2020 university entrance method wrong; rectify immediately - Socialist Students' Union

Socialist Student Union (SSU) says that students who faced GCE Advanced Level examination in 2019 face a severe injustice. The reason is that the university entrance is scheduled without taking actions to maximise the opportunities for the students for university entrance. 

The results, z-scores and ranks are lined up according to the new syllabus and old syllabus. The examination was held on both old and new syllabuses in 2019.

Rangana Lakmal Deshapriya of SSU pointed out that they had been discussing the crisis with the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the educational authorities for more than seven months. He said they urged the UGC to announce the number of students to be enrolled. People's Liberation Front (JVP) MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake raised a question in the parliament about this on 18th February 2020. 

However, UGC was telling that they would base on a Supreme Court judgment delivered in 2012. Rangana Lakmal Deshapriya pointed out that the judgment is relevant to the case SCFR/29/2012 which was filed on similar ground. 

SSU said that UGC gave z-score under one system and two fundamental right petitions were filed against it. SCFR/29/2012 judgment was delivered accordingly. In that, only the method of z-score calculation was discussed. After that, the education authorities prepared z-scores separately and lined them up together.

However, eight petitions were filed by over 100 students against this decision. The way the lining up and selection were discussed in this case and a settlement was reached to line up the new syllabus and old syllabus separately. UGC proposed four ways of enrollment and it was agreed to give maximum benefit to the student. Accordingly, UGC maximised the university intake to minimise the injustice to the students.

According to the settlement related to SCFR408/12 case, eventually, the enrollment was increased by26%. University admission was increased from 21,500 to 27,100 by enrolling 5,600 more students. The students were given an opportunity to sit for the examination for the fourth time as well. The universities could afford the increased intake. "For example, the intake for medicine was 1175 and it was increased by another158 students. It was an increase of 15%. Ironically, although the UGC that was complaining about the facilities for the students, later enrolled more than 50 students to state medical faculties for paid education," said Rangana Lakmal Deshapriya of SSU. 

However, the settlement arrived at the second instance in 2012 has not been considered by UGC in 2020. 

SSU said that the judgment of SCFR/29/2012 is not relevant to UGC because it is on the way the z-score is calculated. Instead, UGC must consider the settlement arrived at the case SCFR408/12 and schedule university entrance accordingly.   

SSU pointed out that the UGC had not announced the quota of student enrollment for universities in 2020. Therefore, the students had expectations based on the results of the students in previous years. Some lost opportunity and some lost the expected course. Some did not apply for other courses because they had expected they would be selected to particular courses, according to their result. Also, the students lost the hopes to enrol in higher rank universities. Z-score is relevant to the selection of subjects after the entrance too. The students who lost opportunity for university entrance missed the chance to apply for the other higher education courses like NDT and HNDE.  

After 14 months, now, their hopes are shattered due to the UGC action. Therefore, SSU demanded the government and the UGC to implement the agreement arrived at the Supreme Court in 2012 in relation to case SCFR/408/12 without further wasting their time. 

SSU further challenged the UGC to release the statistics on the enrollment and prove that their method of enrollment is right. 

"Grant a solution based on the settlement in 2011 using a method to maximise the enrollment on the basis of district ranks and island ranks," Rangana Lakmal Deshapriya of SSU urged the government. 

Police pays Rs. 200,000 damage to a tortured man in Anuradhapura

Supreme Court of Sri Lanka recently ordered the Inspector General of Police to pay the damage of Rs. 100,000 to a young man as compensation for violating his human rights by brutally assaulting and breaking an arm after taking him into custody on 25 September 2013. 

Two other police officers, the former Headquarters Inspector of Anuradhapura police station and a Sub Inspector were ordered to Rs. 50,000 each personally to the victim. These two police officers had assaulted the victim, broken bones in his shoulder and threatened to kill him and to arrest his family if he revealed facts about torture.

The bench of three judges of Supreme Court comprised of Buwaneka Aluvihare, Murdu Fernando and S.S. Thurairajah decided that the plaintiff's human rights under section 11 of the constitution have been violated. 

Counsel Thanuka Nandasiri appeared for the plaintiff. 

