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...........

Naked.....

Naked....Truth

The regime has no clear vision to take the country forward
but neither has the opposition....

At least the regime knows how to make self-survival
but opposition doesn't know even that....

Can we go for a change of regime at present.......
Do we have an alternative.........? 
for many kilometers......

Hence, should we keep our mouths shut.......!!!!!
and watch the country........ floating away into the deep waters
deep, stormy and troubled waters........

Take off your spectacles and look around, 
with right frame of mind

I will be surprised if you don't see.......

Economic losses due to wrong decisions are reaching trillions.....

Corruption has been normalized.....

Waves of crimes..... or.....Hurricanes of Crimes...?????

Legal system..........a big ?

Foreign policies making more foes than friends.....

Education...!!!!!!! you know what I mean......


It is the regime that you selected
and the people that you elected
Thus..... You have the right to demand for..............
"A Change of Scenario"

It may not be the right time for change of heads
but it is the high time for demanding change of what is inside heads........

But how to demand that..............?

Much easier said, than done

Especially in a country, 
where we have a bunch of jokers,
call themselves,
"The Opposition"

B&W

BLACK AND WHITE

As I always state, Hugo Chavez was a super-hero to me until I talked to Venezuelans; not one but hundreds of them from all quarters of Venezuela.  Same goes with Muammar al-Gaddafi, Sadam Hussein and Ahmedijan. Masses of their respective countries hate them for ruining the pubic life. On the other hand, close analysis will reveal that they were not as bad as what the western media paint.

Further on the topic, we all know that Idi Amin and Robert Mugabe are big black patches in the global human rights map. However, if you are patient enough to go through the literature on Uganda and Zimbabwe  you may find that there are some people, although rare, still praise the two characters for giving some sense of pride to the respective nations over the ruthless colonial rulers that destroyed those countries.

When you analyse anything in your life, this "black and white" nature of the universe may clearly be understood and taken into account.

Urgent.... Z-Score Hell

Urgent Appeal to the Government

Z-score issue has left 6500 students stranded with frustration.

The whole nation including the cabinet, parliament, supreme courts and academia debates over the issue.

However, the sole focus of such cross-communication is to find who is the culprit.

The responsibility has been passing from one hand to the other.....

Finally it seems that no one is accountable for the mishap......

Someone, at some stage should think about a solution

Otherwise the whole nation will become responsible for 

an unforgivable sin

It is not a joke that...

the future of 6500 hard fought students is at stake

The only viable solution comes to my mind is 

the government to sponsor the affected students 

to do their first degree at a foreign university

in respective subject areas 

that they have been originally selected

To make this endeavor not leading to a new problem,

I propose giving the chance on merit to all the students

to select whether they would like 

to opt for local or foreign university

so that at the end all eligible students 

will get a chance to do their studies somewhere

If Rs. 3 million is spent on each student, on average,

the exercise will cost the nation Rs 19.5 billion

Big money hah!!!

This amount is exactly the same as the LOSS of running 

the national career, Sri Lankan Airlines, for the last few years

Forget about the loss of 13 billion 

for maintaining Mihin Lanka from 2007-2011

Forget about many many billions of losses due to

 IIFA, Commonwealth bid, Hedging and 

numerous other failed mega projects 

At least the proposed investment will bring 

new dimensions of knowledge to the country... 

for a new beginning......

Keep everything a side....

isn't it an issue on the future of the Children of Nation?

If anyone has a better solution...

please propose and bring it to the media 

When the wife is pregnant....

Is Education that complicated....?

From the dusty pathways that lead to thatched roofed rural schools in Bangladesh to the neat boulevards that lead to classy schools in Sweden, I have walked through the education, many times in my life and witnessed the reality... which, one will never see by browsing through internet or talking to a third party.

However, I have not seen anywhere in the world that education is as complicated as that in Sri Lanka...

1. When the wife is pregnant, the couple runs like mad horses; looking for house addresses in the vicinity of popular schools and getting OBU/OGU membership.... Suddenly becoming so generous that they look for people in connection with popular schools to give big donations..sometimes even forcefully.........

2.  Mothers become half mad in taking their 10 year old kids to tuition classes until 12 O' clock midnight to get them pass the so called "Grade 5 Scholarship".......and aunts, uncles, grand parents, neighbours, friends, friends of relatives, relatives of friends...etc. etc. are keener on the kid's exam than his own parents..

3. Students sit for the exam called "Ordinary Level" and find the questions are extraordinarily tough and finally discover that the setter has made an ordinary mistake in the question.

