Using Universities For Political Goals, How Dare You Speak Of Principles!
E. Saravanapavan MP
I rise to commend His Excellency the President on the commitment to Higher Education enunciated in this budget. In principle, the government is on the right track. New faculties are in the offing – an Engineering and Technology Faculty at Jayawardanapura University, an Information Technology Center at Kelaniya University, an Advanced Medical Faculty at Peradeniya University, and Electronics, Petroleum and Aeronautical Engineering Faculties at Moratuwa University.
A hostel construction program for 25,000 students will be embarked upon on an accelerated basis. The Mahapola Scholarship monthly allowance will be increased to Rs. 4,000 per student from January thereby making higher education a reality for poor children. Incentive payments for academic and non-academic staff will be initiated. Minister SB Dissanayake has promised us in The Sunday Times of Sept. 28, 2014 that university intake will be increased from this year’s 25,000 students to Rs. 35,000 next year.
I am happy. I congratulate this government for this commitment to higher education because, as experts have it, unless 8% of the 18 to 22 year age cohort of the population is actively engaged in higher education programmes of study, there is no chance of a country reaching its development goals. To give perspective, successful economies like Malaysia’s have reached this goal while we are said to hover around 2%, far short of the 8% target expressed in the UGC’s Five Year Plan document. This is why I see the expansion of the higher education sector as progressive. If we need the private sector to reach this 8% target, we must all welcome that.
