Wednesday, February 1, 2012
GMOA strike for telephone allowance
Government doctors in all provincial hospitals in the Colombo District are on a token strike today owing to the failure of the government to provide a telephone allowances to the doctors.The Homagama, Avissawella, Mulleriyawa and Angoda base hospitals are on strike. In addition to that nine divisional hospitals, 26 primary care units and 12 MOH offices are also on strike.
The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) said that a treasury circular was issued in July 2010 according to which consultants and administrators are entitled to a Rs.12,000 telephone allowance while grade medical officers are entitled to a telephone allowance of Rs.6,000.
GMOA Assistant Secretary Dr. Nalin Ariyarathne said many doctors in a number of provinces have not received the allowance.
Meanwhile the GMOA recently held discussions with President Rajapaksa requesting to increase the Disturbance, Availability and Transport (DAT) allowance from Rs.12,500 to Rs.30,000. (Olindhi Jayasundere)
J’pura students to hold protest at noon today
The students of the Sri Jayawardenapura University will hold a protest at noon today in front of the university. The Students Union says that the protest will be held against the dictatorial behaviour of the Vice Chancellor and in support of the three students of the University of Peradeniya who have been held in remand custody.The University was closed down in the aftermath of a protest march organised by the students which caused heavy traffic in Colombo. (HF)
Oral test for GCE O/L English exam
The Education Ministry has decided to introduce an oral test for the English language at the G.C.E. Ordinary Level examination from next year, Minister Bandula Gunawardane said today.Minister Gunwardane told a news conference that ten marks would be given to students at this test to be introduced after a pilot project.
“We will have a pilot project next year. Depending on the success of the project, we will make it compulsory for all students sitting the exam, “he said.
Emphasising the importance of learning other foreign languages such as Korean and French, he said that the education policy had been redesigned to create persons with capacity to cope with challenges posed by globalisation.
“Today, we have seen tough competition among youth to sit the Korean language examination. They had to sit the exam amid police protection. Past pupils of Maliyadeva Vidyalaya, Kurunagale have arranged facilities to teach French to students at their schools. They have found teachers for them. As a result, students from Maliyadewa Vidyalaya account for the highest intake for language studies at the Kelaniya University,” he said.
The Minister said that the government would start the modernisation of 1,000 secondary schools on February 4, 2012 to coincidence with Independence Day and the Deyata Kirula event.
“This year, we have not admitted children to Grade One classes at 333 schools selected to be modernised as secondary schools. Initially, these schools will be developed. Each selected school will be given physical and human resources to teach English Language, Information Technology, Science, Mathematics and Aesthetic Subjects,” he said adding that there will be improved facilities for sports activities. (Kelum Bandara)
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Admin and financial irregularities hamper Eastern Uni activities
Administrative irregularities and financial misappropriations have hampered the activities of the Eastern University for years, officials said today. Prof. Ranjith Arthanayake, who acted as the Competent Authority of the University for 11 months, told the Daily Mirror today that he was able to identify a number of cases. However, he declined to give specific details about them to the media at this hour.
“I was appointed by the Minister. It is unethical for me to give specific details about it,” he said.
He said that there were irregularities in administration, financial management and academic activities at the university located in Vantharamulai, Batticaloa.
Asked how long the situation had prevailed, he said that it had been around for the past 30 years.
Meanwhile, Higher Education Ministry Secretary Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratne said that measures had been taken to correct the situation at the university. He said that a new vice chancellor would be appointed to the university very soon.
“Three names have been sent to the President. Only the President has the authority to pick one of them as the vice chancellor,” he said.
The university was affected by the war. In 2004, one lecturer of the university was gunned down by an identified gang. The then Vice Chancellor Prof. S. Ravindranath was abducted in 2006 and so far what happened to him remains a mystery. Subsequently, a large number of lecturers of the university left the country as their lives were at risk. (Kelum Bandara)
A/L crisis goes to Supreme Court
Sixteen GCE Advanced Level Students and the Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) yesterday filed fundamental rights violation petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the formula applied on the 2011 GCE Advanced Level Examination to calculate the Z-score.The petitioners said the erroneous and unjustifiable application of the formula had caused a gross distortion of the examination results.
Examinations Commissioner General W.M.N.J. Pushpakumara, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardene, Peradeniya University R.O. Thattiland and the Attorney General were cited as respondents.
The petitioners alleged that their fundamental rights to equality and equal protection of the law had been violated and sought court to declare null and void the August 2011 GCE Advanced Level results and the Z-scores.
