Sunday 30 September 2012

Open Letter to Sri Lankan Academics





Dear Sri Lankan Academics,

I thought of writing you this to tell a different side that I see in this lecturers' strike. You are very much invited to comment if I am wrong.

I am not in agreement with many things that the present government does and the way things are done. However, in this particular issue I have some questions with respect to lecturers' action.

SB may be an utter fool who destroy our higher education......keep it a side for a while.

As lecturers themselves painted, now this strike is in full swing going towards 6% GDP issue. Even in the march everyone could see mostly this slogan...in banners, vocals and even T-shirts.

Now there are few question marks ????????

At the first place have lecturers got a mandate to strike for a national policy issue?
Don't forget that university lecturers are only a part of the huge machine that we call "National Education".

They may strike for salary hike, improvement of university facilities or even demanding for air-conditioning the university toilets...........of course they have all the rights to do that, irrespective of whether the demands are fair or not.

But going on strike, demanding to allocate 6% GDP on education..................................?

Isn't this a decision that should be taken collectively at higher level?

If a lecturer really wants to get this done, he should have joined a political organization in the capacity of a Sri Lanka citizen and demand for that or even work towards toppling the government if they don't fulfill what is desired?

There is an ethical issue that also comes with this demand. When you demand for a chunk of 6% (about 4.2% increment) for education and if the government accommodate such, then they have to cut down the same percentage from another sector to fulfill your requirement. There is no percentage for contingencies from GDP.

Now from which sector you expect the government to cut down.........Medicine, Security, Social welfare......!!!!!!

Some people say that this can be done by cutting down corruption. That is ridicules. There is no allocation for corruption in the GDP. It is everywhere... When you cut down that from one sector, it escalates in another sector, as far as you don't change the entire system...

Don't forget that if you have a right to demand for an increment in % of GDP on education, then all other sectors have the same right for a demand. Doesn't that make the whole country a joke? Such as 150% of GDP divided among the sectors......!!!!!!!

Now, we are coming to a very crucial point. When you show the table of the % of GDP of education in several countries, you forget an important point.  In those countries with somewhat higher percentage, the education is not free even in the state sector. Thus, a considerable percentage of the money allocated by the government for education is gained back in the form of school, university and other tuition fees levied from kindergarten onward. However, in Sri Lanka the expenditure is an absolute value.

Some times ago Minister Wimal Weerawansha brought forward another valid point but no government proxy could capitalize on that. As he showed, the expenditure on education does not reflect only by the money allocated for education and higher education ministries which is taken by the % calculation. Even certain amounts of funds allocated for other ministries such as S&T, Construction, Engineering services, Social welfare etc. are also spent on uplifting education either directly or indirectly.

Now this whole union action has become a village pickle. You may not see the reality due to the curtains raised by the crowds that gathered in the march and the rally. But those will vanish in no-time when they see that they have no gains in joining you. If they stay, they will make sure that you will be fighting for their war instead of your own struggle.

In this context I kindly appeal you to re-think about your objectives, strategies and approaches, before it is too late.

I see a dark cloud ahead.

                             
                                                                                                                                 -Chandima Gomes







Monday 10 September 2012

FUTA......Is the path right...?




The education of the country has a problem
A big..big..problem, from the right beginning 

Its wrong in the system
Its wrong in the approach of service provider
Its wrong in the perception of subscriber
and even in the thinking pattern of public

Its going down the drain for sure
A total revamp must be on line.....otherwise....!!!!

But....Has FUTA got a mandate to go on strike
demanding 6% of GDP on education?
I totally agree that education needs big input from state, 
may be even more than 6% 

But.....................

Who should decide what percentage of GDP
that should be assigned for a given sector?

IT IS THE GOVERNMENT

They may be idiots, blunt heads, crooks, robbers, rapists....etc.
But you have selected them and given them the mandate to decide....

If you don't like what they do; voice, shout, write, picket, 
if there is no result, then change them

But it is not the mandate of the Dons
to go on strike demanding such conditions
'cause you have already given the politicos the mandate for such
on the day that you elected them

Imagine if health, security, civil service etc. 
will start demanding x%, y%, z% etc. for their sectors.......
.....the country will soon be a stale porridge

Meaningless strikes can kill the spirit of strikes
as it has already been done by Comrade Lal Kantha

The public now started smelling something fishy in the soup...

Whose requirement is this strike........?
Is the minister himself behind this....?

So, without further damaging the public image of academia
Take a decision............PLEASE

The country is looking at you...........................








Thoughts during a transit at Dubai Airport






අපි යුධ කළෙමු...වසරක් දෙකක් නොව 30 වසරක්ම 

අපි යුධයෙන් දිනුවෙමු... ඒගැන උදම් අනමු, සව්දිය පුරමු...


?එහෙත් අප තිස් වසරක් යුධ වදිමින් සිටින අතර අවට සිදුවී ඇත්තේ කුමක්ද 

සිංගප්පුරුව ලොව හොඳම වරායවල් සහ ගුවන්තොටුපළවල් කිහිපය අතරට යමින්

ආසියා ශාන්තිකර කලාපය තුල තම අණසක පතුරුවයි

ඩුබායි ලොව හොඳම වරායවල් සහ ගුවන්තොටුපළවල් කිහිපය අතරට යමින්
යුරෝපා අත්ලාන්තික් කලාපය තුල තම අණසක පතුරුවයි 
මැලේසියාව ආසියාවේ අධ්‍යාපන කේන්ද්‍රය බවට පත්ව ඇත 
හයිද්‍රබාද්, බැංගලෝර්, පුනේ ලොව දෙවන තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණ කේන්ද්‍රස්ථාන බවට පත්ව ඇත
චෙන්නායි මෝටර් රථ නිෂ්පාදනයෙන් කලාපයේ ඉහලම තැනට ගොස් ඇත....
වියට්නාමය ලොව සහල් යෝධයාගේ චරිතය රඟපායි
ඉන්දීය සිනමාව කරදිය වළලු හතකිනුත් එහාට තම අත් දඬු විහිදුවා ඇත 

!!........එහෙත් අපි
බංග්ලාදේශයේ වෛද්‍ය විද්‍යාල වලට කොහෙන් නැතත් අපෙන් බුරුතු පිටින් යති
ඉන්දියාවට පස් පඩංගුවේ  බනින අපි උදේ ඉඳන් රෑ වෙනකම්ම ඉන්දියන් බඩු භාවිතා කරමු 
එදා ආඩම්බරයෙන් පිට රට පැටවූ පොල්ගෙඩිය අද කේරලෙන් ගෙන්නන තැනට වැඩ යෙදී ඇත
පොලියට ණය, පොලිය ගෙවන්න පොලියට ණය, ණය ලැබෙන්නේ නැත්නම් අච්චු ගැහෙන රුපියල් කඳු.    

බලන්න හසන්ත...මෙහෙමත් ආශ්චර්යයක්...........