JVP blames SB of bungling plan to make Lanka an education hub

The Island, November 17, 2014, 12:00 pm


By Saman Indrajith

The government had proposed to make Sri Lanka the centre of education in the region by 2020 but that would not be feasible as the country’s education sector on its last legs thanks to the politicos, the JVP said in Parliament yesterday.

JVP Colombo District MP Sunil Handunnetti participating in the committee stage debate on budget 2015 under the expenditure heads of the Ministry of Higher Education said that higher education sector had collapsed owing to appointing a minister who treats university students as animals.

"The government boasts of converting the country into a centre of education by 2020, but at the rate we are going, what seems feasible is converting Sri Lanka into a place where animals are taught. The Minister himself calls university students animals. If he the Minister is going to treat University students like animals, there is no hope of making Sri Lanka an education hub by 2020" MP Handunnetti said.

Handunnetti accused Minister of Higher Education S.B. Dissanayake, of using the universities for political purposes. "The Minister sees senior staff members in universities as UPFA supporters and uses them as political tools. The government accused us the JVP of having a political representatives in universities when it is you all who have politicized the University system" Handunnetti said.

He noted that the banning of student councils in universities was a violation of human rights of students. "It has been 600 days since the Human Rights commission notified the government that it was a violation of the students human rights to ban student associations; but still no action has been taken by the state to allow university students to form Student Associations" the MP said.