They are asking the court to direct that the Z-Scores of the candidates be calculated according to the accepted statistical norms and principles, and to calculate the Z-score of a subject on the premise that the new syllabus and the old syllabus are separate from each other.
They are also asking the court to direct the respondents to reissue the results to all the candidates after correcting the errors as regards the Z-Score and other shortcomings.
The petitioners are seeking the court to make an appropriate interim order suspending any further step with regard to university admission, until the final determination of this application.
They are asking court to make an order calling for all the documentation, records and reports pertaining to the calculation of the Z-score contained in the official results of the GCE Advanced Level Examination released on December 30 and to award compensation to the petitioners as determined by the court.
They said until 1999, the selection of students for admission to universities and other higher educational institutions were based on the aggregate marks obtained by the candidates at the GCE Advanced Level Examination.
During this period, every subject stream, namely Biological Science, Mathematics, Commerce and Arts contained four (4) subjects and therefore, a candidate had to sit for four (4) separate question papers.
However, with the introduction of new educational reforms, the number of subjects relevant to a subject stream of the GCE Advanced Level Examination was reduced to three (3) from year 2000. Accordingly, a candidate was required to sit for three (3) question papers thenceforth, in addition to a Common General Test which all the candidates were expected to get through. (S.S. Selvanayagam)
FUTA vows to take action
The Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) today vowed to do everything possible to prevent the private universities bill from proceeding if it is presented to Parliament without consulting all stakeholders in the higher education sector.Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake and other government officials had discussions with FUTA recently where it was unanimously decided that the Ministry, University Grants Commission, university teachers, students and other relevant parties would hold discussions on the matter before the matter before the Quality Assurance, Accreditation and Qualification Frame Bill was brought to parliament.
FUTA President Nirmal Dewasiri said during the union’s Annual General Meeting last week it was found that there was a possibility that the bill would be introduced to parliament shortly. “We asked for constitutional amendments to be made and they agreed to it. We see this as a violation of the agreement that was reached last week,” Dewasiri said.
“If the reports are true then we will do our best to stop it. We will take maximum action,” he said. Discussions are currently underway between FUTA and Ministry officials on the when the discussions should begin. (Olindhi Jayasundere)
Monday, January 30, 2012
UK Government set to drop private universities plan
Higher education bill due to be introduced in Queen's speech reported to have been delayed indefinitely
- guardian.co.uk,
- Article history
David Willetts said there would be further discussion of the private universities plan. Photograph: Geraint Lewis/Alamy
The government has abandoned plans to reform the university system that would have made it easier for private colleges to set up new universities.
A higher education bill due to be introduced in the Queen's speech has been delayed indefinitely, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The Liberal Democrats were opposed to further reforms to higher education after the controversial decision to raise tuition fees, the paper reported.
The universities minister, David Willetts, said: "There's going to be a further discussion in cabinet in the next couple of weeks. There's no final decision either way yet."
Two private universities in England – Buckingham and BPP – have degree-awarding powers, and several other private providers focus on professional courses such as business studies, management and law.
They are not subject to the same government requirements on widening access to students from poorer backgrounds, or the cap on student numbers.
The maximum state-backed loan available for students at private universities has risen from just over £3,000 to £6,000 for students starting this autumn in a move Willetts described as a first step towards bringing in private providers of higher education.
Sally Hunt, the general secretary of the UCU, the college lecturers' union, said: "Plans to allow private companies greater access to taxpayers' money would have seen them getting rich at the expense of the UK taxpayer.
"In the US, for-profit universities and colleges have been investigated for the mis-selling of qualifications to vulnerable students and their families. That is the last thing we needed here as students struggle to adapt to the new fees regime.
"The government should be applauded for appearing to listen to the experts in the case. We will continue to expose the dangers of allowing those whose first priority is to their shareholders a greater hold on our higher education system."
The coalition has already introduced sweeping change to the university system without the need for primary legislation, including increasing the cap on tuition fees and giving universities the power to recruit unlimited numbers of the best performing students.
Email Etiquette
January 29, 2012, 7:39 pm , The Island.
Welcome
Welcome to the seventy fifth (75th) edition of the regular column "The Catalyst". Seventy Five consecutive columns I guess is a milestone. It hasn’t been easy to write something useful every week, but I think we have prevailed. I thank The Island team for their support and also our readers. If not for reader feedback and comments, it wouldn’t have gone from strength to strength. I feel it’s serving its purpose and there is an impact, so it has to continue and it will!
Personal Development Skills
Last week we discussed about time management skills. We have also discussed things like presentation skills in the past. Today I thought of picking up another personal development area. This is more relevant to individuals who use emails in their professional work as well as in personal matters.
