Ceylon Today Editorial

Having faith paved the way

12 November 2016

The Sri Lankan cricketers in Zimbabwe have so far got two out of two Test match wins. This achievement has been done without the best team being sent and with a stop gap captain in charge. An achievement in whatever sort is a great achievement. What is most interesting is the fact that this team is in transition at the moment and this victory should boost the youngsters who were involved in it. The events taking place getting closer to the tour was the fact that the originals who would have been in the tour party succumbing to injuries.

With this situation Rangana Herath the only player there to have walked into the Test side had to be given the responsibility of leading the side in the Test series. Zimbabwe being the host nation their win against Australia in August of 2014 would have worked in anyone leading Sri Lanka on that tour.

The fact that Sri Lanka although having the oldest Test captain in present times had a tour squad fairly full of freshers or players with minimum international experience especially in Test cricket. No one could have made predictions with such a side. Most players had not played in Zimbabwe earlier and were not experienced enough on their wickets and conditions.

Although Sri Lanka had a fairly decent batting line up, it was going to be a hard guess as to who would be the players to put up their hands in such conditions spoken of earlier. The openers were a pair who had done the job for Sri Lanka earlier but the doubt was they had not performed well enough in the recent past. But they clicked in the first Test. So did the next men that walked in and Sri Lanka thanks to the seniors in the side managed to score over five hundred runs in their first inning. The youngsters who followed also contributed to the expansion of the score.

Then the next question was how well could the bowlers cope with the Harare wicket? Captain Herath was the most reliable out of the lot with Dilruwan Perera having good performances against teams such as Australia whom they played just before coming over to Zimbabwe. Perera also batted well against them. So there was confidence in the spin attack, but how would the wicket play. Generally their wickets are not made for spin; this did not deter the Sri Lankan spinners.

Suranga Lakmal opened with the nineteen-year-old Lahiru Kumara, but it was Herath coming in first change that broke through. The first six wickets went to Lakmal, Herath and Perera with the Zimbabwe score at 139. Then Zimbabwe showed that they still had more batting left and next wicket fell at 271 and the big partnership was broken by the schoolboy Lahiru.

Sri Lanka could not be stopped even with them scoring 373 to avoid being sent in once again. But the Sri Lanka victory is history now. But what we must learn with these wins is the fact that all is not lost in Sri Lankan cricket. What has been proven is that given the responsibility Sri Lanka still have youngsters that have come out from the outstations who could hold a bat and hold it well. Players like Dhananjaya de Silva will easily fit into the boots of a player like Dilshan and perform even better if he gets more exposure.

Most of them are good at all three or two of the disciplines and they have proved it. Especially going on tour to Zimbabwe under an inexperienced Test captain, they put their hands up when the call came about and performed. It was thanks to their performances that Sri Lanka never lacked, they had the strength to take the fight up to the opponents and come up winners.

Let us hope that the SLC will learn something out of this performance against Zimbabwe with a relatively new side. Trusting players who have proved themselves over and over again should be given that opportunity to gain experience. That could be done in two ways to have international experience, get more of them to play in England where they will meet cricketers from most Test nations, or try them out more often either with the national side or get the 'A' side playing more cricket, round the year, internationally. We could also request India to have a team from Sri Lanka either in the IPL and or the Ranji Trophy; it may be possible if ETCA comes in.

Daily News Editorial

A boost for education

12 November 2016

Budgets are generally year-by-year affairs and it is only rarely that we come across a Budget that manages to look beyond present day and take future needs into account. The Budget presented in Parliament on Thursday by Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake was one such forward looking budget with a special emphasis on education.

Budget 2017, which has allocated an additional Rs.17,840 million to the education sector, contains several far reaching measures which are certain to stimulate this sector. Now that the Government has decided to make schooling compulsory until Year 13 and alter the compulsory nature of the GCE Ordinary Level examination, the other measures announced in the Budget will contribute to a more balanced education system that can match future needs.

Vocational training has been given prominence in the Budget, and rightly so, because better vocational training facilities will provide more opportunities to youth who either fail to enter the conventional universities or do not want to pursue an academically-oriented higher education. Even though the annual university intake is likely to be increased to 50,000 by 2020, there will still be a lot of students left out. Thus more vocational training opportunities will be a boon to these students.

The Budget has also focused attention on nursing with a substantial allocation to improve the main nursing training centre. Nursing has become a highly lucrative profession abroad and qualified nurses, both male and female, have no shortage of jobs to choose from here and abroad.

The allocation of Rs.1,300 million for the science and technology sector is also in tune with this strategy. Research and Development (R&D) is at a minimal level in our universities and these additional funds will boost the sector. The Budget has also given a boost to e-education or online learning, which is very popular abroad but just catching on here. If e-education can be expanded, students may not need to attend live lectures at all, with the course material delivered and even examinations done over the Internet.

We often hear the term “Public-Private Partnership” (PPP) in the context of economic development, but it can also be a fillip for education. Hence the allocation of Rs.300 million to the private sector to train students. Sometime back there was a programme to familiarize graduates with the workings of the private sector to bridge the chasm that exists between the theoretical world of the academia and the practical needs of the corporate sector. We hope that such an initiative will be started again. Moreover, private companies can partner with universities on advanced scientific research, as seen in many other countries.

