Language is vital, not just to communicate

Following the announcement that jobseekers will have benefits cut if they don't learn English, Professor Peter Kruschwitz debates the essential role of linguistic skills

• Gurdian. UK

Languages convey ideologies, thoughts, and images.

Jobseekers who don't learn English may have their benefits cut, David Cameron and work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith announced this week. Cameron is quoted as saying: "We're saying that if there's something you need to help you get a job, for instance being able to speak English and learn English properly, it should be a requirement that you do that study in order for you to receive your benefits."
Whether or not one agrees with Cameron's punitive rather than rewarding measures to enforce employability, this is a remarkable statement. The media have largely focused on the impact of this statement on migrants. However, it would appear that this policy also covers natives whose language skills are not up to scratch.
It would be perverse to argue that, in a modern society, one could leave it at individuals' liberty to learn the majority language. It is an essential skill, enabling individuals not only to survive, but to participate and engage constructively in political, social, cultural, and economic life. In that respect, the measure seems politically reasonable, even if the form of enforcement may seem questionable.
However, there are further issues at stake here, and these tend to get lost in this important debate. It may be a commonplace, but it is true regardless: language means power. In this case, the debate at first glance focuses on the fact that a lack of language skills means a lack of economic power – poor language skills mean a reduced employability.
However, especially when it comes to migrants, this is only half-true. Their English skills to one side, migrants do speak at least one, in many cases several languages. What about their skills in their native languages? Isn't there a huge potential, even in economic terms, to be explored (I hesitate to say: exploited)?
Languages are not exclusively about communication. Languages convey ideologies, thoughts, images, and even poetics. The reason why specialist translations, even with the support of all our highly developed technological equipment at the beginning of the twenty-first century, are still produced by real people is simple: computers have not yet managed the subtlety of nuance that mark out real language skills.
To learn a language means more than to be able to render discrete words or sentences into a different code. In a society with an ever-increasing number of bilinguals, this must mean opportunity and potential. Increasing numbers of the population have an ability that is highly sought after, but are still barred from access to power and participation. Why is that? Is it really just their lack of fluency in the majority language, or is it the majority culture which is intent on producing monolinguals, thus missing out on the socio-cultural as well as on the economic potential that lies within these segments of our society?
These concerns are not new. Only this week it was announced that the Foreign Office was worried about the lack of language skills and training of its staff. And one need only think of the recent debate regarding the axing of the BBC World Service's foreign language programmes or the ongoing discussion on language teaching in our schools and universities, to realise that these are problems that need addressing. It is time for a more complex public debate about this as well as about the complex relationship between language and power.
• Professor Peter Kruschwitz is head of classics at the University of Reading. The university hosts a debate, Cultural hegemony vs. linguistic diversity: do we really need to learn foreign languages? on 23 September

Malabe College says it is legal

By Olindhi Jayasundere
The Malabe Private Medical College responding to the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) threatening to take legal action against the institution, said yesterday the GMOA could not do so as the medical college had fulfilled all legal requirements necessary to obtain degree awarding status.
South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) Chairman Neville Fernando said the institution had undergone proper legal and investigative procedures conducted by independent commissions prior to being approved by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
He said soon after the completion of the construction of the new 1002-bed high-tech private hospital, it would be used for clinical training by SAITM’s medical students.
 “Before the gazette was published giving us degree awarding status, our education standards were inspected by five teams of the UGC on several occasions. They recommended us as eligible for such status. The gazette was published after the due procedure was properly followed,” Dr. Fernando said.
 “We have been working under the guidance and approval of the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) from the start. They guided us to acquire the degree awarding status and then to build our own hospital for clinical training. We have fulfilled the first condition. We hope to apply for SLMC approval soon after the second condition is fulfilled in March 2012,” he said.
With regard to GMOA allegations about SAITM using government resources for clinical training for students, he said it was the SLMC’s decision to send medical students to government hospitals for clinical training.  Meanwhile a medical student’s parent Priya Darmaratne said being Lankan citizens they too had a right to public property.
“We will like to point out that we are tax payers of this country and have a right to public property as we too have contributed to the development of public health services and hospitals.”
Padeniya files: GMOA ready for showdown

