What ails our universities
August 5, 2012, 8:10 pm
, the island
Universities in Sri Lanka are very much in the news these days. Here
are a few comments on what is happening in the areas of examinations,
awarding of classes, favouritism, corruption and gross violation of
human rights that most of the academic staff indulge in, resulting in
many brilliant scholars leaving Sri Lanka for academic positions in
other countries. It is not a secret that most of these teachers are
unfair and vindictive towards students who they think would pose a
threat to them if they obtain excellent results. This system has been
in operation for many, many years and everyone knows how it works. When
one goes to a foreign country such as USA, Canada or Australia one
comes across students who have passed out from these universities. They
begin talking of their experiences and the shameful manner in which
most of them have been victimized by the so-called intelligentsia of
our own country is indeed amazing. Not surprisingly these young people
know the university dons who are really good at this game.
Those
who pretend to be paragons of virtue are also in the same gang. Their
victims simply vote with their feet, unable to fight back among
numerous malpractices that these dons resort to, here is just one. At
the final examinations the answer scripts are marked by a lecturer and
the rule is for the scripts to be reviewed by a second examiner from a
reputed overseas University. However, in the Science Faculty of a
university papers are handed over to the department head who places his
signature on the marks/ score sheet and never even glances at the
scripts. The interesting fact is that this department head has no
inkling of the branch of study yet claims a fee for every sheet that he
has ‘marked’ as the second examiner. One notorious don gives marks even
without marking the script. How ingenious!
I see two glaring flaws in the system prevailing in our SL universities – as against those in the USA and Canada, namely:
1.
There is no evaluation of teachers by students, peer group as well as
by higher authorities. Thus a lecturer who joins the staff remains there
regardless of the quality of teaching imparted to the students. In USA
and in Canada – two countries where I am reasonably qualified to talk
about, university teachers are evaluated at regular intervals and
awarded tenure only if they reach a certain level of proficiency and
erudition. I know so many Sri Lankan dons who have not done any
worthwhile teaching nor research but ‘existed’ coolly and comfortably
in these places to the end of their days. A tenure system should be
introduced to weed out the bad eggs.
2. There is no
provision for re-scrutiny of answer scripts after examinations, a
provision that is available for GCE OL and GCE AL students for payment
of a fee. None are infallible – there could be errors in marking; even
in addition of marks. It is a violation of human rights not to permit
this facility when it is available for school students. This leads to
much corruption and malpractices. Who can say that grades are not
changed to give undue advantage to some and even lowered for others who
are not favourites? Or even awarding grades without marking scripts at
all? Who is there to challenge these malpractices? University dons
should demonstrate integrity and honesty, be above blame in all their
actions.
I hope that the facts mentioned here will serve as
constructive ideas to introduce a system of reform in examinations
procedure in Sri Lankan universities.
Srima Warusawithana
Canada
