News
JVP faults govt. for reopening universities, schools without providing proper facilities
The JVP-led NPP has called on the government to stop tinkering with the country’s education sector because such action would only result in negative outcomes.
Addressing the media at the JVP headquarters in Pelawatte on Wednesday, MP Dr Hairini Amarasuriya said that the government’s failure to manage the COVID-19 pandemic was clearly visible when one looked at the prevailing situation in the country’s education sector.
“The government seems to think that reopening of schools and universities would be the solution. The question is whether these institutions have enough facilities to help prevent COVID-19. When the universities are reopened undergraduates are required to come to their hostels. Whether these hostels have facilities to ensure the safety of students is the question. The situation in the schools is also the same. Both teachers and students are exposed to the virus.
“We already have unsolved problems with regard to the quarantine and treatment. It is not wise for the government to reopen universities and schools in such a situation. We call on the government not to place the lives of our children in danger.”
NPP Operational Committee Member Dr Anura Karunathilaka of the University of Kelaniya said that amidst the prevailing chaos in the country’s education sector the government was now trying to change the number of years of school education. “There is a common criticism against the duration of schooling. The criticism is true. A student may attend school for 13 years and spend four to five years in universities and, therefore, the professionals such as doctors, engineers join the workforce when they are of the age of 30. In other countries the corresponding figure is around the age of 25. The delay of five years is due to various delays in the system that cannot be remedied by bringing down the number of years in school from 13 to 12. The delays are in the examination systems, issuance of results and moving from one stage to another, for example students who complete GCE Advanced Level examination have to wait at home months to enrol in universities. The delays are caused by lack of human and physical resources. But inflicting irreparable damages on the system due to whims and fancies of one or two persons in the name of solving problems cannot be countenanced.”
National Organiser of the Socialist Students’ Union, Rangana Devapriya said that universities, higher education institutes offering degrees and higher national diplomas had remained closed for nearly a year. “The government is now in a mighty hurry to reopen them. The responsibility of keeping these institutions open while fighting the pandemic is lies with their administrators. The heads of these institutes are told that they can reopen their institutions whenever they want. It is clear that the administrative officials of those institutes cannot counter the effects of a global pandemic. There is a need for a national level mechanism for that. The government overlooked the health and safety of children and teachers to reopen schools and we will see the results in the coming weeks,” Devapriya said.
“Why one law for Ponnambalam and another for Gamage?”
The police have failed to display the same efficiency they displayed in arresting Jaffna District MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam with regard to arresting State Minister Diana Gamage, who should have been spending her time at the Mirihana Immigration Detention Centre, Kurunegala District SJB MP Nalin Bandara Jayamaha told Parliament on Friday.
“If the police had displayed the same efficacy, Diana Gamage should have been at the Mirihana Detention Centre at this time. Instead she comes to parliament and issues threats to other MPs. The courts have clearly stated that the CID could take her into custody because she had been using two passports.
“The Immigration Controller himself has reported to the courts that she had been a UK citizen since 2004 and using a UK passport since then. She has not revoked her UK citizenship. In addition she has obtained anther passport through the Secretary General of Parliament. The Speaker too should have a responsibility to prevent a foreign citizen sitting unlawfully in the House,” he said.
Jayamaha said that Gamage had no right to sit in parliament. “The case against her regarding her having forged passports is postponed again and again. The law is not implemented. My colleague Mujibur Rahuman tabled a document in this House that the Defence Secretary had been informed of the illegality of Gamage’s presence in Parliament. I tabled the same again today.
“She recently told a TV talk-show that she had applied for the revocation of her UK citizenship. We do not know whether she has two tongues,” the MP said.
Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), which owns a fixed and mobile telecom group, which is partly foreign owned and listed should not be privatized, the head of a parliamentary committee on national security has said.
Government MP, Retd. Admiral Sarath Weerasekara who chairs the Sectoral Oversight Committee on National Security told parliament Friday that divestment of the 49.5 percent stake in SLT held by the government could “expose the country’s strategic communication infrastructure and sensitive information to private companies that are motivated by profit, which could pose a threat to national security”.
Weerasekara also said that any individual or organization proscribed or otherwise that “aided terrorists or extremists” must not be allowed to purchase shares or control Sri Lanka’s national assets.
The claim comes despite satellite links and international cables connecting the country being built and managed by foreign conglomerates in which many connected countries are also shareholders. SLT is also a shareholder in some global cable companies.
Weerasekara suggested that the government retain the right to repurchase shares held by the majority shareholder of SLT.SLT’s second biggest shareholder, behind the Sri Lanka government, is Malaysia-based Usaha Tegas Sdn Bhd with a 44.9 percents take in the company.
Most Sri Lanka’s mobile firms were also built and owned not just by private firm but foreign ones. SLT’s own mobile network, Mobitel was a build operate transfer project by Australia’s Telstra.
Sri Lanka’s cabinet of ministers in March 2023 listed Sri Lanka Telecom among several state companies to be re-structured.SLT currently enjoys market leadership in fixed-line services and is the second-largest operator in mobile. It also owns an extensive optical fibre network.The company was placed on watch for a possible rating upgrade by Fitch Ratings in March 2023 after the government announced the restructuring. (EconomyNext)
By Norman Palihawadane
Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has urged the government to hold local elections to secure the democratic rights of the people.
“Voting is a right of the people that we must all enjoy. It is a right that every person over 18 -years of age is entitled to to determine the future of the country,” he said on Thursday.
“Today justice as been turned into injustice, governance to dictatorship and law into lawlessness,” the 75-year-old cardinal told a gathering of hundreds of people at a function at St. Anthony’s College in Kochchikade.
Local polls to elect 340 councils were slated for April 25 but the election commission postponed it, citing a lack of funds.
“The government said earlier that it doesn’t have money to hold an election, now it’s saying that it has money. If the government has the money, please give an opportunity to the people to vote and let the people express their wishes. How much of what came from the IMF was used for agriculture? How much for the fishing industry? And what about education?” the cardinal queried.
Rather than improving the lives of people, “politicians import goods, and bring in what we need and what we don’t need, destroying our economic independence, leading us to depend on foreign countries,” he said.
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