Entries from October 2007 ↓

The suspended students of the Peradeniya University were given bail on Friday after the University administration said in writing it would not ‘push’ the Police to proceed with the case against them though another blow for the students seems to be on the way.

Peradeniya University Registrar Ranjith de Alwis told The Sunday Times that the Police may file another case in courts acting on the complaint made by the University administration regarding the detention of the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Registrar and three Faculty Deans in the Senate House on October 23 by the students.“We made the complaint to the Police so they may file another case in courts on that complaint,” he said.

Mr. de Alwis said the case against the students was filed under the ragging and other forms of violence in High Education Institutes Act which was introduced in 1998. According to this Act, if the suspended students were found guilty, they could be sentenced to a minimum of three years rigorous imprisonment.

“We have no authority to withdraw a case filed by the Police in the Magistrate Courts so a letter was given to the students stating we would not call for further inquiry in regard to the complaint made against them for removing the name board of the hostel,” he said. However, though both students and the University administration claim an agreement on the dispute over naming the hostel, a conflict of ideas was yet to be solved.

Inter University Students’ Front convener Duminda Nagamuwa said the administration agreed to withdraw the court case without putting the students into further difficulties but also agreed not to name the hostel.He said the students’ union gave the name board back to the administration because there was no purpose in keeping it after coming to an agreement not to name the hostel after anyone.

“The students and the administration agreed not to name the hostel two days before its opening ceremony after some differences arose as the students wanted to name it after a union leader who had died. However, the administration named it after Sir Ivor Jennings the day before the opening ceremony without any notice,” he said.

He said the students had nothing against naming the hostel after the founder of the University and its first Vice-Chancellor, Sir Ivor Jennings as they respected his concepts.“But to students, he is just a name as the University had not commemorated him even once a year so far or done any thing to remember him,” he said.

Vice Chancellor Prof. Harischandra Abeygunawardena said the University Council decided to name the hostel after Sir Ivor Jennings two years ago and no one could change that decision.“Only the Council can reverse a Council decision and as is has not been done, the hostel will be named after Sir Jennings,” he said.

The VC added that he cannot do anything to withdraw the case filed in courts against the students as it has gone out of his control.“The students can present their case to court when it is called,” he said.

By Isuri Kaviratne

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/071028/News/news0006.html

Parents of Isipathana MMV students have strongly objected to a decision to give on lease a land opposite the college to the Milinda Moragoda Foundation claiming that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had earlier promised to donate it to the school. The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) under whose purview the plot of land comes has leased it to the Moragoda Foundation in late 2004 for at least 25 years while the students’ parents and Old Boys of the college had been kept in the dark about the deal.

President Rajapaksa - then the Prime Minister - had given an assurance while addressing a ceremony at the college in the same year in which the land was leased to the Foundation, that the land would be given to the college. Isipathana Principal P. Kuruppu confirmed that President Rajapaksa promised to donate the land to the school and said he was receiving many complaints from parents for losing it to the Moragoda Foundation.

The controversial plot of land that was used as an unofficial vehicle park has been cleaned up recently and little huts have been put up prior to any construction taking place.

A spokesman for the Moragoda Foundation told The Sunday Times that though Isipathana MMV was opposed to the land being leased to it, the Foundation was paying rates to the CMC annually for the leased land, and assured that students of the college would benefit from the community centre the Foundation was building, as it would house a library too.

By Nalaka Nonis

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/071028/News/news0007.html

Teachers are going ahead with a two-day strike in schools throughout the island as the dead-lock between the National Salaries and Cadres Commission (NSCC) and the teachers’ unions continues. The strike to be held tomorrow and on Tuesday is expected to cripple functions of most schools in the country, except in certain parts of the Northern and Eastern Provinces where the teachers would not be taking part in the protest campaign.

However the unions have sent out leaflets calling teachers in the north and east also to join the trade union action. Salaries and Cadres Commission co-chairman Lionel Fernando said the NSCC is working on the matter though it does not publicize developments regarding the issue. “We are investigating the replies we received from the unions explaining their salary anomalies in response to the requests we made in accordance with the Cabinet decisions,” he said.

The Cabinet had taken two decisions regarding this issue on September 5 - one requesting the B.G. Karunaratne Committee which was appointed by the Ministry to look into the matter and to submit its report to the Cabinet and NSCC before December 31 and the other ordering the NSCC to investigate the salary anomalies, if there were any, and submit a report to the Cabinet before December 31, regardless of whether the B.G. Karunaratne report was received or not.

