Sri Lanka Education Forum

Following is an abstract of the presentation made by Dr. Sujata Gamage to the Council on Higher Education in Pretoria, South Africa, on February 23, 2010. ABSTRACT Universities are increasingly called upon to contribute to the development needs of a country but the nature of the contribution can vary with the mission or the resource base of the institution. University systems in most countries, by design or otherwise, consist of a diverse range of institutions. An assessment of the contribution of a university requires some means of telling apples from the oranges. To our knowledge, the 2005 Carnegie system of classification used in ...

While the debate on banning of mobiles in schools is raging it is refreshing to hear of a school that is using the mobile as a teaching device and teach proper use of the device at the same time. As the mobiles becomes smarter they will become affordable alternatives to computers. (See http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-07-27-cellphoneschool_N.htm?csp=34) While schools have long been wary of students using smart phones in classrooms, arguing the device can distract and facilitate cheating, some districts are using the technology as a learning tool. St. Mary’s, Ohio, for example, launched a pilot program that loans elementary students PDAs to draw pictures, use ...

.!. Concern on English and IT education from grass root level to policy level is increasing day by day. The author of this article tries to give more alternatives for this issue with a view of global context. The BBC and the use of English I would like to warmly congratulate our President on his recent initiative in promoting English and IT. All those with any compassion for the underprivileged would support this, because it is the underprivileged who would benefit most from it. The JVP and the JHU would probably not be delighted because they have been traditionally against the promotion ...

.!.  Modern mysteries of education By Dr Harsha Aturupane, Senior Economist, Human Development Unit, South Asia Region, World Bank http://www.sundaytimes.lk/090322/FinancialTimes/ft308.html Prof. J.E. Jayasuriya, in whose honour and memory we are meeting today, was a man of outstanding gifts of intellect and character. He laid the foundation of the academic education profession in Sri Lanka. As a university don, he had a lasting impact on his colleagues and students. He also made wide-ranging contributions to the formulation of education policy in the country during his tenure as the Chairman of the first National Education Commission, through his publications, and through his influence on generations of ...

Eight thousand of the 10,000 principals failed examination God bless the students (Lanka-e-News, June 11, 2009, 7.20 PM; http://www.lankaenews.com/English/news.php?id=7842) "The entire education of Sri Lanka has been politicized and collapsed. Eighty percent of the education officers are political appointees. Eight thousand of the 10,000 principals are politically chosen persons who have failed the recruitment examination. After 2005, no proper selection of principals has taken place. Although the authorities say that the 2006 gazette will be followed for the principal appointments, those who obtained 185 marks in the examination were dropped and those who obtained 115 marks were given posts. The Supreme ...

.!.Prof. Carlo Fonseka, formerly of the Medical Faculty of Colombo, is an authority on this subject. When asked as to why some people persist in the belief that Medical education should be a State monopoly and PMCs are wrong, he replied; “One reason is that it has always been a State monopoly and we have produced some of the best doctors in the world, so, something of proven value and established merit should not be changed” By Ishara Jayawardane download I Think I Love My Wife In the recent past, there has been much debate about the establishment of Private Medical ...

.!.By Carlo Fonseka The Island – 07th April 2009 http://www.island.lk/2009/04/07/opinion2.html Recently at very short notice I deputized for the Chairman of the University Grants Commission at the launch of "Adyapanaya 2009", a Higher Education and Career Exhibition organized by the private sector. Obliged to speak impromptu, I made a few off the cuff remarks. I feel that Zacki Jabbar’s succinct report of what I said (The Island 28 March 2009) requires some elaboration to indicate what I meant to say on that occasion. The basic point I attempted to make was that undergraduate education at least in technical disciplines such as medicine and ...

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.!. පළමු ශ්‍රේණියට ළමුන් ඇතුළත් කරගැනීම ජාතික අර්බුදයක් කළේ කවුද? අධ්‍යාපන පද්ධතියට අදාළ සැබෑ ගැටලූ වසා ගනිමින් කරලියට ගෙන තිබෙන පළමුවන ශ්‍රේණියට ළමුන් ඇතුළත් කරගැනීම ජාතික අර්බුදයක් ලෙස හුවා දැක්වීම අප දකින්නේ මිත්‍යාවක් ලෙස යි.  නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනය රටට හඳුන්වා දී අඩ සියවසකටත් වඩා කල් ගත වී ඇතත්, අධ්‍යාපනයට වගකියන ඇත්තන් මෙම තත්ත්වය වටහා නොගැනීම ජාතියේ අවාසනාවකි.  දේශපාලකයන්ගේ හා නිලධාරින්ගේ සැබෑ වගකීම වන්නේ සමාජ විෂමතා හැකිතාක් අවම කිරීම යි.  නමුත් පළමුවන ශ්‍රේණියේ ගැටලූව අර්බුදයක් දක්වා වර්ධනය වී ඇත්තේ ඔවුන්ට මේ සැබෑ උවමනාව නොමැති නිසා බව පෙනේ.  මෙවැන්නක් නිර්මාණය වීමට පසුබිම සකස් වී ඇත්තේ, අවිද්‍යාත්ම්ක පාසල් වර්ගීකරණය පහසුකම් බෙදීයාමේ අසමතුලිතතාව මානව සම්පත් කළමනාකරණයේ ...

.!.- කිසිම දූෂණයක් නැහැ - අමාත්‍යාංශය විකට ජවනිකාවක... එසේනම්, 1 වසරට කප්පම් ඇයි? ඇතුල් වීමේ ගාස්තු ලෙස රු. 6500 ක් ගෙවීම ප‍්‍රතික්ෂේප කළ ගම්පොළ සහිරා විදුහලේ දෙමව්පියෙකු පාසල් පරිශ‍්‍රයේදී පහරදීමකට ලක්වූ බව ලංකාදීප පුවත් පතේ පළවූ ප‍්‍රවෘත්තියක දැක්වේ. පහර දෙනු ලැබූවකු පවසා තිබුණේ ඔහු නිසා පාසලට අවශ්‍ය මුදල් ලබාගත නොහැකි වූ බවයි. පාසල් සංවර්ධන සමිතිය විසින් අළුතින් පාසලට ඇතුළුවන සෑම 1 වසර සිසුවෙකුගෙන්ම රු.6500 ක් අය කිරීමට තීරණය කර ඇති බවයි, පෙනෙන්නට තිබෙන්්නේ. පහසුකම් ගාස්තු වශයෙන් රු. 36 ක් පමණක් අය කළ යුතු බවට උසස් අධිකාරීන් නියම කර තිබූ බවට අර්බුදයේ සිටින දෙමාපියා චෝදනාකරයි. අනෙක් පාසල් වල ඇතුළත් වීමේ ගාස්තු අය කිරීම කෙබඳු ද? ගම්පොළ ...