Colombo, 20 May, (Asiantribune.com):
The Minister of Higher Education Mr. S.B.Dissanayake
They will be given training in two batches with 1,000 students in the first batch and the balance 1,200 students in the second batch. Training for the first batch will commence on Monday the 23rd.
The Minister of Higher Education Mr. S.B.Dissanayake addressing a Media Conference held at the University Grants Commission said that the objective of providing this training is to ensure that students who pass out from the Universities in the future are disciplined, physically fit, knowledgeable about the society and the world, aware of modern technologies, capable of conflict resolution by themselves, find solutions and face the challenges facing the country, steer the development of the country and be exemplary to the future generation.
The Minister pointed out that due to misleading by certain sections, parents of many prospective students made enquiries and they have welcomed the proposed programme upon the nature and the objective of the programme were clarified to them.
He said that it is only in the security service establishment the necessary infrastructure facilities are available to provide such a large number of students and hence it has been decided to hold these training programmes in 28 Security Services Training Camps belonging to the tri-forces.
He said the training programme was initiated on a request made by the President to put a stop to the Graduates passing out and entering the market looking for employment and instead produce graduates who could contribute to research and technology development and be partners of making Sri Lanka a knowledge hub, which is one of the five sectors Sri Lanka is targeting to develop in its march to become the Wonder Nation of Asia.
The Minister pointed out that only 5% of the A/L students gets admission to the Universities and it is the cream of the cream who gets admission and it is the responsibility of the country to harness their talents and mould them as fruitful citizens of the nation.
He said that every University student from this year will be given a lap-top, a dongle, and University premises will be wi-fi zones so that the students themselves could perform their own research utilizing the Internet. The Minister said that from this year onwards ragging of new students will be completely banned and anyone found resorting to ragging will be dismissed from the Universities and the fear psychosis of the new entrants will be completely abolished.
Referring to the arrangements being made to allow foreign Universities to establish their branches in Sri Lanka, the Minister said that it will become compulsory for these Universities allocate 20% of seating to local students.
Mr. Dissanayake said that the President has allocated Rs. 200 Million for this programme and the Secretary to the Defense has also made available the facilities available in the Defense establishment to make this programme a success. He said that after the completion of this programme the students will be provided with training on English, Information Technology and Software usage.
The Minister further said that the training programme will be launched on the 23rd of this month from the Temple Trees under the chairmanship of President Mahinda Rajapaksa with about 300 students from the nearby training camps attending this function and allowing participation of the other students too through the e-link facility with other centres.
The Vice Chancellor of the Sri John Kotelawala Defense University Major General Milinda Peiris addressing the media conference explained that although the training programme will be conducted in the security services training camps it will not be a military training and military training cannot be obtained in a short period 3 weeks. He said that the programme has been tailored to inculcate discipline, etiquettes, interaction with the society etc covering 171 periods starting from 6.00 a.m. each morning. The Major General said that there will be separate accommodation facilities for male and female students and the course subjects will cover conflict resolutions, psychology, social etiquettes, personal health, time management, sports, leadership training, law and order etc.
Responding to a question the Major General and the Minister explained that the Muslim students will have the full liberty of attending to their five time prayers during the training period and there will be no strict dress code. They also informed that training for Tamil Medium students will be held at Kalutara and Rantembe.
Secretary to the Ministry Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratne, the former Vice Chancellor of the Jaffna University Prof. Mohandas, the Chairman of the University Grants Commission Professor Gamini Samaranayake also addressed the Media Conference.
- Asian Tribune -
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