BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

I read a news report that contained an address of Mr.Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the president of Sri Lanka, and reported that the president stated the country needs to build a system that looks for graduates to employ in the organizations than graduates are looking for jobs.  This statement directed a very good vision and stressed that many missions need to achieve the vision. The literal meaning of the statement may not applicable, but the message gave to the policy-makers was strong and expects a radical change in education policies in the country.

The mission relates to the vision is broader and the president stated before his election to the office in the last year that he will change education policies to make a country that educated people would not leave the country people who left come back. The vision has a strong relationship with education reforms that are stuck with bureaucrats either they do not know how to develop policies in the mission to achieve the vision or the bureaucrats are sabotaging vis a viz policy aims of the president or there is a problem with a shortage of funds to spend for policy development.  

The traditional university education aims at granting a degree to university students to use it end of the name and university students satisfied with the role of universities as the job vacancies in the economy were sufficient to absorb all graduates pass out in each year.  When the number of universities increased and student numbers increased to show that there are students to universities, but the quality of education and the quality of degree programs were neglected by the university authorities, and when students passed out after graduation it was a problem that university graduates had no jobs in the market. The issue has a positive relationship with economic growth and development. Although a heavyweight should be given to the issues in education policies economic issues are not free from the aggregate issue.

During the past 50 years, graduate unemployment became a political issue, and politicians of the country have been using graduate unemployment to mislead voters and politicians who used the issue to expand political power university level finding a solution to the problem when the party achieves the power of the country.  The best example is the election in 1970 and 1977. Two different political parties attracted to power in 1970 and 1977 and no party has developed policies to solve the unemployment problem of graduates.

Graduate unemployment in the country has been a problem related to education reforms, university authority would have taken steps to reform education to improve the quality of education that creates the demand for graduates in the job market. It needed collaboration with economic policymakers of both sides, and the activities of policymakers showed that they were working isolation and finally not a single side achieved objectives of policymaking.  Traditionally, university authorities did not believe that university education concerns with the development of knowledge, skills, quality, values, and applicability of knowledge, skills, and values in the workplace.

Since the late 1970s, university graduates in Sri Lanka had opportunities to embark on the job market in Sri Lanka as well as in other countries, but university authorities did not initiate programs that promote knowledge, skills, and values of graduates.  They haven’t promoted opportunities for graduates to communicate in various languages such as English and European languages like French German and Russian, and Asian languages such as Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, and others. Left political parties such as JVP created problems university education forcing authorities to close universities and Ragging used to promote students to leave university and go oversea for education.  These problems new university authorities and never proposed workable solutions to the government. Some members of university authorities were active members of JVP, who were interested in promoting the political philosophy at the cost of students destroying higher education in Sri Lanka.

There were negative attitudes towards skills learning and many mythical views on blue-collar jobs. Left political parties invaded universities and university authorities have been prevented to reform education and diversification of programs and university students used to achieve political purposes.

To achieve the expectation of Mr.Gotabaya Rajapaksa all universities should unite to work policy decisions. During the CONID 19 problems, it seemed that many students have gone overseas for various education programs, which have not quality and recognition.  They wasted parents’ money and foreign exchange reserves of the country.  As a person with experience in education, economic and Banking, and finance policy development, I would live to suggest the following policy actions in favor of the president’s expectation.

• Students in Grade 10 and 12 must be given internationally recognized vocational training level Certificate 1 and 2 while they are gaining  education in high schools. When students complete Grade 10 and 12 they will get two certificates that are grade 10 or 12 certificates in general education and vocational training certificates. The vocational training should be given high schools combining with technical and vocational institutions and one day of a week should be given to study vocational and technical skills as preferred by students.  Private tuitions must stop and students should be allowed to participate in general and vocational education. When students completed Grade 12 education, they can go to universities or technical colleges for studies whatever the area they like to study.   Vocational and technical education should be offered by technical-vocational institutions.  Students can gain theoretical education at schools from visiting teachers from TVET institutions, and practical training will gain from attending programs in TVET institutions. No student will missout on this tertiary education from this system.  This system will allow students to be competent in various languages and skills. 
• The universities should allow programs from National Advanced Certificate to Postgraduate level and those students, who completed diploma level studies and working in workplaces should be allowed to gain university education in after-hours and weekends. Ragging must be treated as criminal acts and those who engage in ragging must be given rigorous presentments.
• University education must be based on competency and research, and campus recruitments should be promoted to show jobs looking for graduates.
• Education is an investment in a country that is the most gainful investment and the government should not reluctant to invest 5% of total spending on education and training.
• The government needs to identify a list of vocational training in terms of demand for jobs and the list should be annually updated.  Students should be allowed to choose a program that they prefer, but not what parents want. Any vocational training program will be useful to doctors, engineers, computer programmers, researchers, and any person.