“So, even if we do not receive the B.G. Karunaratne report by December 31, we will give a solution to the anomalies we investigated”, Mr. Fernando said but refused to explain the progress of investigations. The Cabinet had appointed a sub-committee of Ministers Karu Jayasuriya, D.E.W. Gunasekara and John Seneviratne to resolve the matter.

However, Ceylon Teachers’ Service Union secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe said mere statements from the Government that the salary anomalies would be resolved by the end of this year cannot be accepted.“The Prime Minister discussed with us and promised to resolve the problem but he didn’t even send a letter confirming us that he is working on the matter. We only received a letter from his co-ordinating secretary saying that the Cabinet was informed,”he said.

“We were told that the salary anomaly problem will be resolved several times before as well but it was never done. So we wouldn’t accept mere statements that it will be resolved,” he said. Meanwhile, preparing the schools for the two-day strike, Minister Susil Premajayanth said the principals have been informed to carry on with the normal school activities despite the interruption the strike of the teachers may cause.

“Anyway, even on normal days 20% of the teachers are on leave and the rest who are present manage the school. The same thing could be done here as well,” he said even though he refused to estimate the number of teachers who may go on strike tomorrow.

“Only 5 out of many teachers’ unions have informed us about the strike,” the Minister said. “The ministry did everything it could. The Cabinet asked the Salaries and Cadre Commission to submit its report before December 31. According to its suggestions only we could work out a way to resolve this issue,” he added.

By Isuri Kaviratne 

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/071028/News/news00015.html 

Sri Lanka was one of six Asian nations elected in the vote held in Paris to replace 31 members of the board. The other Asian states selected to the board are Malaysia, Soth Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Sri Lanka’s permanant representative at the UNESCO, Chithrangani Wagiswara said, “its a victory for sri Lankan foreign policy “

She also said that this is the second time sri lanka has been able to retain its place in the executive council.

The board consists of 58 Member States with a four-year term of office.

Each State Member appoints one representative and may also appoint alternates.

The Executive Board examines the programme of work for the Organization and corresponding budget estimates.

It ensures the effective and rational execution of the programme by the Director-General.

Sri lanka will be represented by education minister Susil Premjayanth. Speaking to BBC Sandeshaya, the minister said that he was delighted with trust placed by other countries in sri lanka.

He also said that the progress made in the education sector is one of the reasons that made this victory possible.

Minister Premjayanth added that the education ministry intends to implement number of programmes with UNESCO.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2007/10/071025_unesco.shtml

The government has stopped the distribution among school teachers in the North-East of a highly controversial booklet on children’s mental health.   Investigations have revealed that the book distributed by an NGO contains totally inaccurate interpretations of the Tamil separatist terrorism.  Even worse is that the publication carries an article by an LTTE leader.
The Education Authorities have recalled the booklets that have already been distributed.

Some officers of the Education Ministry and the National Education Institute are being questioned over the distribution of this anti-national booklet.

[COLOMBO, SinhalaNet 2007.10.25 06:38PM]

http://www.sinhala.net

While assuring that the salary anomalies of the teachers would be resolved before January next year, the Minister of Education Susil Premajayantha yesterday called on the teacher unions which have planned a strike on October 29 and 30 to call it off and cooperate with the government.
Minister Premajayantha told a press conference yesterday that a solution to the issue regarding anomalies should be based on the recommendations of the Salaries and Cadre Committee that is appointed to look into the anomalies of the entire state sector. He said the final report of this committee is due before December 31 this year and the matter would be resolved soon after.“We appeal to the teacher unions to bear with us for a short period for the sake of the children,” he said.
The Minister said he has done his best to resolve the matter and had several rounds of discussions with the trade unions to resolve the matter. “There is no other Minister in the cabinet who had talked to the trade unions as I have,” he said. He said the teacher unions had a discussion with Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake and himself earlier this week and they promised to take up the matter in the cabinet and it was taken up as promised at the Wednesday’s cabinet meeting. According to the Minister the cabinet has decided to wait till the Salaries and cadres report is out. However he said the government is ready to talk with the unions at any time.
He was of the opinion that the unions should tolerate as there a host of other serious problems faced by the country at the moment such as the security situation and the unrest in Sabaragamuwa and Peradeniya Universities.
The Minister assured that the government would not neglect the education sector as the funds allocated for the sector has been increased from Rs 65 billion in 2007 to Rs 91 billion in 2008. The country has been spending 2.9% from the GDP in 2007 for education while it has planned to spend 3.1% in 2008.

