[VIDEO] RTI In Practice
The Right to Information Act officially came into effect on February 3, 2017. We compiled a short video on the process involved in filing a request for information. The information was compiled…
Education
Education and empowerment: the journey of Sri Lankan refugees
Sri Lankan refugees living in the camps of Tamil Nadu in India have been able to take control of their uncertain future through education. The story of their journey inspires many refugee…
The Story of One: On some lives erased and others that give hope
I first met Father Harry Miller in 2013. We sat and talked in his office on the top floor of St. Michael’s College, Batticaloa. Noisy crows had gathered outside his window, threatening…
The Danger in Distorted Education: Sri Lanka’s History Curriculum
Photo from Seven years since the conclusion of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka, there is an opportunity to build bridges between divided communities. In this context, education is key to meaningful…
The Case against Private Universities: A Response to a Growing Conversation
Photo courtesy News First Sri Lanka’s tertiary education sector and its resistance to the private sector has become a topic of gleeful conversation over the past week on social media. Some of…
Jaffna University – when entitlement is rejected
On the 16th of July, a clash happened between students at Jaffna University over the inclusion of Sinhalese cultural spectacles in the welcome event. Below is a brief of the events but…
Keeping the Lunatic Fringe in the Fringe
Photo courtesy July 2016 could have become a very small-scale reproduction of July 1983, attacks and counterattacks, panicky actions and fear-filled reactions, hysteria, mayhem and some murder. It didn’t because this July…
The fruit of an ambitious social experiment – South Asian University Holds its First Convocation
As an idea, project and dream of considerable proportions, South Asian University has been discussed for more than a decade among leading intellectuals of the region, including people like Asish Nandy of India, Imtiaz Ahmed from Bangladesh, Kanak Dixit from Nepal and many others.…
Information and Power: The Evolution of RTI
Inside India’s Central Information Commission, Professor M Sridhar Acharyulu is hearing a case on illegal occupation. The applicant wants to know if the Registrar of Co-operative Societies, (RCS) which deals with housing,…
Speech by Prof. Jayadeva Uyangoda on his retirement from Colombo University
Vice-Chancellor and Colleagues, I want to begin by thanking all of you for being present today. You all have also endured bad weather. I feel delighted to see so many friends from…
Contending with Rejection and Exclusion: Take Two on the Kuliyapitiya Debacle
Featured image courtesy BBC I preface this piece by acknowledging my own discomfort as an educator in addressing sticky issues of equity and justice in education. I was motivated to write this piece…
The Struggle for Freedom in India
In early January, as part of his much hyped ‘Make in India’ agenda, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the ‘Start-Up India’ initiative. This ode to venture capitalism is but a complement to…
The Leader and the Led: Politics of Ignorance and Ignorance of Politics
Featured image courtesy Senaka Senanayake via patrimoniogallery Racial, ethnic and religious disharmony is as inevitable as death in a pluralist state where more than one race, ethnicity or religion shares the same…
Medical education in Sri Lanka: Need for urgent reform
Image courtesy YouTube Medical education in Sri Lanka commenced in 1870 with the establishment of the Ceylon Medical College. It became the Faculty of Medicine in 1942 with the establishment of the…
Politicians, Doctors, Neo liberalists and the antithesis of Education
Featured image courtesy Rose Charities Sri Lanka Sri Lanka is a nation in crisis. It has a troubled past, a confused present and an uncertain future. An autopsy of the present status…