No English, ICT for university entrants this year - SB

August 22, 2012, 10:07 pm , The Island

By Saman Indrajith

Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake yesterday told Parliament that the English and Information Communication Technology courses conducted for university entrants every year, would not be held this year.

However, the leadership training programme, conducted for them in army camps, would be continued, the Minister said, adding that the new batch of students would be enrolled in October this year.

He said that the crisis situation caused by the Z-score problem had resulted in a situation where the English and ICT compulsory courses for the new university entrants could not be conducted. He said that action would be taken to reopen the universities for academic activities soon. The decision to close universities had been taken after a meeting with Vice Chancellors and deans of universities. Powers had been vested in him by the Universities Act to close those universities by issuing a special gazette notification. That gazette notice had been handed over to the Secretary General of Parliament, he said.

The minister was responding to a question raised by Matara District UNP MP Buddhika Pathirana.