Sudden removal of professionals causes ...:

Stir in education

Manjula Fernando

Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam	Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri	Secretary, Ministry of Education, W. M. Bandusena	Mahinda Jayasinghe

The sudden removal of professionals in the National Institute of Education (NIE) Governing Council, a move independent observers dubbed unethical and arbitrary, questions the good governance policies of the Education Ministry.

Late last week, frantic efforts were made at the Education Ministry to find 'fitting personalities' to fill the vacant seats, with four names being proposed so far.

The officials argue, the minister is in fact empowered to appoint and dismiss eight of the members in the 12 member NIE Council, excluding the four ex-officio members - the Education Ministry Secretary, NIE Director General and a representative each from the Treasury and the Higher Education Ministry.

A spokesperson at the NIE Director General's office said, they haven't received a 'definite list' nominating new members to the Council from the Ministry, yet.

The NIE Director General (DG) is the Chief Executive Officer of the Council and is directly responsible to the council for the efficient functioning of the Institute. The Secretary of the Ministry of Education is the Chief Accounting Officer and Chairman of the Council.

Although the Minister was empowered to appoint and remove the Members of the Council, the arbitrary manner in which the dismissal took place is being criticized in the academia. The Council members were taken by surprise when they were handed the letter by the Education Ministry Secretary, issued on the instructions of the Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam. It announced the unceremonious removal of the university academics, some of whom were Goliaths behind the rainbow revolution that crowned the good governance government.

The NIE Council is the supreme governing body of the Institute, and is vested with the administration, management and control of the affairs of the NIE. The Academic Affairs Board of the NIE which decides on the standards, contents, curricula and evaluation process of academic programs undertaken by the Institute, functions under the Council.

The council members were leading a campaign to reform the NIE structure at the time they were sacked without any given reason. They were demanding critical changes to revamp the entire school education sector which was a long felt need. Apparently, their call did not go down well with the education big wigs who saw them as a bunch of trouble makers. The former members said, the rigid attitude of the DG was the main cause for dissent. The council, appointed in April 2015 was dysfunctional since December last year.

By the time they have had six meetings in all. The removal letter which said, 'their services were no longer needed' did not give specific reasons for the sudden action nor did it say that the council members have broken any rules.

But a subsequent press release issued by the Education Ministry Media Unit gave some explanation.

The Ministry release signed by the media secretary stated, "The government was making a mammoth effort to transform the school education sector to improve its standard and relevance for which the NIE must play a central role.

But of late due to internal strife and disputes among members of the council, the NIE failed to fulfil its expected objectives. "

It justified the Minister's action that he had no other option but to resort to this arbitrary decision, in spite of the fact that it was undemocratic and unethical.

The Minister later criticised, saying , some members were leaking the internal issues and matters discussed at council meetings to the media. He charged, some former members on the Governing Council of the NIE had violated both the NIE Act and collective responsibility as Council Members. (The Sunday Times July 31) However, the NIE Act did not bind the council members, who are independent academics, to an oath of secrecy. Besides, with the Right to Information Act now securely in place, there is all the more reason to publicly discuss matters of public interest, the academics argued. Yet, some of the legislators and bureaucrats seemed reluctant to accept the laws upholding people's right to know and had forgotten that the RTI was a piece of legislation fully sponsored by the government.

Meanwhile, a former council member among those axed, Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri contradicted the reasons listed by the Education authorities for their removal. Prof Jayadewa Uyangoda, Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri, Prof. W. D. W. Jayathilaka and Prof. D. S. Epitawatta who served on the Council received the letters of removal from the Education Secretary.

Dr Devasiri said: Quote, "It is absolute nonsense. I cannot understand the logic behind that letter. We could not believe that the Secretary would issue a letter like this. In fact, it was between him and the Director General that there was a verbal barrage at the last council meeting in December.

"It is also false to say there were disagreements between the council members. We were collectively against the way the DG handled the issue, while the claims that the members behaved in an unruly manner were fabricated.

"The actual reason for their removal is their call for sweeping reforms within the NIE and the entire education sector. We need to revisit the entire functioning of the NIE. Those who enjoy various privileges in the system are threatened, and fear that they will lose their perks - therefore they stood in the way to block their plans. "We were not political loyalists, hence it was easy to sacrifice us.

"There were issues in the Grade Ten English medium curriculum, the way the secondary school history syllabus is being revised and the manner in which finances at the NIE are handled, violating the principles of good governance. We have written to the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe highlighting these concerns in May this year.

"Among the issues raised are, the dependency of the entire school education on three exams - Grade Five Scholarship, GCE Ordinary Level and Advanced Level- the dominance of the tuition industry, the huge disparity and inequality among state schools, as well as the financial burden on parents to educate their children. "Since the appointment of the new Council members in April 2015, we have been raising one issue after another calling for reforms and capacity building within the NIE. Prof. Uyangoda is an eminent academic, the services of such people are vital to the NIE. The government must try to tap the best available expertise here.

"Whatever the issues raised at the Council, were done so with substantial evidence and we are not speaking like politicians.

"The former DG Gunapala Nanayakkara was removed by the Education Minister as a result of these calls and subsequently the Council members were having disagreements with the present Acting DG.

"Instead of finding a proper solution, the Ministry seems to have resorted to the easy way out"-Unquote General Secretary of the Ceylon Teachers' Services Union Mahinda Jayasinghe said, although the Minister enjoyed powers to remove any council member, it should not be the way a good governance government behaves. There should have been a proper inquiry first to see if they violated any rules and caused any harm to the NIE.

Jayasinghe said, by the Minister's actions it was apparent that he despised dissenting views and added that they were keeping a close watch over the developments with a view to retaliate if the Ministry continued to suppress their voice.

An official at the Director General's office on Thursday said, there was no 'definite list' from the Ministry to appoint the new council members, stressing that the Minister had not done anything out of the book.

"The action to remove them was within his powers," she stressed, adding that the Council anyway, had not met for six months since January this year.

The last meeting which was marred by disagreements between the NIE Director General and the members, was held in December 2015. A Ministry spokesperson said, four members have already been nominated to the Council.

The long serving other four members would be allowed to continue in their positions.

The Education Minister, Ministry Secretary and the NIE Director General met Prime Minister Wickremesinghe at Temple Trees on Thursday morning over this matter.

The unusual silence at the other end of the telephone indicated that something was amiss in the way this whole issue had been handled by the officials.

The authorities were not ready to confront the media.

Many attempts by the Sunday Observer to speak to the Education Minister and Education Ministry Secretary W.M. Bandusena for their comments last week ended in failure.