FUTA march generates hate attacks: Minister should apologise

Vickramabahu Karunaratne

The FUTA protest march was a success. Its success could be measured from the hate generated in the government camp. Minister SB said, “We do not intend to look at FUTA as our foe. But for example, take the foreign countries that were visited lately by Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri. He is a second grade junior lecturer on History. In the recent past he toured Oslo and the US. Who provided the air tickets for his sojourns overseas?

Terrible fiscal numbers show only hardship to grow; less money for education more for urban development

Construction on the newly repaired A9 road by JAMES MORGAN

Dr. Harsha De Silva
The very recent fiscal and government borrowing numbers released by the Central Bank fail to inspire confidence in the economy and concerns are mounting that taxes could be raised while key public investments too could be cut as was the case in the past resulting in more hardship for the people.

With the budget deficit showing signs of veering off target, Opposition MP and Economic spokesman for the UNP Dr. Harsha De Silva yesterday reiterated that the government would have to increase taxes, duties and utility rates while sacrificing much needed public investments in critical areas of the economy such as education.

How the Envisaged GDP 6% Allocation for Education Could be Utilized Concretely

Jayadeva Uyangoda
The demand made by the FUTA for increased allocation of annual government expenditure on education has now emerged as a national policy slogan, with many sectors of society adopting it as their own demand. This is a key achievement made by the FUTA in its three-month long struggle'

SRI LANKA: Too many jobless youth in former war zone

A young man looks to the camera in Jaffna, .

Finding paid work - especially for youths - is still difficult in Sri Lanka’s former conflict zone in the north even after three years of peace and massive infrastructure projects, experts say, pointing to the region’s anaemic private sector as a main cause.

Although official employment data for the region is unavailable, experts in the area estimate that up to 30 percent of the north’s population is unemployed, as opposed to a national rate of 4 percent. Based on the most recent census in 2001, 28 percent of the country’s population is between the ages of 10-24, and there are some 280,000 youths in the former war zone, according to a 2012 government estimate.

FUTA and the survival of democratic dissent; The suffocating grasp of an emergent dictatorship

Kumar David
"Where they burn books, they will afterwards burn people" - Heinrich Heine (German Poet 1821)
The madness fanned by Goebbels and fired by Nazi student organisations, reached a frenzied climax on the night of 10 May 1933 when the nation’s great libraries were stripped of radical, socialist, pacifist, culturally alien and Jewish books, and piled on bonfires, lit as Germany careened to censorship, culture control and eventually the most naked of all Twentieth Century dictatorships. No nation that permits the state to crush its knowledge workers can long survive. The FUTA strike is no longer about academic salaries, long ago it morphed beyond that, it is no longer about securing a fair deal in education for the nation’s children, that Rubicon has also been crossed.

FUTA strike:Key questions about education, trade unionism, policy development and the future of students

 Andi Schubert

The trade union action of the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) is now about to enter its fourth month. Prior to and during the strike a number of debates and discussion have raged between supporters, opponents and observers about the issues raised by FUTA viz. education and the crisis facing the education sector in Sri Lanka. In this short article I hope to examine the nature of the debate so far and hope to broaden it by introducing the dimension of social emancipation. This article is the further development of a point I raised during the "Forum with Eran" program organized by Eran Wickramaratne MP on the 26th of September which brought together Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri and Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha MP for a discussion on the education crisis in Sri Lanka.

The demand of 6 per cent of the GDP for education is not political but social one

 Laksiri Fernando
This refers to The Island editorial yesterday (26 September 2012) on basically the same title without the question: Who? It may be in order to caution the FUTA (the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations) of any possible deviation or adventure, given the subtle machinations that the government and more particularly the Minister in charge are hatching with the hope of crushing the legitimate demands of the academics which are the concerns of the general public at large on education and higher education.

50% students fail GCE O/L Due to lack of funds for education

The United National Party (UNP) yesterday alleged that nearly 50% of the students who sit the GCE O/L Examination fail due to the government’s failure to allocate sufficient funds for education.

Addressing the media in Colombo yesterday, UNP parliamentarian Rosy Senanayake said students are unable to perform well in the exams as they have not been provided enough facilities such as trained teachers and laboratory facilities.

Large crowds for university teachers’ ‘March’

It is reported that the protest march launched by university teachers commenced from Galle today (24th) morning and reached Ambalangoda in the evening.

It is time for the Long March for Free Education.

futa
It is time for the Long March for Free Education.

The long march currently being organized follows a series of  ground-breaking mega events organized by FUTA to socialize the concept  of the need to increase allocations for education (6%!) and  de-politicizing of the education secotor.

Condemn the arrest of IUSF convener – JVP

Sanjeewa Bandara

The Political Bureau of the JVP has issued a statement condemning the arrest of the convener of the Inter University Students Federation (IUSF).

The statement issued yesterday (20th) states, “Yesterday (18th), the convener of Inter University Students Federation the student Sanjeewa Bandara was arrested by the police. He was arrested while going back after participating in an agitation organized by the IUSF demanding the government to solve issues in the education sector including that of university teachers.

