Daily News Editorial

An ill-advised move

18 October 2016

Plans are afoot to increase the intake to Universities by 10% annually, according to State Minister for Higher Education Mohan Lal Grero. According to him only 27,500 out of the 150,000 who qualified at the ALs gained entry to universities last year. He said only 18% of the total number of students who sat for the AL examination numbering approximately 300,000 enrolled for the state universities. That is, some 82% of those who sat the examination were left in the lurch.

The State Minister said that the government has some higher education institutions related to technology, agriculture etc. that could absorb these “dropouts”, as it were, but they cannot be taken into the system since the subject matter was alien to them. In other words, what the State Minister is saying is the subjects they have been familiar with in their school curriculum would not fit them into courses taught at these technical institution. Ditto for those who pass out of the universities in subjects that are not geared for the modern day job market. Hence the government should consider the feasibility of increasing the university intake by the 10% annually, if by this it will produce graduates who will be unemployable.

This is all the more reason to take a good look at the subject matter dished out at our universities that are today nothing more than degree factories, with their products not fitting themselves to the present day job market. If that indeed is the case, increasing the annual intake to our universities can only exacerbate the problem, with graduates disgorged each year finding themselves at a dead end. Hence, before any increase in the annual intake to the universities are contemplated, steps should be taken for a complete overhaul of the higher education system to be in tune with current developments in this modern age and, more importantly, that caters to the job market.

Our Universities still continue turning out arts graduates in overwhelming numbers, bereft of employable skills in the current context, while the government, or more accurately, the public continue financing their education. State Minister Grero himself has admitted that some of these graduates don’t fit into the technological courses of the state run institutes. The end result will be that we will be increasing the number of the unemployed, or the unemployable, by adding to the university intake. This, while President Sirisena continues to appeal for a return of our expats bringing with them their skills for the country’s benefit, when we have youth with potential, if only they are given the right education and guidance to realize this potential.

The government should therefore take a holistic view on the country’s higher education set up and effect the necessary changes, particularly if it is going to expend 6% of the GDP on the education sector. We should be producing horses for courses instead of turning out a new generation of idlers. This is not in any way to suggest that we do away with the humanities and ascetic subjects. Neither is it suggested that universities close down their arts faculties and plunge headlong into subjects dealing with technology. But the accent should be laid on subjects with employable content.

A Commission should be appointed comprising educationists and experts in the field to study the whole matter and come up with a solution to the problems confronting our higher education system and effect the necessary reforms. If not, free education which we constantly boast of will be just that, an empty boast.

Power cuts

So, the power cuts are back despite assurances to the contrary by the subject Ministers and other government functionaries. According to reports, rolling power cuts were to come into force, beginning yesterday, with the CEB unable to cope with the demand brought about by the almost zero power generation by hydro-power, due to a drastic drop in water levels in the reservoirs, and the breakdown, once again, of the Norochcholai power plant. Appeals for power conservation has largely fallen on deaf ears, as is always the case, with an increasingly gadget oriented society unable to do away with their creature comforts. However government institutions and establishments themselves are guilty of observing its own rules in the breach with many state banks and other government buildings sporting dazzling illuminations in the night. Street lamps too are on late into the morning. With the terrorist threat no more, the authorities should issue instructions for switching off unnecessary illuminations while government offices too should take the lead in preserving power by knocking off ACs and fans wherever possible. The country was told that with the completion of Norochcholai, power cuts will be a thing of the past, and what is more, we would be in position to export electricity even to India. Now comes a report that shoddy work has gone into the construction of Norochcholai and who will be held accountable for this is anyone’s guess. With the Sampur coal power project now scrapped and electricity demands keep on rising, prospects indeed are bleak for a blackout free country in the future.