Ceylon Today Editorial

Deng Xiaoping’s quote…..

13 February 2017

Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade, Malik Samarawickrama has spoken extensively, on the Colombo Port City project which is being carried out with the help of China, in an exclusive interview with Ceylon Today.

China's ability in erecting mega constructions dates back to several centuries with its historic Great Wall which remains one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Taking into consideration the new world order under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping China has reformed itself from hardcore communist political ideologies developing healthy political, industrial and commercial links, globally.

Sri Lanka has been enjoying healthy diplomatic relations with China for several decades, and the country has stood by the Island nation during the three decades of the separatist war without interfering in the internal political issues of the country.

The mega Colombo Port City project becomes the first major post-war development project in Sri Lanka to be carried out with Chinese assistance.

The capital city Colombo was first developed as a commercial hub with the harbour during the British period. However, with the increase in the maritime activities, the necessity of expanding Colombo's landscape has become inevitable with China playing a constructive role in developing the Colombo Port City project.

Minister Malik Samarawickrama's interview with Sunday edition of the Ceylon Today has clearly highlighted the government's stance with regard to the Colombo Port City project.

The off shore Colombo Port City project will cover an area of 1,200 acres. The new landscape is expected to attract big time investors creating employment opportunities, extensively.

The famous quote of the founder of modern China Deng Xiaoping is important to be remembered at this juncture: "It doesn't matter a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice."

There were several views expressed from different angles over the Colombo Port City project. However, Sri Lanka must live up to the quote of the great Chinese reformist Deng Xiaoping and decide what is best for the country.

China being a global economic giant, remains an exemplary country even handling the industrial sector internationally. The Made in China tag in all popular international brands have highlighted China's best form of give and take policy since the country lifted its bamboo curtain to the outside world.

In recent years there were criticisms when China's maritime silk route issue surfaced. However, China proved itself in a unique way by launching its first ever freight train service to London at the very beginning of this year covering the distance of 7,500 miles through ten countries.

The freight train service from China to London is another achievement of China in proving its global trade relations by operating a train service from one end to the other end in the world.

Therefore, China's coordination in strengthening the Sri Lankan economy is inevitable.

All pros and cons of constructing the new Colombo Port City have been taken into consideration carefully according to Minister Malik Samarawickrama.

Commenting further on the Colombo Port City project, Minister Samarawickrama has stated that Sri Lanka would get the best out of the Chinese involvement in the project. Minister Samarawickrama has further stated that China has already agreed to pay the Sri Lanka Ports Authority for the land, which has been offered to them on a 99 year old lease.

The picturesque plan of the Colombo Port City is expected to fulfil Sri Lanka's 'Singapore dream' in a fabulous way and even to boost the overall economy of the country.

The Independent India's first Governor General C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) once said that "it is better to have a friendship with the rich man than with a beggar."

So with China remaining one of the strongest economies in the world, its involvement in the Colombo Port City project could be seen as a solid link in taking Sri Lanka to great heights in achieving its goals economically.

Daily News Editorial

New horizons in education

13 February 2017

Speaking in Parliament last week, Justice and Buddhasasana Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe alluded to a “Mongol” (idiotic/retarded) education system that prevails in the country. Using the popular vernacular expression for a crazy person or idea, Rajapakshe rightly noted several shortcomings in the local education sector. Sri Lanka’s free education system has been universally hailed, but this does not mean that it is without any problems.

The Minister explained to Parliament that the system was retarded because while some schools have all the facilities many others are without them. This has given rise to the so-called “elite or popular schools” in the main cities which are deemed superior to the village schools attended by the local hoi polloi. There is a mad scramble for admission to the elite schools, with parents resorting to all kinds of malpractices. Recently, seven officials attached to a leading school in Colombo were detained following reports of irregularities in the admissions process.

This imbroglio can only be addressed by developing all schools islandwide on an equal footing. This will obviate the need to admit children to popular schools, which apparently have all human resources and physical resources that are not available in rural schools. The lack of places at popular Government schools has compelled many parents with a disposable income to enroll their children in international or private schools a considerable expense.

The Minister may not have referred directly to the other major problem with our education system – there is a vast mismatch between qualifications of the students who pass out from schools and universities and the demands of the job market. If you glanced through the Employment Opportunities pages of our sister newspaper The Sunday Observer yesterday, you would have noticed that hundreds of vacancies are available. Some advertisements appear for weeks in a row apparently because the employer cannot find a suitable applicant. This means that there is a shortcoming with regard matching job market requirements.

This calls for offering a wider gamut of job-oriented subjects in schools and universities. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has always advocated such changes in the education system, said last week that the Government hopes to give schools the freedom to choose the subjects they need to teach in their respective institutions.