By Yohan Perera
http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/10/26/news/05.asp

ඔක්. 24 - ඊයේ රාත්‍රියේ සිට පේරාදෙණිය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ සිසුන් පිරිසක් විසින් බලහත්කාරයෙන් රඳවාගනු ලැබ සිටි නියෝජ්‍ය උප කුලපතිවරයාට පාලක සභාව සමග රැස්වීමකට සහභාගි වීමට අවස්ථාව ලබා දී තිබේ. 
නියෝජ්ය උප කුලපතිවරයා පැවසුවේ, සාකච්ඡාවට සහභාගි වීමට අවස්ථාව හිමි වුවත් තමන්ව මුදාහැර නොමැති බවයි. නියෝජ්ය උප කුලපතිවරයා පැවසුවේ, ඊයේ පස්වරුවේ මහා ශිෂ්ය සංගමය සමග පැවති සාකච්ඡා අසාර්ථක වීමෙන් පසු

සිසුන් තමන්ව මෙලෙස රඳවාගෙන සිටි බවයි.
 
ඔවුන් අතර පීඨාධිපතිවරුන් තිදෙනෙක්, ආචාර්ය මණ්ඩලයේ දෙදෙනෙක් සහ කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයේ පිරිසක් ද වූහ.
 
ඉල්ලීම් කිහිපයක් මුල් කර ගනිමින් පේරාදෙණිය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ ශිෂ්‍යයන් පිරිසක් ඊයේ විශ්වවිද්‍යාල භුමියේ උද්ඝෝෂණයක ද නිරත වූහ.
 
මේ වන විට පන්ති තහනමකට ලක්ව සිටින සිසුන්ට එම තහනම ඉවත් කරන ලෙස හා නව නේවාසිකාගාරයේ නාමපුවරුව නැවත සවිකිරීම පිළිබඳව සාකච්ඡාවක් ලබා ගැනීම මෙම ඉල්ලීම් අතර වේ.
 

http://www.ethalaya.com/

රාජකීය කියූ සැනින්ම සිතට ගාම්භීරත්වයක් නැඟෙන්නේ එහි එතරම්ම අභිමානයක් ගම්‍යව ඇති බැවිනි. එවන් අභිමානයකින් යුතුව කි‍්‍ර. ව. 1835 දී එවකට ශී‍්‍ර ලංකාවේ ආණ්ඩුකාර ධූරන්දර ශී‍්‍රමත් විලියම් නෝර්ටන් උතුමාණන්ගෙන් ඇරඹි කොළඹ රාජකීය විද්‍යාලය, ශී‍්‍ර ලංකාවේ අධ්‍යාපන ක්ෂේත‍්‍රයේ නව නැම්මක් ලෙස හැ¼ඳින්විය හැක.

1963 කොළඹ රාජකීය ප‍්‍රාථමික පාසලට ඇතුළත්ව, 1976/1977 වසරවලදී රාජකීය විද්‍යාලයෙන් නික්ම ගිය 72 කණ්ඩායමේ සාමාජිකයන්ගෙන් බහුතරයකට අඩසිය වස පිරිපුන් වීම මේ ලිපියට හේතු පාදක වී ඇත.

එදා මෙන්ම අද දක්වා විදුහලට දැඩි ඇල්මකින් හා බැඳීමකින් සිටින 72 කණ්ඩායම, 80 කට වඩා අධික සාමාජිකත්වයකින් සමන්විත වීම විශේෂිතය. සිංහල, දමිළ හා ඉංගී‍්‍රසි මාධ්‍ය තුනෙන්ම සිප් සතර හැදෑරූ සිසුවෝ මේ අතර වූහ. මේ පිරිසෙහි බහුතරයක් රටට දැයට වැඩදායී පුරවැසියන් වීම අප කණ්ඩායමට ආඩම්බරයක් ගෙන දෙන්නකි. මැති, ඇමතිවරුන්, දේශපාලඥයින්, මෙන්ම ජාත්‍යන්තර කීර්තියට පත් මහාචාර්යවරුන්, නීතිඥයන්, වෛද්‍යවරුන්, ඉංජිනේරුවරුන්, ගණකාධිකාරිවරුන් මෙන්ම ලේඛකයින්, කලාකරුවන්, කී‍්‍රඩකයින් සහ අතිසාර්ථක ව්‍යාපාරිකයන් බිහිකළ මෙම කණ්ඩායම ඒ ගැන උදම් අනන්නේ මහත් ආඩම්බරයකිනි.

