A view is gradually gaining currency that the time has come to see an end to the prevailing `free' university education system. A statement that President (then Prime Minister) Mahinda Rajapaksa made during the last Presidential Election campaign has given food for thought in this connection.
Addressing members of students unions at Temple Trees in 2005 he said that the government would not privatize education but around 96,000 students with the required qualifications had no opportunity of having a university education due to limited accommodation and facilities. Only about 15,000 students had been fortunate enough to gain university admission.
Although students from both rich and poor students have access to free primary and secondary education poor students are left in the lurch when it comes to so-called free university education. Most of them who fail to enter seats of higher learning despite having the required qualifications are either compelled to enter technical institutions or go for jobs that are unsuited for them. Others through frustration and disillusionment get drawn to anti-social behavior.
Even worse political meddling and other factors causing strikes, student clashes and boycott of classes in state-run universities that are frequently closed as a result. This has been the bane of our higher education system.
Consequently, only 38,000 out of 119,000 students qualified to enter universities had applied to enter universities, according to the University Grants Commission's report for February this year.
This is hardly surprising, considering the doubtful prospects awaiting even many of those who have been lucky enough to enter universities.
So a minority of rich people and others who can afford it send their children to foreign universities, spending millions of rupees. Had there been private universities in Sri Lanka it would have cost the country only a fraction of this amount and valuable foreign exchange could have been saved.
It is obvious that vested interests want to keep our education system in a mess so that they can manipulate poor youth for their own ends. At every turn, politicized students unions have opposed the establishment of private universities. These misguided young people have become pawns in the hands of power-seeking opportunists who find it advantageous to lead the students astray.
We wonder whether we are coming back to the 1960s and `70s when English-speaking GCE O level and A-level students of leading Colombo and Kandy private schools found cushy jobs waiting for them while the Sinhala educated graduates faced an uncertain future. We experienced the bitter results of this lopsided policy in 1971 and 1988-89.
Sri Lanka today would have had a large educated population had the proposals for private higher educational establishments were accepted and implemented at the time they were first mooted. And it is a long time since the world has given up the concept that education is only for jobs.
But we are still like frogs in the well.
It is amazing and hypocritical that a country which allows international schools, other private schools, tutorial institutions, private hospitals, private transport companies etc. refuses to permit the establishment of private universities. If such universities are going to threaten free education what about private tuition given to AL students? What about all kinds of private organizations that award diplomas on various subjects, and institutions that train local students for admission to foreign universities? Why no opposition to them?
Sri Lanka is ready to send her young mothers to work as domestics in Gulf States but reluctant to give better educational opportunities to young people. In contrast, our immediate neighbour India has opened its higher education system. Consequently educated Indians are serving in all parts if the world in various capacities. Today there are enough job opportunities in the world for educated youth. The Middle East and Europe have already opened their doors for educated Asians.
The fact is that today education everywhere is a massive money making-industry. What is required is not the privatization of State universities but permission to establish private universities.
If our unionized undergraduates and their mentors really want to protect free education, they should first campaign for the right of every qualified student to have a university education.
It is now quite obvious that State universities alone cannot do it. The solution therefore is to allow the private sector to open additional universities. In such seats of higher learning no political meddling, student clashes, threats to the staff, brutal ragging and boycotting of classes will be tolerated. A socio-economic environment leading to such disturbances will not be there in these establishments. There will be no opportunities for using university students as political tools.
It is the government's responsibility to provide the infrastructure for such universities. Initially, private universities should be affiliated to their State-run counterparts and all the admissions, curriculums, examinations, awarding of degrees etc. should be supervised accordingly, since education should be geared to meet national goals.
Private universities are bound to expand the scope of our young people, since such establishments would follow the latest educational trends in the world.
A system of low-interest loans for educational expenses of students of such universities can also be introduced. In addition, students can be provided with the opportunity of doing part-time jobs as in the developed countries.Labels: financial aid, free education, high school, scholarship, student loans, study abroad |
