Letters to the Editor

• Pitfalls in the new Universities Bill 
• Clean up Moratuwa's Colombo 7
• Why should Sriyani pay this loan?
• Sur-price in zoo 
• Reforestation and the water flow
• Bank lotteries: a cause for concern
• Don't sow the seeds of religious disharmony 
• After trade mafia, another scandal in Jaffna? 

Pitfalls in the new Universities Bill

This was for two reasons. The first is that the draft repeats many sections in the previous Act, under which the whole university system has reached its present state, a state that is in urgent need of reform. Second, in many instances, what should be monitoring bodies turn out to be nothing but rubber stamps, because of the way they are constituted and also because mechanisms for monitoring are not clearly spelt out. In short, where radical reform is needed, what we have is mere tinkering with the system.

I should add that there is one exception to this — the almost revolutionary provision that universities will have a common academic year which begins in October. If this is adhered to, one might even say the whole new bill is worthwhile. However, it seems that a great opportunity for change is being squandered, because of a failure to conceptualise.

Perhaps the most important other innovation in the bill is the setting up of an 'Accreditation and Quality Assurance Council'. This implies that the UGC is incapable of assuring quality. Why is this the case? That is what should have been considered, not recourse to another body. Indeed I am reminded of the way in which a National Institute of Education was set up when the Education Ministry was not producing the goods, to take on some of its responsibilities. 

When the NIE failed to reform the system, a National Education Commission was set up to do the job. When that seemed to be failing, a Presidential Task Force on Reform was appointed.

But to go back to the Quality Council. The first problem is that it is the same appointing authority — the President — who appoints members to both the Quality Council and the UGC and that no guidelines are given for the appointments. 

Second, none of the members of these bodies, UGC or Quality Council, is given any specific responsibility. The result, as is clear from what has happened in all such bodies in the past, is that consensus is quickly reached on all important matters, generally as dictated by the chairman, who alone seems responsible for policy and practice. Personality clashes or problems may lead to occasional argument generally on minor points, but informed decision-making by all members collectively is not the norm.

Rather given what seems present priorities — for instance increasing the employability of graduates in an open economy, ensuring efficiency and value for money when state resources are being utilised, preventing corruption, encouraging fund raising etc. — it would be more sensible to make appointments to the UGC based on these requirements. 

All those appointed then would participate more meaningfully both through individual initiatives and collegiate decision-making. One or two members entrusted with quality assurance, required to report regularly after periodic inspection, able to convince their colleagues of remedial measures to be taken, would be much more practical than setting up yet another part- time body that would have to work in conjunction with the UGC.

Again, the draft act does not specify how resources should be allocated and how modifications will be made in this, on the basis of performance. If that is not done, there is no point in talking about quality. The wastage of resources in recent years, when institutions and faculties have multiplied without any reference to quantifiable output, has obviously not brought home any lessons.

I hasten to add that this is not the fault of the current UGC since often political considerations have prompted wasteful decisions. But surely this is a reason for trying to move politics, and purely political appointees, out of the system. Instead these seem to have been entrenched further, with sweeping powers to the Minister and the President without any guidelines as to how these should be exercised and monitored.

The situation is indeed similar to that prescribed for individual universities. The governing body, the council, is to consist as at present of various university officials plus outsiders appointed by the commission from among persons who have rendered distinguished service in educational, professional, commercial, industrial, scientific or administrative spheres. The outsiders are to be in a majority, which means, given the number of universities in the country, there are more than a hundred such people who are supposed to be responsible for our universities. Of course, what happens in practice, in particular for the more distant universities which would obviously need more careful governance, is that council members are appointed on the recommendation of the vice chancellor. Thus what should be a governing body could become a rubber stamp.

In practice, as far as I have been able to note the functioning of such a council, a few members hardly ever attend, and since these are the more distinguished they are never deemed to have vacated their positions. Others come but do not participate at all in the meetings. A few attend regularly and try to contribute, but since their role is not clear, and the information they have is limited, they can do little that is constructive. A very few sit on various committees and do more but even they end up acquiescing when their recommendations are ignored in short. Councils are generally purely decorative bodies.

What would be more practical is to specify the roles of particular council members, so that there would, for instance, be experts in accounting or in law, or in management who would be responsible for those areas and be able to supervise the functioning of the university more knowledgeably.

It would also make sense and save reams of paper, to remove functions like approval of examiners or courses of study from the council and leave these to the senate, which even at present makes decisions. In short a much smaller council with real power in specific areas of expertise would do more to improve our universities.

Correspondingly, it would make sense for the UGC to nominate one of its own to every university council, since this would provide an alternative source of authority. However good a vice chancellor may be, absolute power is always dangerous, and therefore ensuring a pluralistic outlook is desirable. Ensuring an individual identity for outside members of the council would help with this. So too would the allocation of specific responsibilities to the university officers who sit on the council, so that they too would participate in the supervision of the administrative cadre instead of leaving all that to just one individual. Thus the university council too could become a collegiate body, in which a broader and deeper sense of responsibility would develop.

The draft act, just like the old, creates tiers of ostensible responsibility while actually centralising power more thoroughly. Rather what should be sought is more autonomy, for departments and faculties, with a clear-cut reporting and monitoring system that ensures quick responses and remedial action. Instead of department heads being appointed by the vice chancellor, they should be elected by the department but they would have to prepare regular work plans that the faculty would check. Deans of faculties would be required to do the same. 

