‘GMOA to strike if SAITM report unreleased’

• 28 Dec 2011
• Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)
• BY OLINDHI JAYASUNDERE

It has been three months since the committee was appointed to look into this issue but the report has still not been released. If the report is not out by December 31 we will go on strike.
Dr. Sankalpa Marasinghe

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) yesterday threatened to go on an all-island strike if the Health Ministry does not release an inquiry report on the controversial South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) by the end of the month.

Addressing a news conference yesterday GMOA Assistant Secretary Dr. Sankalpa Marasinghe said the union had refrained from taking trade union action in September after Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena assured that a five member committee would be appointed to carry out an inquiry on the standards of the institution.
He said a number of medical professionals representing the leading medical organisations in the country had already given evidence to the committee, but the report was yet to be released. “It has been three months since the committee was appointed to look into this issue but the report has still not been released. If the report is not out by December 31 we will go on strike. We cannot wait any longer,” Marasinghe said.

Cancel inaccurate A/L results: Student union

• 28 Dec 2011
• Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)
• BY KRISHAN JEEWAKA

The Ruhunu University students yesterday staged a protest demanding the cancellation of inaccurate results of the GCE Advanced Level Examination and to issue the correct results.
More than 500 students participated. They said the students and there parents had lost confidence in the Department of Examinations. They pointed out that the authorities should take immediate steps to re-examine the answer scripts and to process the correct results.

President of the General Student Union of the Ruhuna University Nandika Gunasekara said: “The government has failed to implement any scheme in the education sector. Grade one admissions, printing of text books and holding of public examinations are in a crisis”. He said that a student in the Arts stream has received results under the Commerce stream. It is in fact a miracle in the East. No other successive government since independence had created a crisis in the public examinations in this manner.
“The minister and the institutions responsible for this muddle are making contradictory statements to cheat the people. The Minister of Higher Education should resign without attempting to mislead the people with false excuses. We are determined to launch an island wide campaign against this injustice to the students who sat the examination after years of hard studies,” he said.
The protest lasted for about an hour.

CONTROVERSY OVER RAGGING CLAIMAT RUHUNA CAMPUS

• 28 Dec 2011
• Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)
• BY SANDUN A. JAYASEKERA

The Ruhuna University ragging victim’s mother Nirmala De Soyza (52) blamed the members of the Ruhuna University Students’ Union for ruining her daughter Wathsala Kumudini’s life, but student union leaders denied the allegation and said the girl’s mother was being used by the government to divert attention from its move to set up private universities.
Ms. De Soysa told a news conference organized by Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake that ragging was cruel, indecent and beastly and it was a national duty to put an end to this type of inhumane ragging at universites.

“Yes, my daughter Wathsala had a minor ailment on her spinal cord and she was excused from heavy exercises at the leadership training programme she underwent prior to university entrance,” Ms. De Soyza said.
Recalling her daughter’s harrowing and degrading experience she said Wathsala had been forcibly made to speak out in filth by her seniors and then asked to do extremely difficult exercises even after she told them about her spinal ailment.
“It was after this they have had pushed my daughter harder and threatened to continue with her workouts. At that point she had fainted when she suffered unbearable pain in her spinal cord. My daughter is now at the Colombo National Hospital.

Cartoon of the day, The Island.

Cartoon of the day , Dailymirror.