Perhaps the most far-reaching education proposal in Budget 2017 is the plan to provide tablet computers preloaded with textbooks and syllabus material to 175,000 Advanced Level students and 28,000 Advanced Level teachers. While this is indeed a revolutionary step for Sri Lanka, many countries, including developing ones, already have such programmes. This will enable our students to leapfrog into the digital age.

The plan to offer scholarships for top performing students to prestigious institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University is praiseworthy. We hope that more rural students will get this opportunity, rather than affluent students from Colombo who can anyway afford to go overseas for higher education. The Government also hopes to attract foreign students to Sri Lankan educational institutions which will help gain a substantial quantum of foreign exchange. The establishment of more private sector educational institutions as proposed in the Budget will help prevent the flow of foreign exchange for overseas education to some extent.

The Government’s “Nearest School is the Best School” project, which has the potential of ending the maniacal scramble by parents for the “best” schools in the city, has received a shot in the arm from Budget 2017, with an allocation of 21,000 million for primary and secondary schools plus another Rs.5,000 million for school infrastructure development. It is no secret that many rural schools lack basic facilities such as toilets, taps, desks and laboratories. This will help bridge that gap.

In these columns, we have time and again called on the Government to halt the runaway three wheeler menace and the authorities seemed to have realized the danger posed by the three wheeler industry to the country’s youth. With banks providing easy credit, many youth abandon education after O/Ls and opt to buy a three wheeler. This is a massive loss to the economy and also ruins the future of the youth many of whom get addicted to a life of crime, drugs or plain laziness. By restricting the loan to value ratio for three wheeler purchases and encouraging electric cars as an alternative, the Government may finally have arrived at a solution to curb the threat posed by three wheelers, whose young drivers are responsible for most of the fatal accidents. These proposals are likely to point more youth to a future of education or vocational training, a much better alternative.

The Island Editorial

Another budget

12 November 2016

 

The government is hailing its own budget as a very progressive one and the Joint Opposition has dismissed it as yet another burden on the masses. One should not be as uncharitable as those who are still smarting from last year’s electoral defeats in describing the budget. But, one may not want to risk one’s credibility by calling it progressive either.

Those who backed this government, expecting economic relief, are in the same predicament as Hillary backers in the US. They are disappointed and furious though they have not taken to the streets. In trying to ameliorate their suffering the government seems to have been influenced by the Bandula Gunawardena Theory— ‘a person can survive on a monthly income of Rs. 2,500’. For, the reduction in the prices of comestible such as sprats, dhal and potatoes will help a family of three save only ten percent of the aforesaid amount a month.

The huge increase in fines for traffic offences, in our book is the ‘most unkindest cut of all’. Habitual traffic offenders, no doubt, deserve deterrent punishment. But, bad road conditions drive motorists to commit minor traffic offences in most cases. The irony is that the government which is all out to squeeze motorists dry does precious little by way of road development. Hereafter, traffic fines will yield a much higher revenue for the state coffers than VAT.

A serious discussion on tax revisions at this point in time may be an exercise in futility as one is not sure how much of the original text of Budget 2017 will remain intact within the next few months. The government’s last budget was a textbook example of a ‘Christmas tree’ with more amendments than the original proposals.

Vital sectors such as education and health have suffered severe fund cuts while allocations for the President and the Prime Minister have increased substantially. Some people seem to have all the luck! The allocation of funds for the Ministry of Education, which saw a four-fold increase in the previous year’s Appropriation Bill, has drastically come down from Rs. 185.9 billion to Rs 76.9 billion for the next year. The Ministry of Higher Education and Highways has got only Rs. 163.4 billion for 2017 as opposed to Rs. 171.4 billion for this year. The allocation for the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine has also decreased to Rs 160.9 billion for 2017 from Rs. 174 billion for the current year. The Defence Ministry has got only Rs. 284 billion for the next year as compared to Rs. 306 billion for 2016.

Instead of fulfilling its promise to allocate six percent of the GDP for education, the government has offered loans (amounting to Rs. 800,000 each) to students who opt for private university education. Since the state-run universities cannot cater to all students who qualify for higher education the need for helping the unlucky ones who have to pay for their education for no fault of theirs cannot be overemphasised. But, more funds must be allocated for the cash-strapped national university system so that it can increase enrolments.

The government has, with one hand, taken more than what it has given the people with the other. Man does not live by potatoes alone. A person who receives treatment at a private health institution will have to consume tons of Yahapalana potatoes or sprats at reduced prices for years to come to recover the huge loss due to VAT on his or her hospital bill!

The government insists that what it has just presented is a development oriented budget. True, there are some salutary features such as the fund allocations for developing infrastructure, agriculture and renewable energy. The proposed tax concessions for FDI above USD 100 mn can also be expected to incentivise potential investors. But, all in all, it is doubtful whether such measures alone will give a turbo boost to the government’s development programmes in the doldrums.

Prices of some categories of vehicles are expected to come down owing to a tax reduction. But, the vast majority of ordinary people dependent on Shanks’ pony haven’t got any tangible relief. A pithy slogan the then UNP-led Opposition used against the Rajapaksa government was ‘Lamborghini for patricians in power and badagini (pangs of hunger) for plebeians’. It is still valid though the self-proclaimed Yahapalana messiahs have been in power for nearly two years.

As for budgets, people are the best judges. Their judgment will be known when the much-delayed local government polls are held.