Email Etiquettes
Etiquette is usually defined as "the conduct or procedure required by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be observed in social or official life".
Communication is a vital part of leadership. Showing strong leadership skills stems from strong communications skills. In today’s world, emails represent a significant part of communications, therefore being good at it is important from a leadership perspective as well.
‘Leadership and communication are inseparable. You can’t have one without the other.’ —-Claude I. Taylor
General Rules
Emails or parts of emails written with capital letters look rude. ALL CAPS IS CONSIDERED SHOUTING.
Over punctuating also makes it difficult to read. Some level of punctuation is important but too much of it is not that good. Also not using proper capitalization or punctuation at all makes it hard to read the e-mail as well.
Lately we have been seeing text messaging abbreviations (such as ur instead of your, 4 instead of for, u instead of you) being used in emails. This is mainly due to the fact that the new generation has come through using mobile phones from very young ages. This has to be avoided at all times in professional emails. So are emoticons. Of course in text messages and chatting they may be used, but in professional emails they are not recommended.
Just like in any formal document, if a certain acronym is used, it has to be first introduced in its detailed form and then only the acronym should be used thereafter.
Although pretty basic, it’s not that uncommon to see emails with spelling and grammar mistakes. They create a bad impression about the sender in the readers’ mind. Especially spelling mistakes are fairly intolerable in today’s context as spell checkers are widely available, and in most applications they are automatic.
In certain working environments, slang words may be used in emails as well, however as these written records can be forwarded/sent anywhere, usually it’s better to keep the use of slang to a minimum.
Needed?
In today’s working environment e-mails are widely used. Some job roles require individuals to deal with about hundred emails a day at their work. So, before you send an email, think whether the recipient actually needs this to do their job. Otherwise, you could be just wasting the other person’s time.
On the other hand, just like with any other form of communication this mode of communication also has to be Timely, Relevant, Complete and Appropriate.
Professional
Some of the tips we are discussing here can be used in both personal and professional contexts. However, in working environments, emails have to be very professional. Usual working ethics have to be adhered to at all times. They should be inoffensive.
There are instances where people need to send emails to multiple recipients. Then you the recipient, may have to reply to that email. Before hitting that ‘send’ button give some consideration to the questions whether you should send it to the original sender only, a few selected people or to all the people involved in the original email. The latter is when we use ‘Reply to all’. It is advisable to limit the use of ‘Reply to all’ as it may only be wasting the time of people unnecessarily. Additionally it should be kept in mind that if you are addressing the email to specifically a single person, but copying it to a few others as they need to be in on the conversation; be polite! Do not condemn or point out any adverse matters directly related to one of the people in the list. This will be equivalent to humiliating a person in front of an audience.
Most email applications have BCC – Blind Carbon Copy function. That’s where you can have someone’s email address in the BCC list, but others in the email wouldn’t know that that person is reading the email. In a professional context, BCC is considered very unprofessional. It can be considered a cowardly act.
Sometimes there are Distribution Lists created with multiple email addresses. This makes it easy to send emails to groups of people. For example, there can be an email group for all managers of an organisation. While it is efficient, use them carefully. Sometimes, unnecessary or confidential information is provided to too many people. Remember the information has to be relevant to the recipient.
Format of e-mails
Rather than writing long one-paragraph emails, it’s better to use multiple paragraphs in the body. Also by using bullets and numbers, the structure can be cleared.
There should be a brief introduction of what the email is about at the beginning, then the body with paragraphs and bullets/numbers. And finally it can be ended up with the expected actions from the recipient/s. This part has to be very clear and action items for each person should be clearly explained succinctly. At the end of the day, especially working emails are sent to achieve certain objectives, and those objectives have to be met. Therefore, it’s important to make sure action items are clearly stated.
The subject line of emails has to be clearly stated as well. Especially in busy times, it could be the subject that gets the attention of the recipient and makes it meaningful. This also helps in finding old emails efficiently. Not having a subject line is very improper as well. Using keywords such as ‘Action’, ‘Info’ or ‘Urgent’ in subject line can strengthen it. In professional emails, subject lines such as ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello’ are inappropriate.
If you include attachments give brief explanations of what they are.
Just in passing, it is acceptable to write a heated e-mail, just wait 24 hours before you send it!
Events
Changing topics, I was a participant at the National Conference on the Role of the Business Community in Reconciliation held last week at the Kadirgamar institute.
Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, Executive Director of the Kadirgamar Institute who delivered the Welcome Address, said that he believed that "the private sector’s involvement in the reconciliation process had the power to transform the devastating effects of a three-decade long war, and that this can be achieved if every organization formulated a ‘Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP)’, so that each organization is part of the national reconciliation process".
In the Keynote Address, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Governor of the Central Bank, spoke of the many formidable challenges that were faced by the Sri Lankan economy in the past recent years. This was not only due to terrorist attacks and an atmosphere dominated by fear and uncertainty, but also because of the ailing economy due to the LTTE’s strategic objective of crippling the Sri Lankan economy, effects of which were felt by all Sri Lankans, and acutely by the business community.
"Now we have a country that is growing at more than 8%, two years running - first time in our entire history after independence" said Mr. Cabraal. He spoke of the current development programs taking place in the north and the east. Mr. Cabraal stated that 44 different banks have now opened up in the north and the east, along with finance companies. In the eastern province, 46,000 new loans were granted up to last year, a total of Rs. 2.9 billion, and in the north 56,000 new loans were granted, totaling up to Rs. 6 billion. A loan represents a person willing to undertake a livelihood and that one or two more people will have an income stream, said Mr. Cabraal. "Financial inclusiveness from our point of view was ensuring that people had loans and that people had other facilities to receive loans."
He spoke of the Eastern Province which offers the Trincomalee port which has the potential to become a major commercial and industrial hub, large stretches of beautiful beaches and ecological conservation areas for tourism, untapped productive agricultural land, value addition of seafood, and livestock and fisheries development, and of the Northern Province which offers fertile agricultural lands, mineral ores, forests, palmyra based industries, wet lands, beautiful beaches and coral deposits, value addition for fruit, vegetables and seafood, and livestock and fishery resources.
Mr. Cabraal also gave examples of those who had investments already in place in the north and the east such as Yaal Hotel by Jetwing in Jaffna, Fortune Premier in Pasikudah, Anilana Properties in Trincomalee, ICC Hotel in Trincomalee, and the Cargills-BOC Dairy Project. "I want to say to the business sector, that the overall infrastructure has been put in place for you to go and do business. Two years ago I would not have been able to tell you this, but today I can confidently say, go and do business in the north and the east, " said Mr. Cabraal.
There were presentations by ten other eminent persons from the business community and experts in reconciliation but unfortunately I don’t have enough space today for those. I hope to discuss some of it in the future editions.
See you next week!
The Columnist
Yasas Vishuddhi Abeywickrama is a professional with significant experiences. In 2011 he was recognised as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) in Sri Lanka. Yasas has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from University of Colombo and a Masters degree in Entrepreneurship & Innovation from Swinburne University in Australia. He has worked in the USA, UK, Sri Lanka & Australia and being trained in the USA & Malaysia. He is currently involved in the training organisation, Lanka BPO Academy (www.lankabpoacademy.lk). Yasas is also an Executive Council Member of the Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL – www.cssl.lk). Apart from this column, he is a regular resource person for ‘Ape Gama’ program of FM Derana (Sunday 3-5pm). Yasas is happy to answer your relevant questions – email him at
yva@lankabpoacademy.lk .
University dons threaten indefinite strike
January 29, 2012, 10:17 pm , The Island.by Dasun Edirisinghe
University teachers last night announced an indefinite strike if the government presented the ‘private university bill’ to Parliament without consulting them.
The Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) had taken this decision at its Annual General Meeting held at the Nawala Open University on Friday, FUTA President Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri said.
He said that through their sources they had learnt that Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake would present the new bill in the house shortly.
"We had two rounds of discussion within this month with ministry officials, including Minister Dissanayake," Dr Devasiri said adding that in every discussion they promised to have a wide discussion on the new bill.
The FUTA President, however said that the Ministry had yet to show them the draft bill.
The FUTA temporarily suspended its trade union action in July 2011 on the undertaking given by the government to grant their demands through the budget but President Mahinda Rajapaksa broken his promise himself, he said.
The senior academic said that they launched their agitation this time with the major demand being the abolishing of the private university bill and they could resume their suspended trade union action anytime.
He said that they had informed their branches countrywide universities to be prepare the membership for a continuous strike.
"Nearly 80% of university teachers are our members," Dr. Devasiri said adding there were around 5000 university teachers in the country.
Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake said in a media briefing last week they were consulting all the stakeholders before taking the new bill to parliament.
"We already discussed it with Minister Wimal Weerawansa and the National Freedom Front and Minister Champika Ranawaka and the Jathika Hela Urumaya," he said.
Dissanayake said that they had discussion with university teachers and would collect their opinion before presenting it to parliament.
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