He said the government might focus on introducing subjects such as dress designing and hair dressing to schools. This way students studying for the Advanced Level could learn the basics before attending vocational training centres covering these subjects. “What we hope to do is to give you the opportunity to plan your career in the school itself,” the Prime Minister told a gathering of students in Kandy. He said the Government was focusing on ensuring that children obtain employment as soon as they leave school. The Government also plans to distribute tablet computers preloaded with syllabus materials initially among A/L students and later, among lower grade students.

It is indeed the time to get rid of archaic concepts on education that may hinder the sector’s growth - and the opportunities available to students. One of the major misconceptions is that education, especially higher education, should be the exclusive preserve of the State.

Private schools have existed in this country for many decades without any objections being raised from any quarter. There are also many ‘international’ schools even in far-off towns although there were many allegations and concerns regarding a lack of regulations for these schools. This problem too has largely been addressed. A large number of private higher educational institutions, some of them with degree awarding status, also exist without any complaints. Only the medical degree has become a bone of contention.

The attacks by sections of the Opposition and the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) on the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) really makes no sense given the deafening silence of the GMOA and other such bodies on the medical studies unit attached to the Kotelawala Defence University (KDU). Besides, SAITM was not established during this Government’s tenure. It was established when Mahinda Rajapaksa was President, though he has now done a U-turn on it. Many of those who vociferously oppose the SAITM now, heartily supported it when it was established.

President Maithripala Sirisena has now stepped in to resolve the impasse over SAITM, announcing the appointment of a committee of experts to study and report on all aspects of SAITM. This is a commendable move, since there are many arguments for and against SAITM that need to be assessed properly. An impartial panel of observers will be able to form a more rational opinion of SAITM than others who see it through coloured glasses. They will perhaps find a way to appease both camps and work out a compromise solution.

Such a solution is essential because this issue has been immensely disruptive to the education system, with university students propelled by unseen political hands to demonstrate against SAITM. It would be in the best interests of the entire education system to resolve this matter sooner rather than later.

The Island Editorial

Crying for justice

13 February 2017

 

A female student, who secured distinctions for all three subjects at the GCE A/L examination in the Arts stream from the Moneragala District in 2015 has been denied university admission. She was seen on television struggling, in vain, to hold back her tears rolling down her youthful cheeks on Saturday. R. M. Saumya said the University Grants Commission (UGC) claimed that it had not received her online application for registration, which she had sent through a cyber café in a nearby town as she did not have Internet access at home or in her village. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

Minister of Higher Education and Highways Lakshman Kirielle has said he will ensure that justice is done. It is incumbent upon him to honour his word without delay because the newly introduced online registration scheme has caused numerous problems to rural students. Government politicians are living in cloud cuckoo land. They are talking of Google balloons, free Wi-Fi zones, tablet PCs for students in Grade 12 and 13 and relaying market data to loincloth-clad farmers via mobile phones. But, many students who pass the GCE A/L examination are without facilities for online registration.

Some ultra radical elements successfully used slogans such as ‘colombata kiri, gamata kekiri’ (‘milk for Colombo and melon for the village) to tap the pent-up frustration of the rural youth and brainwash them into sacrificing their precious lives in the name of liberation. Even these self-proclaimed revolutionaries are silent on the despicable discrimination against the underprivileged children in the field of education.

Saumya’s plight has come to light at a time when university students, academics, politicians and some civil society activists have taken up cudgels for the rights of medical undergraduates in state universities. Children of the rural poor are in this predicament owing to a glaring urban bias in the resource allocation for education. It needs to be added that even in the urban areas only the privileged schools are on the radar screen of the powers that be and the education high-ups; there are many neglected small schools in Colombo and its suburbs.

Many students like Saumya, in rural backwaters, would opt for the GCE A/L science stream if the required facilities were available at their schools. Their parents help maintain medical and engineering faculties by paying indirect taxes, but their progeny cannot at least enter the race for admission to those coveted institutions.

Education is a right and not a privilege. This country is said to have a free education system. If so, how come this kind of gross discrimination against the underprivileged children has come to be taken for granted? There is nobody to safeguard the rights of the students who cannot even enter the science stream for no fault of theirs. It is reported from time to time that some of the bright rural students who succeed in realising their dream of entering medical and engineering faculties, amidst difficulties, drop out, unable to follow lectures in the English medium.

If all people are equal and there is a free education system in this country, then each and every student should be able to gain access to a school where the subject stream of his or her choice is available. Visionary statesman, worthy of holy veneration, C. W. W. Kannangara, set up the Central Colleges as part of a strategy to help every student regardless of his or her parents’ station in life to receive a decent education. Had successive governments followed his progressive policies, sons and daughters of the rural masses would not have been in this predicament today.

When state power was devolved to the periphery through the provincial council system, people at the grassroots level were assured that they would be given a better deal. But, their lot hasn’t improved in any way as evident from the plight of Saumya and others like her. Their schools remain underdeveloped while provincial politicians are preoccupied with national issues and lining their pockets.

Saumya is certainly not alone in this predicament. There must be many other rural children dwelling among the untrodden ways, suffering in silence. Who will fight for their rights which are being blatantly violated?