps found, in their arrogance,
that their pride had been hurt. There were also the political
sycophants in the UGC and even among the academic community who
supported the Minister. These were the self-styled patriotic university
teachers. Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel and recent
history has shown us that playing the patriotic card is resorted to by
those bereft of ideas and a belief in justice. To this was added
another well known gimmick – the conspiracy theory. It is laughable to
even think that there can be a conspiracy to overthrow the government
by university teachers.
The conspiracy theory was
effectively demolished by Professor Jayadeva Uyangoda in a recent
article in The Island. He stated: "(The FUTA trade union action merely)
seeks policy changes with regard to education. It challenges the
government’s positions on education, allocation of public expenditure,
and, the role of the state in social issues. It critiques the
government’s policy priorities. It actually argues for policy reforms on
education, particularly in higher education." He went on to add: "It
appears that the government has two parallel tracks to deal with the
FUTA strike. One stresses a hardline approach with no concessions to,
or compromise with, the striking academics. The conspiracy story seems
to emanate from the faction which advances this hardline track. The
other is for a negotiated settlement though compromise. When the
negotiation track has begun to show some positive directions, the other
line seems to be determined to undermine the possibilities of a
compromise. That is why they appear to be trying to re-define the FUTA
action as a national security issue."
Public expenditure on education
The
FUTA trade union action has had a radical shift from the original pay
rise issue to the future of higher education in our country. They have
demanded greater allocation of resources towards education. Education
now accounts for only 2.5% of government expenditure. The expenditure
on defence is 400% more than on education. The government repeatedly
assures the people and international community that they have
successfully eliminated terrorism and there is peace in the North and
East and the rest of the country. The priority then is now to spend
more on education, health and social services. Is there not something
sinister in defence spending continuing to take precedence over
education and welfare services?
Creeping Militarisation
One
of the grievances of the university teachers is the creeping
militarisation in the universities. Last year, all new entrants were
subject to what was euphemistically called leadership training in
camps. There was no consultation with any of the university academic
bodies and the UGC meekly acceded to political directives. Some kind of
training and orientation may be good for new entrants but this and the
curriculum for it should be worked out in consultation with the
academics. In the end, the curriculum was based on promoting the
ideology of the ruling class within the government. What also was the
need to have this "leadership training" in army camps and not in the
universities.
Another aspect of the militarisation and the
loss of academic independence was the UGC directive to the
Universities, in clear violation of the Universities Act, to employ a
security agency linked to the Ministry of Defence. This came at a huge
price too. Earlier, each University called for tenders and evaluating
all the bids chose the security agency that was most appropriate. The
UGC’s illegal directive meant that the statutory bodies of the
Universities did not have the freedom to evaluate the quality of
security service nor any choice about the enormous difference in costs
for employing the Defence Ministry related security agency, Rakna
Lanka. The natural suspicion is that this agency is engaged not only in
providing security services but also in spying on activities within
the universities.
Political Directives
The
quality of our educational services, both higher education as well as
the schools, used to be the pride of Asia. We maintained that quality
by establishing the healthy tradition of autonomy and academic freedom,
and avoiding political interference in university affairs. But over the
last couple of years, there has been a marked decline in the quality
of our education services. This has been accentuated in recent times.
The deterioration of standards is directly attributable to the Minister
of Higher Education, the Chairman of the University Grants Commission
and some of the Vice Chancellors flouting the traditions of academic
autonomy and making political decisions and political appointments to
the universities. All of them, in their arrogance and pride, are fond
of attributing political motives for FUTA’s trade union action. The
Chairman of the UGC, when confronted, denies any politics in his
decisions and denies having issued any directives in violation of the
Universities Act. The circular directing the Universities to hire Rakna
Lanka for security services was one such. More recently, he has
reportedly issued another circular that the UGC representatives on the
Selection Boards would have a right of veto when selecting persons for
academic appointments, etc. The Vice Chancellor of the Colombo
University has reportedly, addressing a workshop this week, accused the
FUTA leadership of having a political agenda. Academics, she is
reported to have stated, must not be involved in politics. She probably
does not remember (like politicians who conveniently do not remember
after they have committed crimes) that she along with the Chairman of
the UGC and some other Vice Chancellors appeared at a Press conference
and urged support for a particular political party/candidate at the
last election.
Universities should be liberal seats of
learning where study, research and teaching, diverse opinions, dissent
and legitimate challenges to authority should be encouraged and
safeguarded. People with authority in the university system must
respect the Universities Act and remember that their primary loyalty is
to the university community, teachers, students and non-academic
staff, and not to the political establishment. They must have the
humility to dialogue with the university community and resolve issues
through consultation and negotiation. Arrogance and Pride surely goes
before a fall. When that fall comes, all the King’s horses and and all
the King’s men will not be able to put them together again.
Dailymirror 
The
most venerable Mahanayakes of the Malwaththe and Asgiriya chapters in a
statement to the Ministry of higher education today said that the
government has to take urgent measures to solve the impending deadlock
between the Ministry of Higher education and University lecturers.
