JVP wants to know govt. policy on private universities

January 13, 2012, 9:55 pm , The Island.


by Dasun Edirisinghe

Despite President Mahinda Rajapaksa directing Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake to put on hold the ‘private university bill,’ the JVP yesterday urged the government to reveal its policy on higher education.

Addressing a press conference at party head office at Pelawatte, JVP Parliamentary Group Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that several times in the recent past, Minister Dissanayake had said that establishing private universities was the government’s policy.

Minister Dissanayake and Ministry Secretary Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratne insisted that setting up private universities here was the government’s policy, he said adding the people could not trust President Rajapaksa’s order to suspend the bill.

"President Rajapaksa must announce his government’s policy on higher education immediately," Dissanayake said.

He said that according to the draft aimed at establishing private universities, the minister of higher education could interfere in the activities of the universities at present handled by the University Grants Commission, university Senate and the council.

"The government wants to create an environment to promote private universities by creating trouble in the existing state universities," Dissanayake said adding "but authorities are blaming students when they are protesting against privatization of free education system".

He claimed that according to the new bill, private universities would be established to earn profits, but private universities in other countries were not set up to earn profits.

However, the ministry would attempt to sneak in the bill by another name, but its sole purpose was selling free education, Dissanayake said.

According to him, the JVP already had discussions with the university teachers and would launch a collective protest in the near future against establishing private universities.

Former JVP MPs Ramalingam Chandrasekar and Wasantha Samarasinghe also attended the press conference.