4. Get through "Advanced Level" at 19 years of age to find that there is something called "Z-Score" on which their chance of entering a university depends.... and that Zzzzz thing is debated upon for months and years by the whole country.....even in the supreme court and the parliament.

5. Get into universities and find that there are no one to teach... 'cause the lecturers are on strike

6. When the lecturers start teaching; someone among the students find some reasons to strike...No education again

7. Even when education is given in full blast, what is taught is nothing but some notes prepared in the early 60s.. Thus, the whole education is on "HISTORY".......  

8. Passing out with colours, a majority finds that nobody is there to get their service....'cause they are not smart enough....and every graduate thinks that it is a duty of the government to give them a job.....

9. And by the time that any job-on-offer is grabbed, the graduate is married and the wife is expecting........  the cycle repeats...........

10. Those who get away from the vicious cycle at the end of stage 9 will leave the country, making the entire investment on his/her education by the nation in vain. 

Our Education-5: Education is an Investment

WHAT HAPPENED TO SL EDUCATION...? 

PART-5: 

AND NOW TO THE PAINFUL REALITY?

In the first 4 parts, I mentioned everything that came to my mind... Disorganized and unsophisticated.

Now, let's look at our education with a broad and close eye.

There are five inter-related issues of concern at present.

1. Government expenditure on education is inadequate...

2. There is a dearth of jobs for graduates

3. Primary/secondary education system is deteriorating rapidly

4. University academics are frustrated with low salary scales

5. Tertiary education is being privatized 

Let's look at government expenditure on education!!!

Why should the government spend on education? 

Whether state or private sector, one should invest money on anything with the intention of gaining something of value in return. A value that exceeds the cost of investment.

The expected return on investment (ROI) on education may be multi-fold.

To name a few: good citizenship; high productivity on the usage of local resources;  high efficiency in local governance, management & operations; high intelligence in addressing local issues; high-end skills that can attract foreign currency etc. etc.

Have we achieved any of these (by investing in our education so far), up to the expectation?

I confidently say that the answer is a big NO. 'cause otherwise we would have been in the first world as per the investment that we have made in education over the years.

WHY?

We spent on an education system that does not suit our requirements.

We teach our kids what those colonial masters taught our ancestors when they were kids.

Our kids learn up to secondary levels with the sole motivation of getting through the examinations. 

Those who go to tertiary level again have the sole focus on getting through the examinations, which they think is the license to demand jobs from the government.

And the few who go beyond, understand that their skills, knowledge and innovative thinking are wasted if they return to Sri Lanka, because there are no mechanisms in the country to acquire and compensate or appreciate such wealth. 

Thus, they stay back... 

.....and their decisions are fully justified by those who returned to the country. 

Just routinely work; lecturing, paper setting, paper marking, few administrative works, lecturing, paper setting, paper marking. Once in a while, they take a break by picketing, striking, slinging mud on each other or going after politicians. 

Thus, what is the solution?

Scrap the money invested in education! 

That is exactly what the present government is doing.

Now I am stepping into the dirty topic "POLITICS"

After the successful completion of the 30-year bloody war, there was much hype among the public for a rapid economic boom. However, to the dismay of many quarters, the government showed many weaknesses in grooming the economy, betraying their successes on the battlefield. 

They made an array of wrong economic decisions. In many (if not all) investments of mega to giga scale, they made few basic errors.

To name a few; An international harbour without proper marketing plan, a budget airline that sucks everything on its way, a power plant with wrong parts, a cricket world cup that ruined the entire sport in the country, IIFA, hedging, commonwealth bid etc. etc. and soon the economy will be further burdened by an airport (Mattala) that will have no passengers or airplanes. 

Souring dollar rate. Minting mountains of Rupees. Running by loans with very high-interest rates.

Those huge losses cause the government to cut down unnecessary spending.

And they were smart enough to figure out the SOLE unnecessary spending: the EDUCATION.

The Government Vision

-If there are no jobs for the educated people,
-If issues of the country are not addressed by educated people,
-If the country is not getting any visible gain out of education
-If citizens are turning out to be rapists, murderers, rogues, cheaters and politicians,

 then 
-why do we invest in education
-why should we maintain government schools
-why should we pay high salaries to lecturers
-why should we build university infrastructure

Let's privatize everything. So that only those who think education is a worthy investment will spend on education.

Wonderful logic.

Is this the solution?

 (to be continued)