Technical education to the forefront:

Producing a skilled youth force - the aim

By Uditha KUMARASINGHE

Youth Affairs and Skills Development Minister Dullas Allahapperuma said President Mahinda Rajapaksa is the only leader who openly challenged the theory adopted by the West and said terrorism can be defeated through military means.

The President through his own theory eradicated terrorism and is an example to the entire world. The Minister in an interview with the Sunday Observer said at present the West was faced with a severe problem where the theory they adopted over the past two decades to intervene into the internal affairs of other countries has proved futile in the eyes of the world. Now the West is not in a position to tell conflict affected countries their theory anymore.

The Minister said media freedom is the most accessible instrument that the Opposition can take into their hands and also sell to the West. When a journalist or media institution is faced with some problem, it has become the practice of the Opposition to immediately put that blame on the Government.

The trend created in our country is to take up any rising issue and use it to attack the Government. This shows the primitive nature of Sri Lankan politics. We may also have acted in a similar manner when we were in the Opposition. The Government and the Opposition have not been able to rally round under a national agenda. If we take our neighbouring country, India, except for a few extremists like Viko, all political parties such as the Congress Party and Bharathiya Janatha Party act in a very responsible manner. The motherland has become number one in their agenda.

Q:We have engineers and workers. But we don’t have artisans and skilled workmen to fill the middle level technical gap. What are the schemes launched by your Ministry to solve this problem?

A: Actually nearly 1100 or 1200 engineers pass out from three universities annually. But in comparison to this only 1100 middle level engineers pass out every year. The accepted theory in that the engineering, science ratio is five to one. It means there should be five middle level engineers for every qualified engineer. Unfortunately this ratio in Sri Lanka is one to one.

The next stage is craftsmen, this ratio is 20 to one. Unfortunately, the ratio of 1-5-20 does not operate in Sri Lanka. There is a problem regarding the second and third sectors in this field. This is the fault of our tertiary education system. This is not a problem of the Government or the Minister. All former governments are responsible for this. However, Colonial rulers are out of this, because they realised their importance. They established the Maradana Technical College in 1893 as they realized the importance of tertiary education. But the governments that came after them failed to take the next step. Today we are experiencing repercussions due to shortcomings of these tertiary and vocational education policies.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has also held the Vocational Training Ministerial portfolio. It was during his time, vocational and technical education which was confined to technical colleges in urban areas were brought to rural level through the Vocational Training Authority (VTA). The VTA bill was the maiden bill presented by the People’s Alliance Government which came to power in 1994.

The President has a vast understanding about these sectors. Therefore the government has launched a series of systematic programs to fill the gap of middle level engineers and other technicians below that level.

We should also extend our gratitude to all Ministers who held this portfolio in their attempt to develop this sector. At present we have been able to diagnose what is wrong. There is no need to provide treatment for the symptoms. We have commenced treatment for the malady.

Q:How are you going to harness youth skills to the task of national development?

A: Our education, political and economic systems had focused attention only on university education. This is one of the biggest mistakes made in our history.

Former rulers and governments did not pay attention to other education sectors. When we see our balance sheet as a country, which has centred on university based education and political system, 340,000 students are admitted to grade one in January every year. Of them nearly 21,000 students are qualified to enter universities.

Then what will happen to the balance 321,000 students? As a percentage, only 5 or 6 percent are qualified to enter universities. Then what is the destiny of the rest. This is the biggest social problem we face today. As a result of university centred education system, white collar jobs were highly recognized while other jobs were undermined by branding them as blue collar jobs.

As a result, the entire attention of the governments, teachers and parents were focused on these white collar jobs. Therefore technical and vocational training sectors suffered a setback with no social recognition. Today we are compelled to bring foreign labour at cheap rates even to reap the paddy harvest. This is due to shortcomings of our plans implemented in the past. The intention of the President and the Government is to produce a skilled Sri Lankan youth force.

That skilled youth force will not only target the local market but also target the international market. We are going to find Sri Lankan skilled youth. We have already taken a series of decisions regarding this.

The President as the Finance Minister has given leadership to these policies and made necessary financial allocations to implement them. I am confident that we would be able to successfully move forward in our journey to find Sri Lankan skilled youth and Sri Lankan technology within the next few years.

Q: There is the Youth Parliament and numerous youth development priorities. Should we not have a National Youth Policy to promote the interest of the youth population?

A: We have already formulated the initial draft of this National Youth Policy. The maiden debate of the Youth Parliament was conducted on this youth policy to obtain the views of youth representatives. We hope to submit the youth policy to a Parliamentary Select Committee next month. We intend to discuss with all political parties the proposed youth policy. After submitting this National Youth Policy to Cabinet and Parliament, we hope to realise its objective during this International Year of Youth.