(Source: Lankadeepa Sinhala newspaper 5-11-2020)

COVID-19 under control; Sri Lanka to lift curfew with strict health guidelines

Sri Lanka government is planning to follow strict measures to control the spread of COVID-19 after withdrawing the curfew imposed in the Western Province since next Monday.

These measures include more PCR tests, tracing contacts, self-quarantining, transport management and following strict health measures at workplaces and businesses. 

Army Commander Shavendra Silva said that the situation is under control and the majority of the new cases are identified from the people who are already under quarantine.

However, an increase in patients and deaths are also expected. Around 6,000 confirmed cases are treated in hospitals while around 450 are under investigations in hospitals. Five deaths occurred on 6 November 2020 bringing the total number of deaths to 29.

About 84,000 persons are under self-quarantine in 31,457 houses islandwide. In Western Province 40,676 belong to 13,911 families are currently undergoing self-quarantine, as revealed at the daily meeting of Presidential Task Force on COVID – 19 Prevention held at the Presidential Secretariat on 6th November. 

The public transport buses, trains and trishaws will have to keep a distance between seated passengers. For instance, buses require to be disinfected before the start of the trip and hand sanitizer must be available at both doors. Only one passenger must be seated on a double seat. 

Bus owners' associations have demanded a fare increase but the Ministry of Transport has demanded them to first build up the trust among the public that they are following health guidelines.

The government opened more treatment centres and for instance, two Colleges of Education, Pasdunrata and Dharga Town, in Kalutara district were converted to corona treatment centres. 

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said that he had instructed officials to strictly monitor the self-quarantine process now underway to contain the spread of COVID-19 virus even after curfew is lifted. The government will focus special attention to close associates and the areas they belong to in the event infected persons found in the community, and if necessary, the authorities are advised to declare those areas as isolated.

Presidential Task Force on COVID – 19 Prevention discussed the situation in flats and estates in length. 

The government decided to restrict the economic centres to the wholesale trade only. The trade activities should continue while strictly adhering to health guidelines and continuously conducting PCR tests. There is no need to obtain curfew passes for lorries transporting essential goods such as vegetables and fruits between districts. 

The President's office says that every step has been taken to continue operations at the Free Trade Zone in Katunayaka. Random and continuous PCR tests will be carried out in the trade zone under the supervision of the Ministry of Health and Sri Lanka Navy with the assistance of private hospitals.

The Health Ministry demanded the patients of other diseases not to avoid coming to hospitals in fear of COVID-19. Some COVID-19 deaths identified recently had taken place at home. The patients had not been admitted to hospitals before death. 

Gammanpila's statement wrong; employers must pay full salary in October - Anton Marcus

Sri Lanka's Free Trade Zones & General Services Employees Union secretary Anton Marcus said that the attempt of some employers of the private sector to cut the October salary of the employees was illegal. 

Marcus said that he had received complaints from the employees that some companies had decided to pay either Rs. 14,500 or the half-month salary if it was higher than Rs. 14,500. The decision is based on the tripartite agreement reached among the government, employers and the employees' unions.  

Marcus said that the present move is based on the confusion created by cabinet co-spokesman Udaya Gammanpila who said on October 27 that the cabinet had decided to extend the tripartite agreement until December. 

The trade union leader emphasized that the tripartite task force met on October 12 and decided to extend this agreement only regarding the tourist sector. Other sectors like free trade zone companies are not bound by this agreement. Therefore, the employers must pay the full salary to the workers in case they have asked the employees not to report to work due to curfew, Marcus said. 

If any company wants to pay salaries according to the tripartite agreement, they have to obtain the written permission of the Labour Commissioner-General, Anton Marcus says. 

Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja's brother jailed for ruining the life of a Sri Lankan

Arsalan Tariq Khawaja, the brother of Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja was sentenced by an Australian court for plotting to brand Sri Lankan Mohamed Nizamdeen a terrorist, trying to frame him for an offence he had not done.

Arsalan Khawaja scrawled blueprints about killing prominent politicians and attacking Sydney landmarks in a notepad he stole from the budding IT business analyst Mohamed Nizamdeen. 

Nizamdeen was charged with terror offences, grilled by detectives for hours without a lawyer, and spent four weeks in Goulburn Supermax before his charges were dropped. 

