Who should take the blame for bad governance of our universities?
Last year, university students lost four months of academic work because of strikes by academic and non-academic staff. This year, the non-academics were on strike for three weeks in June, and when they returned to work, the academics went on strike, in early July. They are still on strike. As a result of these strikes, however “justifiable” they may be, students are compelled to languish at home, their studies interrupted.
Last year, academics began their strike the very week that final-year Engineering students at the University of Peradeniya were to begin their final exams.
It has become an annual feature at our universities for academic work to be stalled – not for a day or two, or a week, but for months.
Is this or is this not failed governance on the part of the chief executive officer of the university? Is this not a betrayal of public trust? And so the question arises, “Who is the CEO of the university?” The Vice-Chancellor, or the Minister in charge of Higher Education? It is important to ascertain who bears the responsibility for good or failed governance at the university. And if the person responsible has failed to govern well, will he be removed from office?
Why are there no protests by students and parents?
The students and their parents are the victims of this situation. Why is it that there are no protests by them? Is it because they are so drained of civic responsibility that they are taking this situation lying down? Or is it out of fear of reprisal?
Why are university issues allowed to drag on unresolved for months on end? Is this an attempt by persons with vested interests to throw mud at state universities, to discredit these institutions to the extent that those who can afford it will seek private universities, here and abroad? What then is the plight of students who cannot afford to pay? Are the bigwigs in charge of education bent on wiping out state universities and promoting private higher education institutions?
Is this not an insult to Dr. C. W. W. Kannangara, who introduced the free education scheme to give intelligent but under-privileged young people the opportunity of a higher education? It is our boast that we, though economically poor, unlike other South Asian countries, provide a free education up to, and till recently even beyond, undergraduate education. Hundreds of thousands have benefited from this scheme. Are we now on a course to deprive the younger generations of this opportunity?
The Z-score fiasco
How come the Supreme Court had to come in to demand that the admissions list for those who took the Advanced Level 2011 exam be revised? Were those responsible unable to see the faults in their calculations until the Supreme Court intervened? This is yet another issue that stems from failed governance.
Fr. Egerton Perera