පසුගිය කාලය දෙස හැරී බැලීමේදී අප කණ්ඩායමෙන් වූ සේවාවන් අතර ශිෂ්‍යත්ව පිරිනැමීම, විදුහල් ගොඩනැඟිලි පිළිසකර කිරීම, විද්‍යාලයීය කී‍්‍රඩා සංකීර්ණය සඳහා දායකත්වය ලබාදීම, ශිෂ්‍යනායක සමුළු පැවැත්වීම සහ විශේෂ පරිත්‍යාග පිරිනැමීම ප‍්‍රධාන තැනක් ගනී.

මෙම අඩසිය වස පිරීම නිමිත්තෙන් නොබෝදා පැවති විශේෂ ආගමික උත්සව පෙළ වැදගත් තැනක් ගනී. කොළඹ සම්බෝධි විහාරයේදී සුමධුර ධර්ම දේශනාවක් ද පසුව සාංඝික දානමය පුන්‍ය කර්මයකින්ද, මෙය ආරම්භ කෙරුණි. අනතුරුව කොළඹ සියළු සාන්තුවරයන්ගේ දේවස්ථානයේදී විශේෂ දේව මෙහෙයක් ද, ජින්තුපිටිය මහා කෝවිලේ දී විශේෂ පූජාවක් ද එයින් අනතුරුව දවටගහ මුස්ලිම් දේවස්ථානයේ විශේෂ යාඤ්ඤාවක් ද පවත්වන ලදී. මේ ආගමික උත්සව පෙළට 72 කණ්ඩායමේ සාමජිකයන් සහ සිය පවුල්වල ඥාතීන් විශාල ලෙස සහභාගී වීම කැපීපෙනෙන සිද්ධියක් විය.

එදා සිට අද දක්වා ආපසු හැරී බැලීමේදී 1963 සිට 1971 කාලය තුළ රාජකීය ප‍්‍රාථමික පාසලේ මුල් ගුරුව සිට පසුව රාජකීය කණිෂ්ඨ විදුහලේ විදුහල්පති ධුරයට පත්වූ එච්. ඩී. සුගතපාල මැතිඳුන් මෙහිදී සිහිපත් කළ යුතුව ඇත. මුළු රටටම ජාත්‍යන්තර කීර්තියක් ලබාදුන් ‘නව රඟහල’ හී නිර්මාතෘ වරයා මෙතුමායි. අනතුරුව විදුහල්පතිවරයා ද එච්. පී. ජයවර්ධන මැතිතුමාගේ මගපෙන්වීම ද ඉතා අගය කොට සලකමු. එමෙන්ම උප විදුහල්පතිනියන් වූ ජයසිංහ මැතිණිය, සුගතපාල සහ නානායක්කාර මැතිණියද මෙහිදී සාදරයෙන් සිහිපත් කරමු.

1972 වසරේ රාජකීය විද්‍යාලයට පිවිසි සිසුන් ලෙසින් බිහිවුණු “72 කණ්ඩායම” වෙනුවෙන් එම විදුහල ඉහළම ස්ථරයකට ගෙන ආ අපේ යුගයේ විදුහල්පතිතුමන් සිහිකිරීම අත්‍යවශ්‍ය කරුණකි. මුලින්ම ඩී. ජී. වැලිකල මැතිතුමාත්, එමෙන්ම ඩී. ජේ. එන්. සෙනෙවිරත්න මැතිතුමාත්, සිහිපත් කරනු කැමැත්තෙමු. අනතුරුව විදුහල්පති වූ එල්. ඩී. එච්.පීරිස් මැතිතුමා අපිට මග පෙන්වූ ගුරු දෙවියෙක් බඳුය.