Nizamdeen returned to Sri Lanka after the ordeal. He said his life was ruined because of this incident and called for an independent inquiry.

Khawaja was arrested and charged in late 2018 after a handwriting expert couldn't conclusively prove the plans had been written by Nizamdeen. He pleaded guilty last November to perverting the course of justice and dishonestly influencing a Commonwealth public official, and also admitted to forgery and inducing a witness to give false testimony. 

Khawaja, 40, was driven by jealousy over Mohamed Nizamdeen's friendship with a woman. 

Arsalan Tariq Khawaja was issued a non-parole period of two years and six months but could walk free from prison in June next year due to time served.

Mohamed Nizamdeen

How the US election would impact Sri Lanka - Prof. Rohan Samarajiwa

Well known Sri Lankan academic and political and economic analyst Prof. Rohan Samarajiva said that the election in the US was not a unified election conducted by a central election commission, but a collection of 51 separate elections with lots of postal ballots and such making it unlikely that the final results will be known in a few hours.

Further analysing the election especially focusing on the impact on Sri Lanka, Prof. Rohan Samarajiva expressed the following views:

The election was focused on the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant effects on the economy. In my view, the pandemic is running out of control and the effects on the economy are likely to be severe. Whoever wins, the focus will be domestic as a result. Impacts on the scale of the Great Depression of 1930 are likely. If enough people in the US are affected, impacts on worldwide demand are likely. The US is Sri Lanka’s principal export market. We will definitely be affected. We should hope for an effective response to the pandemic and the economic crisis.

Trump has withdrawn the US from the WHO, which many people in the US and outside believe is needed as part of an effective response to this and future pandemics. If Biden wins, I expect the US to immediately rejoin. There will be a clear difference between the engagement of the US in multilateral initiatives that affect Sri Lanka such as on Climate Change and pandemics. Biden’s team will engage, Trump will try to go it alone.

In terms of geopolitics, I do not expect fundamental changes in initiatives such as the quad (US, Japan, Australia, and India) and the general efforts to balance or contain the rise of China. These moves are associated with the long-term interests of the US rather than a specific political party. Of course, the way things are operationalized may be different.

India will continue to be an important focus of US strategy and in many cases, Sri Lanka will be fitted into the larger strategies around India and China. As a tiny country on the other side of the world, it is a little unrealistic to think that we will be a high priority for the people who will be appointed to the foreign policy and defence teams.

Because the country will be preoccupied with domestic matters, the emphasis on human rights is likely to be less, whoever comes to power. Of course, if Trump returns, it will be close to absent, though the ingrained culture in the State Department will take some time to fully reflect that.

A new President will make thousands of new appointments of officials. These new appointees will be able to push some matters of importance to them personally, but at this point, it is too early to speculate. Kamala Harris’s primary identification is as an African American, rather than as a desi, even though her selection has motivated the large population of Americans of Indian origin to support her. My observation has been that the Sri Lankan diaspora in the US is less influential than in Canada and the UK.

I see the most impacts in terms of how the world deals with the pandemic, the related economic contraction and the larger problem of the effects of climate change. A Trump win will mean the US will try to go it alone and disregard science. A Biden win is more conducive to a multilateral approach that gives weight to science, but in the weakened state that the US is in, things will be sub-optimal, whoever wins.

Sri Lanka government grants permission to play LPL in the country

Sri Lanka Ministry of Health and COVID-19 Task Force have granted permission to go ahead with 2020 LPL (Lankan Premier League) of Sri Lanka Cricket. 

Commenting on Twitter about this permission, Minister of Sports Namal Rajapaksa thanked President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, saying this is indicatory of the government's commitment to adapt to new normalcy and to return the country to normalcy whilst adhering to Ministry of Health guidelines. 

However, ournament director Ravin Wickramaratne told ESPNcricinfo that the 14-day quarantine that Sri Lanka's health ministry is insisting on increasingly appears a dealbreaker for some foreign players, as well as an operational obstacle for broadcast crews and commentators set to come for the tournament.

The tournament is scheduled to start on November 21st. The matches will be held in Pallekele and Suriyaweva international cricket grounds until December 13. Colombo, Kandy, Dambulla, Galle and Jaffna teams will play 23 matches within the 15 days.