Q: We had the experience of two youth insurrections which resulted in the deaths of thousands of youth. The question of accommodating graduates passing out every year from universities is a burning issue. What steps has your Ministry taken to resolve the grievances of the youth?

A: We accept this as a challenge. But we are not ready to see this problem from the popular political definition called ‘youth unrest’. We don’t agree with the word ‘youth unrest’. That was a fault of the policies or the angle we looked at this problem.

Our literacy rate is 94.2 percent. This is the literacy rate maintained by most developed regions in the world.

Our position regarding health indexes is also similar when compared with most developed regions. Then a question arises as a country which has reached literacy and health levels of developed regions, why have we come down in economic indexes? Sri Lanka is the only model which has faced this situation. Actually this is a very distorted situation created within the country.

The reason is that we have not formulated our economic indexes to suit our education and health indexes. This is the biggest mistake made during our history. Sri Lanka is the only role model in the world to distort the situation. This cannot happen any more.

In Sri Lanka, five percent of children enter universities, while 16 percent go for technical and vocational education. The President has given us a target to bring this 16 percent to 40 percent by 2015. We have been given a target to reach to levels maintained by developed nations on tertiary education by 2015. We have prepared a road map to reach this target. In addition, the restrictions on universities will be removed by increasing the number of students enter universities. This would help to provide the opportunity to nearly 20 percent of children to enter into universities.

As the Minister in collaboration with my Deputy Minister and the institutions come under the purview of my Ministry, I take the challenge of providing technical and vocational education to 40 percent of school going children by 2015.

Otherwise Dullas Allahapperuma will be an unsuccessful politician. If I could not fulfill that task, I will come before the public in 2015 and say I am an unsuccessful politician as I have not been able to fulfill the responsibility entrusted upon me. I am ready to accept this challenge. This is the ‘Wonder of Asia’. If the number of university entrants are increased up to 20 percent and the number of students enter into technical and vocational education increase to 40 percent, that will be the wonder of Asia.

Q: The rising cost of living and youth unemployment are vital issues affecting the people. Apart from the patchwork remedies is there a coordinated and integrated plan to resolve this problem?

A: Though the cost of living issue is there, we can’t say unemployment has become a major issue. At present unemployment is below eight percent. Therefore we are in a very good position to bring down unemployment when compared with other countries in the region. Definitely the Government has decided to go for a coordinated program to address this issue. We can’t perform our duties alone. Under the Mahinda Chinthana policy framework, each Ministry has been given a guideline.

Therefore there can’t be various concepts formulated by Ministers on their own to carry out functions of that Ministry. According to the Mahinda Chintana subjects have been devolved among Ministries. Therefore decisions have to be taken by Ministries collectively, for example, decisions are taken jointly by the Education Ministry and Youth Affairs Ministry.

We have taken three major decisions to provide more technical and vocational training opportunities to youth. One is to propose not to issue school leaving certificate to students who are about to leave school. We are of the view that school leaving certificates should be issued to a student after he gains a certificate from a vocational or technical training institute.

This would pave the way for each student to gain some sort of technical or vocational training. At present, we are also discussing to introduce technology as a compulsory subject for the G.C.E. Ordinary Level. The third decision is to request to introduce new subject streams of technology for the G.C.E. Advanced Level. At present, we have only three subject streams of Arts, Commerce and Science. We propose to introduce a new stream called technology. The Education and Youth Affairs Ministries have agreed to comply. We hope we would be able to introduce this stream next year.

One of the reasons which led to tertiary education being unsuccessful, is that vocational training is introduced to children after they become dropouts. If you take a leaflet issued by the Vocational Training Authority, it says ‘for the country’s children who failed to gain university admission’.

Once we give that impression to children, we indicate an unfortunate situation. This is wrong. In developed countries, vocational training is given to children in the education system itself.

But we are doing just the opposite. Focussing attention on technological subjects while being in school would lay a solid foundation to the journey commenced by the ministry to create a skilled Sri Lankan youth.

Q:Prominent professionals, civic organisations and many others allege there is no media freedom in the country while the Government point blankly refutes such allegations. What are your independent views on this as a media personality?

A:We should refute theallegation levelled that there is no media freedom in the country, this is very clear if anybody reads the weekend newspapers.

But certain local and international organisations attempt to paste this label based due to certain incidents that have occurred in some areas where heavy fighting was conducted against terrorists.

The editor of the Udayan newspaper has been attacked recently.

Once this incident was happened, it’s the responsibility of the government to apprehend the culprits. There was a protest to show the world that there was no media freedom in Sri Lanka. I was in the 1994 Government as well. Those who imposed various restrictions to suppress media freedom those days, get to the streets now and clamour for media freedom. I had to face to a severe criticism from the then President and the Media Minister at that time because I went to the funeral of a journalist of a tabloid newspaper who had been killed. That was the situation which prevailed those days. When Opposition politicians tie black straps against the suppression of the media, I would like to ask them how many journalists were killed during the regime of their Governments?

