Archive for the ‘Education’

Nurturing Public Trust in Times of Crisis: Reflections on April 11 Tsunami Warning

This is only a game, no one can create Earthquakes! Photo from Pacific Tsunami Museum, Jan 2007

Five years ago, on a visit to the Pacific Tsunami Museum in Hilo, Hawaii, I played an interesting simulation game: setting off an undersea earthquake and deciding whether or not to issue a tsunami warning to the many countries in and around the Pacific. The volunteer-run museum, based in ‘the tsunami capital of the world’, engages visitors on the science, history and sociology of tsunamis. The exhibits are mostly mechanical or use basic electronic displays, but the messages are carefully thought out. The game allowed me to imagine being Director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC), a US government scientific facility in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, where geophysicists monitor seismic activity round the clock. When the magnitude exceeds 7.5, its epicentre is located and a tsunami watch is set up. Then, combining the seismic, sea level and historical data, PTWC decides if it should be upped to a warning. The museum game allows players to choose one of three locations…

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A Vision for Our Nation

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Photo by the author There is a vision of our land that has persisted over three millennia and is ingrained in the heart and soul of every citizen. A vision of a land, resplendent, beautiful, safe from violence, disease and famine and a land where the tolerant and compassionate philosophy of the Buddha guides human interaction. But today, the ecomomic and political winds from without and within, seek to blow us further and further from this course. The future for our children develops into the proportions of a nightmare. We have brought mindless violence upon ourselves and upon the very land itself. From the top of Siri Pada to the coast in the four directions the nation grows increasingly barren. The rivers run our precious topsoil to the sea. The cities and industries turn the very air we breathe into poison. The cancer that has been released on the country as ‘mindless progress’ now visits our homes as cancers, emphysema,…

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Youth unemployment in Sri Lanka: The foundations of violence?

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In an interview broadcast on public TV recently, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, Senior Lecturer, Department of Social Studies at the Open University of Sri Lanka and co-author of Rethinking the nexus between youth, unemployment and conflict – Perspectives from Sri Lanka looks into what is a real and growing problem in Sri Lanka – youth unemployment. As the report by International Alert notes, Likewise, youth unemployment cannot be looked at as an isolated problem: Its roots lie deep in social, cultural, economic and political structures and dynamics, as illustrated by some of the issues emerging from the district-level research. Enhancing young people’s skills, while necessary in countries where educational curricula and job market requirements do not match, will not be sufficient to overcome these barriers. In the interview. Dr. Amarasuriya speaks of a National Action Plan for Youth Employment, an initiative from a few years ago under the present government that no one now seems to recall, leave aside implement the…

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When a Prophet Speaks: Stephane Hessel on Sri Lanka

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A prophet spoke at the UNESCO in Paris this week, though he joked that having lived for 90 years, he had written thirty pages and found he had been turned into ‘a rock star’. Stephane Hessel, born in Germany in the year of the Russian revolution, is 95 years old. Anti-Nazi Resistance fighter, concentration camp survivor, diplomat and writer, he was 93 when he wrote a political essay of 13 pages, which grew into a booklet of only thirty pages, called Indignez–vous! In English this means ‘Be Indignant’ while the English language translation has been published under the title ‘Time for Outrage’. Between October and December 2010 it sold more than 600,000 copies. It has since sold a million copies in France alone and has been translated into 30 languages, selling 3.5 million copies worldwide. The left leaning newspaper Liberation, founded by Jean-Paul Sartre, says the booklet “crystallizes the spirit of the time”. The conservative National Post of Canada says…

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Examinations Department should pass the Integrity Test

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Image courtesy Asian Mirror Basic Questions to Answer In the late 1970s, a Deputy Commissioner of Examinations was prosecuted for interfering with the results of a son of a Minister and a son of a school principal. He was jailed.  It was possible to  prosecute him because the then Commissioner got wind of this illegal activity and moved for prosecution of this officer. Is this possible now? Can an officer who extends favours to a politician in power be ever prosecuted presently?  This is the question before you and me today. Let me also raise few other questions.  When credible foreign universities offer places to Sri Lankan students for undergraduate studies, they presume that the Advanced Level results reflect the genuine talent of the student concerned.  What would happen if the main foreign universities have doubts about the credibility of the A/ L examination results issued by the Department of Examinations?  If a list of students is given by a…

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Good English skills over a University education?

