‘Mahinda Chinthana’ And The University Crisis
By Laksiri Fernando -August 23, 2012
Dr Laksiri Fernando
21 August 2012 will go into the history of Sri Lankaas a Black Day for the whole education system. The most stubborn Minister of Higher Education, SB Dissanayake, has decided to close down all universities, except medical faculties, exposing the government’s complete inability to resolve, clearly a straight forward salary issue and a policy dispute with the academic community.
Academic strikes are not usual in any country let alone Sri Lanka. The academics would not have resorted to trade union action if there were other avenues to resolve their grievances. They are one of the most temperate sections of our society. The grievances that led finally to the current strike have been accumulating for over three decades. All the negotiations before and after the strike have failed, due particularly to the intransigence of the Minister. He is apparently trying to emulate the Army Commander or the Defence Secretary, tragicomically, in combating the academics in a warlike fashion.
It is not long time ago that overwhelming majority of the academics decided to support the present government at the last national elections in 2010, presidential and parliamentary, considering the circumstances, and believing that the government would deliver the promises that it gave in the Mahinda Chinthana, the election manifesto of the current President. I vividly recollect the mammoth meeting of academics attended by over 3,000 at the Temple Trees makeshift meeting hall in January 2010 prior to the presidential elections.
Mahinda Chinthana
Mahinda Chinthana 2010 talked about five hubs and one of which was a ‘Knowledge Hub’ that has now become a standard joke. In explaining this hub, a whole section was devoted from page 75 to 77 on university education admitting correctly that “University is the centre of generating and disseminating knowledge.” The ‘Chinthana’ however was not truthful in saying, “I provided the necessary infrastructure and human resources to establish new universities and to develop the existing local university system during the past four years.” No new university was established under the incumbent President and the last one, Uva Wellassa, was established in June 2005. More appalling has been the deteriorating funding for universities that has been clearly explained by theUniversity ofMoratuwa Teachers Association in their presentation, “Miracle of Asia and Higher Education.” During the period, while the student population has increased from 62,000 to 70,000, the annual expenditure per student has decreased from Rs 120,000 to Rs 105,000.
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