Sri Lanka is one place where change is looked as something that is always bad. We see so many protests, hunger strikes, petition campaigns that it has become part of our lives. The situation is further worsened due to people who try to exploit this natural resistance to change within Sri Lankans for their own hidden agendas.
Not all change is good, and change for the sake of change is also bad. But we need change to move forward as a nation. Before changing anything else we need to change our attitudes.
One such attitude is that ALL PRIVATE EDUCATION IS BAD. This discussion has come to centre stage again due to talks about a private medical faculty in Malabe. Education is something that is always good, education is not only about learning a profession or a skill but true education is about opening your mind up for new ideas and broadening your horizons. The government universities can only accept a limited number of student and the facilities and resources are also limited. I myself is one of the lucky few, fortunate enough to enter one of the government universities. But what of the others who couldn’t?, should they serve us for the rest of their lives? Well I don’t think so.
People always ask “What Will Happen to the poor?” But look what’s happening now it’s the poor and medium class people that suffer. All the rich kids go abroad and learn whatever they want and the medium class students don’t get to do what they want. So the only option to them who don’t get selected to the local universities and still want to study is doing either IT, Management/Business or CIMA/CIM (Because those are the most popular private education options available). But that might not be what they want.
Ask your self would a child who always dreamed of becoming a Doctor or an Engineer all his/her life and just missed entrance to university by 0.01 marks wouldn’t they be happy to learn what they truly desire even through private education? Wouldn’t private education available for an affordable price right here in Sri Lanka help them?
The real issue is about selection. If all who get 3 passes at A levels are entitled for private education at this private Medical Faculty it would be very unfair for those who studied all those long sleepless nights to get through. (Coz I know that most who fail put a lot of effort in the wrong direction to fail.) So the criteria for selection should be an A level result which nearly missed entrance to medicine, and people with the capacity to reach a knowledge level as that which is required to enter a government university.
The same is true for all other professions, which may be offered privately.
So to me the idea as a whole seems good if executed properly. And as always these are my thought so obviously open for debate.
Interesting article. Some people just do CIMA/IT/ Management and stuff because they just want to do something and get a job. They won't sometimes be good at it even though how good the course is and how recognized the institute is. Won't everyone be really good at what they like? It's a 100%.
Everyone should be given the chance to do what they like.
yes it's quite a true one. The situation is like the dog sleeping on the haystack in a barn. U knw wt I mean..
Whatever these people rally around against private education in Sri Lanka, they cannot stop anyone from going abroad to get the same thing for a much higher cost and sending all our money abroad. These people must get this point through their thick skull.
Further you have opened up a view about the criteria for selection which I had not thought of before. Maybe the selection can be combined with the UGC selection and the next in the list being selected given that the person can afford. This system would merely increase the placement capacity.
But this would create another psychological problem. If the next in line cannot afford it, he/she would really feel bad about it.
@ Jellybrain - I don't think one will be really good at what he/she likes in all cases. They will give their best but that dusnt mean he will achieve.
I think private education should be allowed in Sri Lanka, and base the qualification on what foreign universities require. If however, while undergoing the course, they don't perform, then they do not graduate.
Sri Lankan's are typical dogs in the manger or crabs in the well. We want all of us to sink together, not swim out of the poverty pool together. The rich are a different category, in any case there are such few of them, it doesnt make a difference what they do. It is the middle class who need private education to have a chance of becoming rich. It is the poor who hopefully can get a scholarship to the private education institution or perhaps take a bank loan to finance his education, who needs it, to have a chance of not belonging generation after generation to the class of the poor.
So it is shortsighted when these rabid university students protest against private education. They are affecting their peers in their age group and their economic group the most. The rich! they don't even care, if there is a private education institute in this country or not. They just go abroad.
Good post, We need a private university system but that should be executed properly. For example expecting a middle class youth to spend Rs 6m on a medical degree is asking for too much. Are we talking about the middle class of USA here?
Malabe medical college is nothing but Mahinda serving his own class.
@JellyBrain : Well i don't think all people will be good at something they like but how ever there is a greater possibility of someone being good at something they like
@NPP : yup a collaboration with the University Grants Commission (UGC) would be a good idea when enrolling students
And all the rally guys cant stop people who go abroad can they
@Anonymous : yup so true. we don't want to get together and swim out of the poverty pool. and about the rabid university students well i have first hand experience with them.
I think the reason they rally is that there will be more competition i the job market. and when there is surplus of any professionals the selection will be based on skill.
@liberal lanka : well i guess 6M would be unaffordable to most middle class people. they should aim at the middle class. For 6M i think people can go abroad and study.
Like my Dad said one day, why is it that people are making such a big hue-and-cry about a private medical university when nothing is being said of CIMA and the likes?
Is it that only Medical students study so hard and not commerce students?
Why the fuck do people here just want to drag others down with them? If you can afford private education, good for you. If not, well, you have to put in the hard yards to get selected in universities. I'm sure that the number of medical professionals that are currently practicing in SL will increase significantly with these pvt. universities.
It's not because more students will be able to study medicine, it's because the students in private universities will know the value of money and spend the 4-5 years studying rather than going on stupid strikes and fighting between faculties and with nearby residents.