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Image courtesy Seven myths about English Education in Sri Lanka, by Ajith P. Perera It was not so long ago that the post-nominals B.A. (Calcutta) Failed was a sure route to employment in the administrative cadre of the  Government of India, in addition to being a matter of distinction in their own right. Even a decade ago, the university degree was perceived to be the key to the almighty white-collar job, and the stability, prestige and standard of living that were associated with it. Today that is no longer the case; with the decline of our university system and ever faster globalisation, command of the English language  is now the passport to success. It is not without good reason that the market chooses to prize sound linguistic skills in English over a university education. Employers find that candidates with a thorough knowledge of English are able to communicate more effectively; both with one another in multi-ethnic workplaces and with foreign parties, an increasing common occurrence. Tourism, logistics and…

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World AIDS Day is passed. Let’s begin forgetting again.

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This was the first World AIDS Day I chose to ignore. The first World AIDS Day that I tried to boycott. Every year since I got into this business, December 1st has been a significant day. Now, I struggle to recall why. In India, World AIDS day for us in Pune was about awareness and education. It was the day that the rest of world danced to the beat of our drum. Workplaces opened up to us, schools and universities invited us in, and we got an opportunity to talk about HIV, about people that live with it, and how people continue to die of AIDS in the age of antiretroviral therapy (ART). I remember feeling grateful that there was such a day, an opening, an opportunity to share our messages of prevention and support. With every year that has passed, I have grown less grateful for the day.  Now, all I feel is disappointment at how empty the dance…

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  • 15 Nov, 2011
  • 1 Comment
  • Education,
    Politics and Governance

How The Well-born Have Been Failing To Ennoble Our National Character

Democracies are unabashedly commercial and practical. This is probably as it should be. It is futile to demand that creative curiosity be the hallmark of democracies, or to imagine that the modern life has reached a level of rationality in both thinking and practice adequate to allow the transformation of society into an intelligently organized community of active thinkers living in illustration of a natural fellowship ennobled by friendship. Practical success, whether for oneself or others, is the social passion on which the attention of the great mass of people is riveted. A good many of us draw life’s motives and inspiration from the appetite for external or overt action which status and material anxiety excites, and the anxiety about ignorance and knowledge is scarcely felt by us. Yet it is difficult to resist wondering, if the habits of the well- born would have to be similarly circumscribed. Must we assume of them no more than the common run of…

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Bully Boys and Bully Girls

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A few evenings ago, parents were invited to our son’s school which goes up to Grade 8 for a presentation on Bullying.  Dr. Tina Daniel, Asst Professor of Psychology at Carleton University engaged in researching children’s relationships, violence and bullying facilitated the session.   She and her research colleagues had already spent the day in school first making a presentation at the assembly, then a workshop with teachers and classroom sessions with children themselves. In her presentation she showed footage of an actual playground incident where a girl aged 12 was being bullied by another bunch of girls.  As she deconstructed the scene, there was a child seated on the ground and about five girls hovering around her and it appeared innocent enough, but a closer look revealed her being taunted and teased, as she had her head down crying.   It appeared that this pack of girls had a leader who was directing all this. Dr. Daniel stated that bullying does…

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Militarisation of Sri Lanka and its infiltration into Higher Education

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Evidence of militarisation is everywhere – most recently in the sphere of higher education.  The armed forces are involved with development projects, in welfare, and in farming. They are even involved in city beautification, the maintenance of playgroups and shops, of course Sports, and now higher education.  Their increased presence is evident in subtle changes in our daily lives.  The large number of ‘yu ha’ vehicles dropping and picking up school-going children is one that confronts me each school day. Militarisation is, however, not just confined to their conspicuous presence in public spaces but extends to public acceptance and reinforcement of an attitude that glorifies the forces which in turn enables the process of militarization. The military does not operate through a process of consensus building and does not, in general, function according to democratic principles. While those at the lower rungs of the military hierarchy bear the brunt of this oppressive system, civil society is not immune. Last week,…