In the administrative section similar requirements would be in place, to be supervised by university officers who would then report to the senate or the council as appropriate. Council members would be available to them as resource persons to strengthen the link between the university system and the world of work outside.

Regular reports, not only the corporate plans envisaged but also progress reports, would be submitted to the UGC which would also be able to assess progress independently through its appointees to the university councils.

Finally, the UGC, too, would be responsible, not only to a minister or to the President, but to society at large. This would be achieved by appointments to the UGC being based on particular constituencies, and not simply at the discretion of a political authority. 

Universities, like other institutions, belong to the people, not to politicians. In an age of pluralism the draft act should be based on that principle, not the monolithic authoritarianism that has produced such poor results in the past.

Rajiva Wijesinha
Professor of Languages,
Sabaragamuwa University

Clean up Moratuwa's Colombo 7

Today, however, the same cannot be said of Lunawa. Unplanned development has caused chaos. Logs are unloaded for a timber business at the main junction and stacked on the road, causing a major inconvenience to the public. The environs of the bridge and railway station have been taken over by drug and kasippu mudalalis and there are unauthorised buildings, which have even been given water and electricity connections. How is this possible on a railway reservation?

What's more, the lagoon, which was a thing of beauty and which provided a source of income for many fishermen of the area, is now a breeding ground for mosquitoes. We believe there was a World Bank project to rehabilitate the lagoon and provide effluent plants for every industry that discharges its waste there. But we are yet to see any results. The residents of Moratuwa hope the day will soon come when the powers that be will ensure a crime and corruption-free society.

H. Jayasekera
Moratuwa

Why should Sriyani pay this loan?

The period of repayment is nine years. It appears the loan has been granted by a private bank under a long-term scheme. If this is the case, the bank is supposed to obtain an insurance policy to cover the loan amount in case of death or permanent disability of the applicant. This is called the mortgage-reducing policy.

I believe that Sriyani, wife of Padmasiri, need not pay the principal amount or any interest to the bank. If the bank has not obtained an insurance cover, it is a lapse on its part and Sriyani should not be held responsible. If the family members are not aware of it, the bank should be able to put things right.

M.H.M. Azmi
Colombo

Sur-price in zoo

When I returned the empty bottles hoping to get back the deposits, I was told that those were the prices charged inside the zoo. I did not argue with them as it would have been a waste of time.

Later, when I checked the prices of some items in other stalls inside the zoo I couldn't believe my ears. One snack bar refused to give unchilled drinks as they couldn't charge high prices. 

Why are the zoo authorities allowing blackmarket rates and also the fleecing of unsuspecting visitors?

JayalathWickramasinghe
Eheliyagoda

Reforestation and the water flow

It is indeed ironical that when 50 years ago, I led a massive reforestation drive to clothe these barren lands with exotics such as eucalyptus, cypress, pinus etc., there were protests by persons with ulterior motives and those with half-baked ideas, that planting trees would cause the drying up of streams! Light appears to have dawned now.

We stood our ground against all the vote-catching and other protests — unlike the coal-fired plant, which has, thanks to the Catholic Church, been abandoned in the "march of folly''.

It was recently reported that the Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council had decided to cut down all pinus plantations. Please think twice before you leap into folly for whatever reason.

W.R.H. Perera
Former Conservator of Forests and Chairman of State Timber Corporation

Bank lotteries: a cause for concern

The reason for other banks to depend on lotteries is understandable. They have no way of keeping customers from moving to other commercial banks.

But there seems to be no such justification for the People's Bank.

There is also an unseen side to bank lotteries. Of hundreds of thousands customers, only a small number are rewarded. Even from among them, only the first three prize winners will get anything worth talking about. Here too the winners can easily be manipulated as seen from a recent case where the English and Sinhala papers gave different names as winners of the same lottery. 

Meanwhile, the expenses connected with a lottery are for publicity and do not benefit customers. If the objective is to get more customers and deposits the banks should pay a higher rate of interest and also upgrade the service.

The Central Bank should investigate the running of bank lotteries.

K.L. Piyatissa
Nawala

Don't sow the seeds of religious disharmony

The irony is that even today a majority of people — whether they are Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslims — continue to live in harmony, but a minority of extremists from both sides keep the fires of enmity burning.

We Sri Lankans have suffered enough from this so-called ethnic issue. We have been fortunate so far where religion is concerned. Though the country is represented by all the major religions in the world, conflict between religions is rarely seen. In this context it is indeed a black day for the country when a bank, hitherto highly regarded, decided to drag religious differences to a commercial dispute which should be resolved according to the law.

We saw the sad spectacle of young Buddhist monks being manipulated to attend a meeting of shareholders at the BMICH. I spoke to one such monk, who was totally ignorant of the issue but had joined the others since he had been made to understand that the meeting was to safeguard Buddhism in the country. 

I hope and pray that sanity will prevail and appeal to those people who organise such protests not to sow the seeds of religious disharmony.

Asanka Wijeratne
Kandy

After trade mafia, another scandal in Jaffna?

Thank you for the exclusive report, "Trade mafia in Jaffna".

Now, in Jaffna there is a slump in the construction industry, which is considered vital for development. There are many contractors who are authorised by the government, but not many jobs owing to malpractices.

For reasons unknown, public institutions do not spend money through the usual tender channels. They find excuses to avoid the tender system as well as supervision by the authorities.

V. Chandrabalan
Kokuvil

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