By Aisha Nazim-Tuesday, 05 Nov 2013
The Inter University Students’ Federation (IUSF) questioned why the University of Colombo should be closed for two weeks in view of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
IUSF Convener, Sanjeewa Bandara, claimed that the campus is being closed so as to prevent the undergraduates from convening and forming protest campaigns during the international event.
Speaking to Ceylon Today, he queried why the education of the youth has to be disrupted even though the summit would be in progress, and also questioned what purpose the closing of the campus would serve.
“This event is just a huge exhibition with no purpose – what would be achieved by it? Everything the government is doing in the country now is to show the CHOGM delegates how much Sri Lanka is developing and to distract them from issues in the country they could be critical about. At the end of the day, the common man is not going to benefit because of the summit, and the lives of students are put on hold as schools and universities are shut down because of the event,” Bandara said.
Refuting the student unionists’ claims, the University Grants Commission (UGC) denied that the campuses are going to be shut down for two weeks.
UGC Chairperson, Prof. Kshanika Hirimburegama told Ceylon Today that, the unionist’s claims are baseless, and that the education authorities had no intention of closing down the Colombo University during CHOGM for that long. However, it might be closed for three days in view of issues related to traffic, she said.
“We might close the university on 13, 14, and 15 November because mobility will be a problem for students, due to the high security that will be in place during the summit,” Prof. Hirimburegama added. (Ceylon Today Online)