By Sandun A. Jayasekera
The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) yesterday protested the victimization of its President Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya for allegedly leading the campaign against the Malabe Private Medical College, and warned it would launch countrywide trade union action from Tuesday unless his personal file was returned to the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) Director by noon on Monday.
This comes in the wake of a statement from Dr. Padeniya being recorded by the Bribery or Corruption Commission on Tuesday over his two years of leave obtained for his postgraduate training at the Oxford University in Britain.
Dr. Padeniya told Daily Mirror that his personal file with all personal and official documents went missing and he did not know where it was. He expressed surprise and disappointment as to how it ended up at the Bribery Commission leading to an inquiry against him.
After a special executive committee meeting last afternoon, the GMOA decided to write to Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena demanding that he conducts an investigation as to how and why Bribery or Corruption Commission got access to his personal file.
The letter states that the GMOA had learnt that Dr. Padeniya’s personal file had been taken out of his present working station at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital after citing issues related to his leave.Leave is an administrative issue and the GMOA General Committee which met yesterday decided to resort to trade union action from Tuesday unless the personal file was sent back to Lady Ridgeway Hospital by Monday afternoon.
We request you to grant us an appointment to discuss this critical issue, the letter said. Dr. Padeniya said the Bribery or  Corruption Commission had nothing to do with his leave and if there was any irregularity it was up to the health ministry to conduct an internal inquiry and take appropriate action if he had done anything wrong.
“I was granted leave from 2008 to 2010 by the Health Ministry on the guidelines of the Health Service Minutes for Foreign Training to follow my post graduate degree on Paediatrics. I left Sri Lanka in February 2009 and returned in July 2010 even without remaining in Britain and using my extra months of leave. I was duly trained for a sub-specialist for 18 months as an obligatory requirement and returned after that,’ he added.
Dr. Padeniya said he considered the recording of a statement by the Bribery Commission as a move to harass  him as there was no complainant or a petition against him as far as he knew.

GMOA have made unreasonable allegations

The South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) today charged that the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) was practicing double standards by asserting that government medical faculty lecturers should not teach in private institutions when many government doctors are engaged in private practice.

SAITM Director Dr. Sameera Senaratne said the GMOA was making unreasonable accusations against the private medical college. “The GMOA has been very unfair on us and has been misleading the public by making very incorrect statements,” Dr. Senaratne said.

He said the institution had not been advised to stop recruiting students though the GMOA stated that the institution was requested to stop recruiting students until a five member committee appointed by the Health Ministry completed its inquiry on the standards of the institution. He said SAITM had stopped recruiting students and that the next intake would only take place next February.

He denied that the students’ grades were inadequate stating that the institution followed a University Grants Commission (UGC) criterion which is a minimum requirement of three simple passes, which is also followed by government medical faculties. He said however that since last year the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) has requested for a minimum of two credits and one simple pass. “The UGC and the SLMC should agree on a standard requirement as this could create a conflict,” he said.

Dr. Senaratne welcomed anyone to visit the institution in Malabe to find out its level of standards and said that those who questioned the grades of SAITM students could find out the actual picture of the Colllege for themselves by paying a visit.

Contrary to statements made by the GMOA, lectures who have not sat for the Act16 exam do not teach medicine, but teach pre-medicine subjects such as the history of medicine, Latin and medical terminology, philosophy and medical physics he said. He added that a number of government medical faculty professors also teach at SAITM. Most of these Professors have taught many of the doctors of the GMOA Dr Senarathne said. (By Olindhi Jayasundere)

General Practitioners throw their support behind private medical college

As long as they are socially accountable

September 30, 2011, 12:00 pm

President of the College of General Practitioners of Sri Lanka(CGPSL) , Eugene Corea in a media release says that the college supports private medical education that is socially responsible, socially accountable and regulated by the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC). After the lessons learnt that history has taught them, they say that the college of Sri Lanka General Practitioners has a clear policy of private medical education in Sri Lanka.

The release said that the Social responsibility meant that the developments in the private sector should take great care to prevent any harm done to the free state sector higher education institutions. It would also include the development of hospital facilities which are made available free of charge to citizens of the country and the provision of scholarships for qualified under privileged students.

The North Colombo Medical College (NCMC) was created by the CGPSL and the College handed back infrastructure for teaching and training including a new library, several large buildings, a professorial wing and hospital that had been vastly improved when the NCMC was vested in Government. To date not a cent in compensation has been received by the CGPSL. Nevertheless the College is very proud of the eight hundred odd high caliber NCMC Alumni who are looking after the health of our people and those abroad.

"Taking on board the lessons that history taught us, the CGPSL now has a clear policy on private sector medical education in Sri Lanka. Our policy is that we support private medical education that is socially responsible, socially accountable and regulated by the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC).

