A Diseased State of Affairs
About 10 days ago, a video surfaced online of an unmasked and ungloved policeman stopping and arresting some men in a trishaw on a road in the dead of night. Among these…
Education
Living on the Edge: Children of Cemetery Dwellers
Their playground is a graveyard; their toys are sticks and stones. They run in the sand and dirt, flying kites and joking, fighting and laughing. They are Tamil children living on the…
The Need of the Hour – Twitter Poll
Groundviews currently has a poll running on its Twitter handle to assess which one of two pressing matters requires the public’s attention the most. With the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 sweeping across…
With Militarization and Marketization KNDU Bill Sounds Death Knell for Higher Education
“The character of an educational system depends upon the character of the society for which it is designed. In a totalitarian system the education system is designed to establish among all sections…
Killing Free Education with the Kotelawala National Defence University Bill
The debate over the Kotelawala National Defence University (KNDU) Bill has become a scorching issue in the past few weeks. It has been heated not only due to the resistance from civil…
COVID-19 is an Opportunity to Break Rigid Schooling Systems
Although they overlap, there are some crucial differences between rigid schooling systems and education. Rigid schooling prepares children for exams and qualifies them for employment. Education equips children with values and prepares…
Celebrating Inspiring Women: An Interview with Theshini Perera
For Women’s Day 2021, Groundviews interviewed Dr. Theshini Perera, a professional in the field of science who has broken stigmas held against women, proving that not only can women drive change and…
Sri Lanka’s Education System Needs an Overhaul
Achieving a 92 per cent literacy rate, universal primary education, gender parity and free education including at the tertiary level, Sri Lanka should have literate, numerate and confident young people ready to…
Zooming of Education
Featured image courtesy UNICEF At the dawn of the new normal resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka moved towards an online based education system, which has completely transformed the existing public…
Academics, researchers & practitioners condemn the Government’s attempts to remove the Director General of the National Archives
23rd December 2019 Colombo, Sri Lanka TO: His Excellency Gotabaya Rajapaksa President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Presidential Secretariat, Galle Face Colombo 01 CC: Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa Minister of…
Addressing the Multiple Crises in Sri Lankan Education: For the Attention of Candidates in the Presidential Election 2019
Photo from Sri Lanka’s entire system of education, at pre-school, primary, secondary and tertiary levels, has been facing multiple crises. Attempts made in the recent past to address some aspects of these…
A Glimpse into the World of ‘Predatory’ Publishing
Image from ‘Academic publishing is broken. Here’s how to redesign it’, On 20th September 2019, I was invited to be part of a panel discussion on ‘Academic Publishing In India’ organized by…
Presidential Interference in Universities
Prof Sarath Chandrajeewa, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Visual and Performing Arts, has been removed from his post by the President of Sri Lanka. No explanation has been offered. In a…
How our Education System Fails to Address Ethno-linguistic Tensions
After the Easter Sunday attacks, there has been a reinvigorated interest in education reform. Yet disappointingly, the sway of this discourse is too clouded by political gaffe for it to catapult towards…
STORYSPHERE: In Search of Work
As part of a series marking 150 years of tea production in Sri Lanka, used StorySphere, an immersive storytelling platform created by Google to showcase 360 degree imagery. Here, Principal Sivayoga of…