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SAITM crisis: KDU operation successful
View(s):The long drawn controversy over the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) medical degree was apparently settled with Parliament passing the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (Special Provisions) Act which lays down the national policy relating to the admission of students registered with SAITM to the KDU .
Most stakeholders said they were satisfied with the KDU solution. On Wednesday, Parliament approved the bill which vests powers with the KDU to admit those students who have obtained basic qualifications from among the students who have registered with the SAITM from September 15, 2009 to May 15 2017. It allows them to follow the study programme leading to the award of the KDU’s MBBS Degree.
Inter University Students Federation Convener Lahiru Weerasekara said they were satisfied with the KDU solution and considered it a victory of sorts, as SAITM would cease to exist. He, however, said this should be the last batch or group to be absorbed into the KDU for medicine from private medical colleges. “If this act allows KDU to continue taking in students in the future from various places, we will oppose it,” he said.
He also said they objected to some aspects of the new law. “The KDU has to offer the degree to these students under the purview of the SLMC, and not in the military manner the defence university offers it to its own students,” he said. The KDU administration cannot be the sole decider of how the degree should be awarded to these students. Also the Government should issue a gazette declaring that SAITM would be abolished immediately.”
Dr. Nimal Karunasiri, a media spokesperson for the Parents Union of Medical Students (state universities), said they too had no objections to the KDU solution although it was not best solution, but they had no option now. However, he said they were opposed to the minimum requirements on the KDU amendment (three ‘S’ grades).
The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) also said it would not object to the solution as the crisis had dragged on for too long and the doctors had agreed that this was a fair solution.
GMOA Secretary Dr. Haritha Aluthge said they were satisfied with the entry requirements as it was the University Grants Commission’s requirements. However, he said the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) had to make its observations as ultimately it was the SLMC that would approve the degree.
Meanwhile the SAITM Student Action Committee (SACS) and the SAITM Parents’ Association also said they were pleased with the solution. SACS Convener Shanaka De Saram said they were thankful to the President, the Higher Education Minister and other officials who worked together to find the solution.
Gemunu Wijeratne, President of the SAITM Parents Association, described the solution as excellent. Meanwhile there were some who oppose the KDU solution. Dr. Sankalpa Marasinghe, a doctor at the De Soysa Maternity Hospital, said the KDU solution would undermine the purpose for which the KDU was set up.
“The SLMC may recognise these SAITM students’ KDU degree due to political pressure, but if someone complains to the General Medical Council or another foreign body, they will not. Nowhere in the world can you obtain a degree from one university after following an entirely different course of study elsewhere..”
Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, a sociology professor at the Open University, said she opposed the KDU solution because civilian education should not be under the authority of the military. She said she was against private education in general adding, ‘education should not be sold as a commodity.’
However, Neville D. Perera, a senior professor of urology at the University of Colombo, said he believed private medical education was important and should be allowed as long as it was regulated. “Many potentially brilliant students have dropped out because of the current Z score system and the district quota system. Therefore, they go abroad to unexamined institutes. It is important to have our own private medical college system which should be monitored by the Government and the relevant authorities,” he said.