"Social accountability would include issues of relevance, equity, quality and safety of training and research with regard to the community in which the private sector facility is situated.

The CGPSL emphasised the role that the Sri Lanka Medical Council had to play. It was the key in this exercise and the SLMC was the statutory body vital for the maintaining of good professional standards and safety of our people. The College of General Practitioners of Sri Lanka fervently appealed to the powers that be and to those intending to set up private medical educational institutions in the country to pay heed to the recommendations and the guidance of the Sri Lanka Medical Council in these matters.

"The College of General Practitioners of Sri Lanka (CGPSL) whole heartedly supports the development of private sector medical education in the country. The CGPSL has played and will continue to play a pivotal role in private sector medical education in Sri Lanka.

 

Padeniya files: GMOA ready for showdown

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) yesterday protested the victimization of its President Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya for allegedly leading the campaign against the Malabe Private Medical College, and warned it would launch countrywide trade union action from Tuesday unless his personal file was returned to the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) Director by noon on Monday.  

This comes in the wake of a statement from Dr. Padeniya being recorded by the Bribery and Corruption Commission on Tuesday over his two years of leave obtained for his postgraduate training at the Oxford University in Britain.

Dr. Padeniya told Daily Mirror that his personal file with all personal and official documents went missing and he did not know where it was. He expressed surprise and disappointment as to how it ended up at the Bribery commission leading to an inquiry against him.

After a special executive committee meeting last afternoon, the GMOA decided to write to Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena demanding that he conducts an investigation as to how and why Bribery and Corruption Commission got access to his personal file.

The letter states that the GMOA had learnt that Dr. Padeniya’s personal file had been taken out of his present working station at the Lady Ridgeway hospital after citing issues related to his leave.

Leave is an administrative issue and the GMOA General Committee which met yesterday decided to resort to trade union action from Tuesday unless the personal file was sent back to lady Ridgeway Hospital by Monday afternoon.

We request you to grant us an appointment to discuss this critical issue, the letter said.

Dr. Padeniya said the Bribery and Corruption Commission had nothing to do with his leave and if there was any irregularity it was up to the health ministry to conduct an internal inquiry and take appropriate action if he had done anything wrong.

“I was granted leave from 2008 to 2010 by the Health Ministry on the guidelines of the Health Service Minutes for Foreign Training to follow my post graduate degree on Pediatrics. I left Sri Lanka in February 2009 and returned in July 2010 even without remaining in Britain and using my extra months of leave. I was duly trained for a sub-specialist for 18 months as an obligatory requirement and returned after that,’ he added.

Dr. Padeniya said he considered the recording of a statement by the bribery commission as a move to harass  him as there was no complainant or a petition against him as far as he knew. (By Sandun A. Jayasekera)

GMOA threatens strike if Dr. Padeniya’s file not returned

September 29, 2011, 9:12 pm

by Dasun Edirisinghe

The Government Medical Officers’ Association yesterday threatened to launch an island wide strike from Tuesday (04) if the authorities fail to return its President Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya’s personal file by 12.00 noon on Monday (03).

GMOA Assistant Secretary Dr. Sankalpa Marasinghe told The Island that the decision had been taken when their general committee met on Thursday to decide the future course of action.

"We resorted to severe trade union action earlier, but no one harassed us," he said adding but this time their members were being harassed and intimidated when protesting against the Malabe Private Medical College (PMC).

The Bribery Commission had removed GMOA President Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya’s personal file from the Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital, Borella on Monday (26) claiming that they wanted to check on some leave he had taken to do his higher studies overseas.

If a medical officer does wrong, it should be inquired into by the Health Ministry’s separate division, not by the Bribery Commission, Dr. Marasinghe said.

He said that this is a very cheap way to handle an inquiry against a government officer.

"Not only Dr. Padeniya, most of our members received threats after we protested against the PMC, but we will not give up our effort to stop it," Dr. Marasinghe said.

Issuing an extraordinary gazette notification numbered 1721 – 19 of Aug. 30, 2011, Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake legalized the Malabe PMC and University Grants Commission (UGC) awarded the MBBS degree awarding status to it.

The GMOA officially launched their protest against the PMC a month ago by threatening a countrywide strike, but it was postponed due to the Ministry’s assurance that a committee woild be appointed to investigate the standards of the PMC.