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An appeal against infringement of university autonomy in Sri Lanka

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The Ministry of Higher Education has issued a directive that all state universities should hire the services of Rakna Lanka Ltd for provision of security services. The undersigned of the University academic community considers that directive to be in complete contravention of the norms and conventions by which universities are expected to function. The letter issued by the Secretary to the Ministry of Higher Education seeks to bypass standard procedures that are followed in the university system in the hiring and outsourcing of services. That process requires tenders to be called for and for a suitable company to be selected in a transparent and independent manner. The Secretary’s instruction therefore is in violation of established processes and is contrary to the underpinning principles of governance and the autonomy of academic institutions. Rakna Lanka is held out to be a government owned commercial security venture and has been set up under the Ministry of Defence, under the direct supervision of the…

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Programme to Develop Leadership Training and Positive Thinking: Perspective of a Participant

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Having participated in the “Leadership Training and Positive Skills Development Programme” I feel the need to give an account of my experience and views on the programme as there was much debate and disapproval among concerned parties regarding its necessity, its relevance and the manner of implementation of this programme. This is an attempt to give a first-hand account of what really took place during the three weeks of training, discuss if the course fulfilled its objective, and propose the way forward in conducting the programme for future batches of university students. Pre-Departure May 16 was chaotic. Rumor was that the Ministry of Education was sending out letters to local university entrants for the year 2011, asking them to report to one of some thirty army camps across the country, for a three week (military?) training course. “Naaah, they’ll never go through with it” was the general attitude we had at the beginning of May, following an announcement by the…

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  • 4 Jul, 2011
  • 7 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Education,
    Peace and Conflict

University Students, Military and the Leadership Programme: Observations on the First Session

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[Editors note: Groundviews exclusively published the full syllabi of the leadership training course. Access them here.] The highly contentious compulsory leadership training programme for university entrants was inaugurated on the 23rd of May. The programme provides a three-week residential training for over 20,000 university entrants in military camps, and the training for the first batch, which consisted of 10,000 students, was completed on the 11th of June. This programme was designed and implemented within a very short time and was made a pre-requisite for university entrance. Students were not aware of this programme when they applied to universities in January and the training started even before the University Grants Commission (UGC) released its cut off marks (which determines the eligibility) for university entrance. The letter sent out to students by the Ministry of Higher Education did not precisely state for which course or what university the students were selected; but this was used as a pretext to secure the participation…

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Exclusive: Syllabi and timetables from compulsory University ‘leadership’ training course

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Image from Virakesari Online Great controversy and concern surrounds the ‘leadership’ training programme designed by the Ministry of Defence for under graduate students, conducted in around 28 military installations around the country. As the Young Researchers Collective recently noted on Groundviews, “Although the government has stated that this will be a leadership training program rather than a military training program, it has conceded that the military will be involved in a number of aspects of the program. Students have also been informed that this training is “mandatory” for university entrance, though there now appears to be a great deal of confusion with regards to this provision as Government officials have issued a series of contradicting statements. These decisions have also been challenged by many students, rights groups, student unions, teachers’ unions and academics who have raised a number of concerns about the way in which this program has been conceived and implemented. This issue has also exacerbated a worsening crisis…

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‘BE YOUNG AND SHUT UP!’: A COURSE IN CIVIC DISENGAGEMENT

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‘Sois Jeune et Tais Toi’ – Be Young and Shut Up, May 1968. Image from  Qwiki.   It is always intriguing to revisit the ideas of Paul Goodman; not exclusively for his writing on sexuality, film and politics, but also for his pertinacious desire to problematise key aspects of American society during the 1950s and 1960s. Goodman’s ideas on education were provocative and challenged ‘organised’ society by contesting what appeared to him as the distorted constitution of social order. The cant of anarchism is impractical and an idyllic fantasy, but some of Goodman’s ideas are highly persuasive. It would be appropriate to begin what is hopefully a laconic critique of the government’s leadership programme with a quote from an essay Goodman wrote to the New York Review of Books in 1969 titled, The Present Moment in Education; ‘there is an authentic demand for Young People’s Power, their right to take part in initiating and deciding the functions of society that concern…

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About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

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