මෙම වකවානුව තුළ විනය හා හික්මීම මැනවින් කියාදුන් නියෝජ්‍ය විදුහල්පති කි‍්‍රස්ටි ගුණසේකර මැතිතුමාටද අපේ ගෞරව ආචාරය පිරිනමමු. එමෙන්ම, රාජකීය විද්‍යාලයේ ශිෂ්‍යයෙකුව සිට අනතුරුව ගුරුවරයෙකු අංශ ප‍්‍රධානියෙකු සහ උප විදුහල්පතිවරයෙකුව විශ‍්‍රාම ලත් වි. ජි. වීරසිංහ මැතිතුමා අපගේ ජීවමාන මුදුන් මල්කඩ බඳුය. ආදි ශිෂ්‍ය මහා සංගමයේ ගරු උපදේශක වරයෙකු වශයෙන් අදත් සිටින, මෑතකදී අසූවියට පා තැබූ එතුමාට දීර්ඝායු පතමු.

මෙවන් දිගුකලක් අඛණ්ඩව 72 කණ්ඩායම ඉදිරියට ගෙන ආ මෙම කණ්ඩායමේ හිටපු සභාපතිවරුන් මෙම විශේෂ මොහොතේ සිහිපත් කිරීම අප සතු යුතුකමකි. ජනක එදිරිසිංහ, ශියාන් පෙරේරා, රජීව් වල්පිට, ආනන්ද තේනබදු, රියාඩ් සුබි, නිරාජ් ද මැල්, රීසාන් නසීර්, ජෙහාන් අමරතුංග, අසංක වීරසිංහ, මයුර ප‍්‍රනාන්දු, ඩිනාල් පිලිප්ස්, ගාමිණී පිටිපන, ධම්මික සිරිවර්ධන, විකුම් සිරිවර්ධන, කමිල් වීරසේකර, මහේෂ් චන්ද්‍රසේකර යන මහත්වරුන් ඇතුළු ඔවුන්ගේ විධායක කාරක සභා සාමාජිකයින්ට අපගේ ප‍්‍රණාමය හිමිවිය යුතුය.

තවද වත්මන් සභාපති සුමිත් ගුරුගේ, උප සභාපති අනිල් වික‍්‍රම සහ ඉදිරි වසරේ සභාපති ශංකර් සෝමසුන්දරම් යන මහත්වරුන් ද මෙහිදී ගෞරවයෙන් සිහිපත් කළ යුතුව ඇත.

රාජකීය විද්‍යාලයීය 72 කණ්ඩායමේ සහෘදයිනි, මේ ආ දිගු ගමනේ තවත් සන්ධිස්ථානයකට එළඹී සිටින මේ මොහොතේ එතෙක් ආ දිරියෙන්, සවියෙන් හා බැඳීමෙන් තව බොහෝ දුර ගමනක් යාමට මෙලෙස අදිටන් කර ගනිමු. ඒ ගමන යාමට වාසනාව උදාවේවා යනු අපේ පැතුමයි.

සමන් සී. ද සිල්වා ලේකම්
රාජකීය විද්‍යාලයීය 72 කණ්ඩායම

http://www.dinamina.lk/2007/10/23/_art.asp?fn=n07102324

Over 700 children of State transport sector employees will receive scholarships from President Mahinda Rajapaksa tomorrow in appreciation of their achievements at the G.C.E. Ordinary Level examination.

Transport Minister Dallas Alahapperuma told the media yesterday that the scholarship programme titled ‘Sisu Diriya’ was launched with the objective of recognising the invaluable contribution made by the employees to uplift the State transport sector in the country.

At the scholarship award ceremony to be held at the BMICH tomorrow, 782 children of employees serving in institutions coming under the Transport Ministry, including 30 students who obtained 10 distictions at the O/L examination, will be granted scholarships.

The recipients include children from Jaffna, Killinochchi, Valachchanai, Batticaloa and Kalmunai. The National Savings Bank and the IDM have sponsored the scholarships worth Rs 15,000, Rs 11,250 and Rs 1,000.

Alahapperuma said they have already taken steps to ensure that every recruitment and promotion within State transport institutions are made on merit basis and not on political lines.

“Through this we seek to create conditions where the employees could achieve job satisfaction and be confident that their hard work will be duly appreciated”.

Source: http://www.dailynews.lk/2007/10/23/news25.asp

An urgent appeal has been made to President Mahinda Rajapaksa by the All Ceylon Union of English Teachers (ACUET) requesting him to consider the feasibility of granting double pay to all public sector employees and pensioners for the month of December.
The reasons for the appeal are that: Most private sector employees get double pay and bonuses for the month of December; parents are expected to buy books (other than those issued by the government), stationery, clothes shoes etc. for their children for the new school year; all consumer commodities and other items have gone up in price.

Source: http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/10/23/news/more.asp