The Media clashing with the Governments was a common phenomenon that was witnessed over the past three decades.

Even today we can see it was due to editor of the Udayan newspaper being assaulted. I don’t agree with the statement made that the President or the government have violated media freedom.

As a policy, I admit the fact that we should have media freedom and transparency maintained by developed countries. When a journalist or a media institution faces an incident or a problem, it has become the practice of the Opposition to put that blame on the Government.

The ‘News of the World’ which is one of the oldest tabloid newspapers in England, was closed due to an incident of telephone hacking.

The journalist who disclosed this information had been killed in a secret manner. But any civic organisation in England did not point fingers at the British Government regarding this killing.

What would have been the situation here, if this kind of incident had taken place in Sri Lanka? The Opposition in Sri Lanka always tries to take up any incident as a political weapon to cover up their political bankruptcy. Media freedom is the easiest instrument that they can take into their hands and sell to the West.

Q: The allegation of bribery, corruption, financial indiscipline and abuse of power are mounting. Your comments?

A: If this kind of allegation is levelled,it should be discussed in Parliament and with the institutions concerned. We should not be scared of it. If any fraud has been taken place in my Ministry, as a state owned newspaper the Sunday Observer should criticise these shortcomings.

It is vital for the future well-being of society and you should not hesitate to do so. As politicians, we should not be angry about such criticism, but levelling allegations has become a political fashion.

The Opposition made a big noise on THE MIG deal, three years ago. Two weekend newspapers criticised and levelled serious allegations on the Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Government for the deal.

This issue became one of the main slogans of the Opposition and for two days a Parliament debate was conducted regarding it.

Finally the Opposition asked for a Parliamentary Select Committee on this deal. This select committee met four times where I too was a member. I would like to say this with responsibility no UNP MP participated in these select committee meetings, including the UNP MP who had signed that motion by asking for a select committee.

As I was a member, I would like to ask what is the purpose of continuing this select committee even without the MPs who requested to appoint it? We can see various slogans on bribery and corruption taken up by Opposition political parties as a ‘political fashion’ to cover up their political bankruptcy. I think we may also act like this when we are in the Opposition. This shows the primitive nature of Sri Lankan politics. The trend created in our country is to take up any rising issue and use it to attack the Government. Otherwise the Government and the Opposition do not rally round under a national agenda.

If we take our neighbouring country India as an example, except few extremists like Viko, the Congress Party or Barathiya Janatha act in a very responsible manner. Their motherland India is the number one in their agenda. I don’t make this complaint only to the UNP or the JVP. We have also acted in this same manner when we were in the Opposition.

Q: Strictly speaking there are grievances suffered by Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities alike. Other than these are there any special grievances of the Tamils or any rights that have been denied to them.

A: There are problems specified only for Tamil speaking people. According to the Constitution, the Tamil language is a national language.

There are some plantation areas in the Matara district where the Tamil people are living. But they can’t go to the Akuressa post office and get their work done in Tamil.

We have to accept this. Agriculture in Jaffna was seriously hampered due to the adverse effect of the Open Economy.

There are certain problems that have arisen due to steps taken to introduce the Sinhala only language policy in 1956.

As a result the Tamil language was not recognised as an official language and due priority was not given to the English language. Being in Colombo or the South if we say there is no such problem, it’s wrong.

This is my personal view. Actually Tamils face this problem when they interact with the majority community. In our history, some injustice has been made to the Tamil people due to the result of our language policy, so there are shortcomings.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing Parliament on May 19, 2009 told the nation ‘from today there is no majority community or minority community in the country’.

Imagine if the then Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake made this statement from the Independence Square when independence was declared to Sri Lanka on February 04, 1948, what would have been the situation in our country today? We can see the negative impact created due to this majority and minority concept. It has culturally hurt the feelings of the people. We have not acted with a broad vision to address this issue.

If proper policy decisions were taken in the past, other segments of the society would have also been able to learn the English language. We also did not learn English as it was a colonial language.

That was the impression given to us even by our political gurus. But the political leaders who denied the English language to the masses, sent their children to Europe to teach them English. As a result, several generations of our Sinhala and Tamil society had face social injustice.

We can’t measure it in numbers as it comes from generations from the 1960s. Projects should be formulated to get the contribution of Tamil speaking people into mainstream politics.

Q: The Government is conducting negotiations to seek a solution to the problems faced by the Tamil people. It appears that some Tamil leaders are pursuing the LTTE agenda. Some have openly talked of self determination which invariably leads to separatism. Can the Government satisfy all these factions and seek a solution to the problem?