 

Non academics give Govt. four weeks to solve salary issue

September 29, 2011, 9:13 pm

by Dasun Edirisinghe

University non-academics, including executive officers, who met the officials of the National Salaries and Cadre Commission (NSCC) yesterday, said they would give the government four weeks to resolve their salary problems or they will resort to trade union action immediately.

President of the Inter University Trade Union Federation (IUTUF) R. M. Chandrapala told The Island that they were not happy with the discussion at the NSCC on Thursday morning. Officials from the University Grants Commission (UGC) and Higher Education Ministry also attended the discussion with the IUTUF and University Executive Officers Union.

"The UGC officials asked for two weeks to study and approve the NSCC proposal, prepared by us at the meeting, on rectifying anomalies in our salaries," he said.

Chandrapala said that the problem was passed from one to another from 2006, but this time they would definitely stage tough trade union action after a month from yesterday.

At the discussion, he said, the NSCC also asked for two weeks time to refer the proposal, once they get it from the UGC for approval and amendments.

Therefore the IUTUF gave the government four weeks to resolve the issue, Chandrapala said.

He said that the NSCC had however promised to meet their grievances before the budget.

GMOA to decide on counter measures against increased threats

September 28, 2011, 10:28 pm

By Dasun Edirisinghe

The General Committee of the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) will meet today (29) to decide on a strategy to counter the stepped-up threats on its President Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya for spearheading the ongoing protest campaign targeting the Malabe Private Medical College (PMC).

GMOA Assistant Secretary Dr. Sankalpa Marasinghe told The Island their executive committee, which met on Wednesday, had decided to brief the Cabinet of Ministers on the threats directed at those campaigning against the PMC.

The supreme body of the GMOA is the General Committee, which includes representatives from all government hospitals. The GMOA didn’t rule out the possibility of resorting to trade union action if the ongoing harassment and threats were not stopped forthwith.

Dr. Marasinghe said that they had discussed ways and means of meeting the threat against the GMOA, which last week threatened to sue Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake for allegedly defaming Dr. Padeniya.

The GMOA reacted angrily to the Bribery Commission removing Dr. Padeniya’s personal file from the Lady Ridgway Hospital for Children on Monday. Dr. Marasinghe alleged that those involved in the PMC project had been acting in a threatening manner and Monday’s removal of Dr. Padeniya’s personal file was part of their overall strategy.

Profs., Lecturers take sabbatical leave to work at Malabe PMC

September 28, 2011, 10:29 pm

By Nilantha Madurawela

A number of professors and senior lecturers, who were attached to the Medical Faculty of the University of Sri Lanka, have either joined the permanent staff of the Malabe Private Medical College or lecture at the institute during the weekends.

Among them are 16 Professors and 12 senior lecturers. Seven professors have taken sabbatical leave from the university and are teaching permanently at the private medical college while the rest of the professors and senior lecturers are conducting lectures during the weekends.

Director of the private medical college Dr. Sameera Senaratne told the media that they had been recruited after calling for applications.

He said a committee has been appointed by the health ministry to review the medical colleges and it had not mentioned anything about not recruiting students and hence its academic affairs continue as usual.

Uni. Non-academics to meet NSCC tomorrow

Hopeful of positive response

September 27, 2011, 9:54 pm

by Dasun Edirisinghe

University non-academics are scheduled to meet officials of the National Salaries and Cadre Commission (NSCC) tomorrow (29) to discuss matters relating to anomalies in their salaries, which have not been rectified since 2006. They will put forward their proposals on rectifying the anomalies.

Representatives from the University Grants Commission (UGC), Higher Education Ministry and the Treasury are also expected to participate in the discussions.

President of the Inter University Trade Union Federation (IUTUF) told The Island yesterday that their executive committee would meet tomorrow afternoon to decide the future course of trade union action, which would be based on outcome of the discussion.

"We have already planned to take trade union action if government fails to resolve the problem as soon as possible," he said adding they would decide what action should be performed, based on the discussion with NSCC.

Chandrapala said that they however expect a positive response from the NSCC to their proposal at tomorrow’s meeting.

University non-academics, including administrative officers, performed a sick-note campaign in universities island wide on September 12 and threatened a token strike within 14 days demanding that the government take urgent steps to rectify anomalies in their salaries.

Chandrapala said that all successive governments, after 2006, had failed to honour the pledges made to non-academics and the problem had worsened now.

"This time, we launched our protest by holding a demonstration opposite the UGC on August 03," he said adding they would cripple universities overnight if the government continues to disregard their agitation.