Passing the BUCK – “Bole pass karana siritha” – University Students

With so many Ministries and Ministers as well as Departments under the Ministries, there is still a lot of confusion amongst the General Public about which authority certain undertakings are part of.

The recent HNDA incident was an example of this problem, where the UGC has now maintained that the “Sri Lanka Institute of Advanced Technical Education” is not mart of the University Grants Commission, so why were the HNDA students demonstrating in front of the UGC at Ward Place? 

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=134630

The link above is a classic illustration, where the various Bureaucrats pass the buck, that the problem is not part of their purview. No one is Responsible!

It is actually all the more important that these issues are resolved, and all of them relating to Education come JUST UNDER one Ministry, instead of about 6 that deal with various aspects of Education. Due to the lack of communication between Ministries, the problem falls on the hapless students who are struggling to get an education.

The way Education is dealt with by bureaucrats many of whom are NOT well versed in their subject, acting merely as gate keepers and NOT as people who have a vision on what is expected of their position, is a hindrance to the implementation of any policy deemed necessary by the Government of the day.

My proposal is to split the Ministry into Preschool, Primary, Secondary and Tertiary. Then allocate the Authorities to each depending on the Student group they cater to, and entrust the Department to follow the plan for that sector with clear guidelines of what is expected of each and how their performance will be measured.

Senior bureaucrats being held accountable for results, will be something new to the culture of Education, especially as incompetent, and teachers with questionable characteristics have filled some of these important decision making positions in the past.

Let the reader be aware that some schools are under the Provincial Councils and others under the Central Government and this adds a wholly unnecessary misconception on quality that MUST be dealt with forthwith and amalgamated, in the interests of a quality education, which overseas private bodies too.