A: What was the message given by Northern Local Government Election results? The Tamil community in the North have selected the TNA as their main representative. In addition, Tamils in the north have selected the UPFA and the TULF as their second and third representative.

This is the genuine choice of the Tamil people. We have to accept this reality. The President respects that Jaffna is the cultural hub of the Tamil people.

All other former leaders challenged this. But President Mahinda Rajapaksa is not like that. It is true that some TNA Parliamentarians spoke about a separate state and some of them were in favour of the LTTE. But all that is history. Today, we speak about the future. At present there is no LTTE ideologically or physically. We have removed all the weeds in our garden, but we should grow ‘flower plants’ before the next rain comes. Otherwise the weeds may rise again.

Therefore we have the responsibility of growing ‘flower plants’ before the next rainy season. If we don’t fulfill that task, some external forces may try to find out weeds in our garden. We have the responsibility of cleaning and beautifying our garden.

I believe the ongoing discussions between the Government and the TNA would help to minimise the gap.

Q: That Sri Lanka defeated terrorism is a wake-up call to other countries fighting terrorism, on a global scale. Why should five star western democracies try to ‘prosecute’ Sri Lanka for fulfilling what they cannot?

A: These Western countries had created their own theory to sort out their internal problems and conflicts.

That theory was that a civil war in a country cannot end by military means. Each university in the West teaches this theory as new subjects such as conflict resolution, conflict management and conflict transformation.

The basis of this theory is that an internal problem of a country should be settled through negotiations not through war. They did not even call those who have engaged in terrorist activities as terrorists.

They were introduced as rebellions. These Western countries did not use the word terrorism and used the word ‘conflict’ or ‘crisis’. They applied this theory to all the countries which faced such internal conflicts including Sri Lanka.

Even our former leaders like R. Premadasa, Chandrika Kumaratunga and Ranil Wickremesinghe accepted this theory.

The argument put forward by these Western countries was that our internal conflict cannot be resolved through war and it can only be settled through negotiations.

They said there should be a win-win situation. As a result of accepting this argument the Ranil Wickremesinghe Government, and the media also introduced ‘Prabhakaran’ as Mr. Prabhakaran.

All the countries which accepted this theory was legally divided into two. Sudan was the last country which was divided in this manner. Attempts were made to divide even our country under this theory.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa is the only leader in the world who challenged this Western theory. He openly told the entire world that he does not accept this theory.

The President said the terrorist problem in Sri Lanka can be solved through military means. This is the difference between President Rajapaksa and other world leaders.

The President through his own theory eradicated terrorism in Sri Lanka and showing an example to the entire world. Can the West now tell a conflict affected country to adopt this theory or teach this subject in their universities anymore? If a student questions a lecturer as to what happened in Sri Lanka? He will have to close his book and go. This is a situation created due to the attempt made by the President to break a theory which was followed by the West over the past 20 years.

Q: Channel 4 has invoked the bogy of ‘Killing Fields’ of Sri Lanka. The British mass media has stooped to the meanest level having nakedly flouted the ethics of journalism. Should not the Government launch its publicity blitz to put an end to these nasty practices?

A: Definitely. The Defence Ministry has already commenced its publicity blitz to counter the “Killing Fields” film. The visuals created by the Defence Ministry have clearly proved that this is a fabricated video documentary.

At present Channel 4 plays the same role as that played by Tamil Selvam to promote the concept of separatism. But as a Government we have the responsibility to explain this situation to the world logically and scientifically. Q: Politicians always refer to a “conspiracy” theory. Is there an organised conspiracy to dislodge this Government?

A: Certainly. As I mentioned earlier, this conspiracy comes as a result of the collapse the theory followed by the West. I can state with responsibility that some foreign embassies directly involved and even provided money to defeat the President when he first contested the Presidential Election in 2005. This conspiracy has been hatched as the President does not bow down to them or accept their theory. There may be shortcomings in a our foreign policies. We have to rectify them. But we should not provide room for the conspiracy launched to undermine our humanitarian operation which provided a new example to the entire world.

Q: Should not the main Opposition share the burden of undue pressure exerted on Sri Lanka by various international forces?

A: This is a shortcoming of our political culture. We have also acted in the same manner when we were in the Opposition. All former Governments and the Opposition did not take up the national agenda. Unfortunately the present Opposition is also going on the same path followed by the former Opposition. This is a common disease affecting the Opposition. We were also suffering from this same disease when we were in the Opposition.

Q: Will the Opposition rise from its slumber and play its legitimate role in the interests of the country?

A: I can’t give an assurance about it. Because the crisis in the main Opposition UNP is the number one, two and three in their agenda.

Who is going to be the UNP’s National Organiser and Leader were the main slogans of UNP’s election campaign conducted at the recently concluded Local Government polls. At present they are fighting problems in their own house.