Prof. Harendra calls for end to silence :4000 children abused in a year

Professor Harendra: "today’s abused child is tomorrow’s abuser,"

Professor Harendra de Silva, Professor of Pediatrics, yesterday called on every individual to be active and work together as one community to eradicate child abuse and not to be passive perpetrators being silent on the issue.

Addressing the first news briefing of the ‘Citizens for a Secure Sri Lanka’, an informal network to protect women and children from abuse (It was formed two months ago by a group of individuals working in different organizations), the professor categorically said that if an individual remained passive over abuse cases, he or she was similar to a perpetrator and they were called passive perpetrators.

Sri Lanka kidney disease blamed on farm chemicals

 Rhitu Chatterjee 

Thousands of people in the Asian island nation of Sri Lanka have been struck by a mysterious and deadly form of kidney disease. A new study points to a likely cause - pesticides and fertilisers.

Tucked away in Sri Lanka's North Central Province is the village of Halmillawetiya. A pebbled path connects small houses of brick and mud set among coconut palms and other tropical trees.
Sampath Kumarasinghe, aged 21, lives here with his widowed mother and extended family.
I find him resting on a wooden bench in the front yard. His mother, P Dingirimenike, sits close by, talking and cutting areca nuts, which people chew like tobacco. The sounds of a radio waft from the house.

Students helpless and angry

Hear our voices: Students on a protest march on
Thursday in front of the UGC. Pic by Amila Gamage

The ongoing strike by university staff and the Government’s continuing lack of initiative to resolve the crisis has left students confused, frustrated and angry.

 Science student Yomal Jayasinghe’s dream of qualifying and getting a decent job becomes less achievable by the day as universities remain shut and academics continue to agitate for salary and other reforms.

Reserve at least the civility of not exposing your nakedness to the world – Dr. Devasiri tells Govt.

Dr. Deasiri to Govt: Garbage of history awaits you

We ask the government to reserve at least the civility of not exposing its nakedness to the world  says the President of Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri.

He said this speaking at a summit held in Colombo yesterday (13th) organized by 27 trade unions to extend their support to the struggle carried out by university teachers. Speaking further Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri said, “This is not only a struggle of university teachers. Also, it is not only an issue of education in the country.

‘No intelligent govt. will harass academics’ Academics are respected; politicians are not – Mendis

Dr. Mahim Mendis

Namini Wijedasa
The Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) last week said it cannot stop striking unless the government produces an “action plan” to implement the various education-related promises it has made. Mahim Mendis, the union’s spokesman and a Sri Lankan Presidential Scholar, also said the government knows full well that academics are respected while politicians are not. Excerpts from the interview:
The government has reopened universities and announced there will be admissions. Isn’t this a positive sign?
The government shouldn’t be closing and opening universities according to its whims and fancies as people expect nothing but rational behaviour from representatives mandated by them.

Bringing dons back to universities, Editorial, The Island

The government has reopened universities but without teachers. Students are keeping away and conducting street protests.

The university crisis has manifestly got out of hand. The striking dons have crossed the Rubicon. The government is trying to wear down the strikers, who have shown remarkable resilience. Neither side is likely to blink in the foreseeable future; all signs are that the universities will remain paralysed indefinitely and students will be driven to extreme action. On Thursday, they staged a protest near the University Grants Commission and the police had to use water cannon to disperse them. The situation is bound to deteriorate further.

Our Duty as Intellectuals is to Speak Truth to Power

By Liyanage Amarakeethi
Last two months have been educational for me as, I am sure, they have been for all of you. During our trade union action last year, many of us in our generation, those of us who are mid-career academics in this university, learned from our seniors how to stand up for our rights. 

This time it is our generation that has had to take up leadership in this trade union action though we did have the invaluable support of our teachers at every step.

There are no medicines in public hospitals. Why? Isn't it because millions upon millions of tax-payer rupees goes down rat holes?

A public appeal:
Existence of a free public healthcare system in the country for many many years has indeed proved to be a great relief to the whole nation. Thanks to it, people beset by inflation get treatment and medicines absolutely free of charge. But because of rampant corruption, frauds and the commissions & kickbacks game in the system, its very survival is now threatened. It has now come to light that a sizeable amount of public funds allocated to the sector ends up in the pockets of certain entrenched big-wigs within its administrative setup. In 2012, the government made a budgetary allocation of Rs.59 billion which may not be enough. But it’s difficult to maintain the service, when 30% of this amount is lost to corruption.

Intense police surveillance arbitrary arrests of our men and continuous harassment of women and children must be stopped

Mannar (Uppukulum) Muslim Women’s Collective Appeal to Human Rights Commission
We the undersigned affected civilians of Up pukulam village in Mannar Town would like to lodge a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on the recent incidents of harassments of women and children over our struggle for regaining our fishing harbor (Konthaipiddy paadu). This complaint is purely on humanitarian ground and based on the struggle we, the returnees, are facing after we had gathered on 18 th July 2012 a distance away from the Mannar Court building to show our concern-unfortunately this turned violent- which was not due to our fault.