Private Universities And Cooperation of Private Sector in Education

Sometime back the Former Minister of Education in SriLanka, Mr. Bandula Gunawardena showed the importance of mustering the support of the Private Sector for University Education. Then Minister Bandula Gunawardena said that the Private Universities are a must for the development of the country. He went further to mention that political hypocrisy of some parties and politicians had hindered the setting up of Private Universities in SriLanka. Mr. Luxman Kirielle, the Present Minister of Higher Education in Sri Lanka and the then Kandy District UNP MP, too expressed the cooperation of their party for the Government to establish Private Universities in Sri Lanka. Both of them highlighted the collosal expenditure the parents have to bear to send their children abroad for University Education. It is common knowledge that over billions of rupees of foreign exchange are going out of the country.

There are some sections opposing the setting up of Private Universities. It would be important to see what is behind their thinking. The power base of some of these political parties is the State Universities. It is no secret that the leftist political parties attempt to make State Universities their power stations to build up political empires. They manipulate these Institutions of Higher Learning by making use of University students and even try to destabilize the administrative structures. A lot of publicity was given in the papers recently regarding this phenomenon.

Socio-economic Situation

The hue and cry of some who oppose private universities is "Don't Privatise Universities" and "Don't sell out higher education." I suppose that they have not understood the difference between privatisation of University and establishment of Private Universities. Most of the countries in the world including China have opted for the establishment of Private Universities.As Mr. Bandula Gunawardena said , "Every sound mind agrees that a country needs Private Universities for its development." Establishment of Private Universities does not mean privatisation of State Universities. When I look at the Socio-economic situation in Sri Lanka, the establishment of Private Universities is a must. We know the percentage of students who qualify to enter the Universities and out of that a very small percentage gets the chance to enter these institutions. Some continue to vie for University Education by repeating the Examinations over and over again. Those who can afford,they go abroad. We can easily find out the thousands of students going out of the country after in Senior High School to Universities in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and even countries like India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Russia and China. We see how foreign universities come and fish around to get students from Sri Lanka to their universities. Some open up institutions here and make money. How many of us object to this phenomenon?

Many parents make a lot of sacrifices. Some sell their properties to send their children abroad for studies. Having sent them they are anxious and worried because they are far away from their children. All these could be avoided if Private Universities are established making it possible for those who can afford  to frequent them. Foreign exchange will remain in the country.

Healthy Competition

The concern of some of the leftist politicians and even Medical Doctors is that it would destroy the chances of some students obtaining higher education. On the contrary it will enhance the opportunities to enter State Universities as the run and the rush to State Universities will be reduced significantly with the intake by Private Universities. This too will avoid students already qualified and not admitted to State Universities to embark immediately on a Higher Education programme without wasting their time and energy in repeating these examinations. The batches that follow will have better chances to enter university education. Parents who can afford small amounts, will invest money in their own country saving foreign exchange that would flow out otherwise. The healthy competition created between the Private and the Public Sectors will act as a catalyst to improve the standards of both Public and Private Universities. Therefore establishment of Private Universities will help indirectly the poor students and also the creation of institutions of quality and excellence. The Government can intervene and get these private institutions to give scholarships to deserving students. Some of the Private Institutions are already giving scholarships to deserving poor students.

The Government should monitor the facilities, the content of curricula and the structure of fees in the Private Universities so as to persuade and encourage them to maintain standards, lest the unscrupulous entrepreneurs will exploit the students and parents to make money at expense of quality and standards. However, the markets will decide the quality of their products and the State Universities too will have to compete thus ensuing a better quality of education in the State sector.

The development of a country depends on education but what kind of education? It should be a quality education relevant to the modern day needs and not numbers of Graduates produced that will help the development of the country. We see that over 40.000 Graduates from the State Universities are unemployed or under employed. This is the result of filling the Universities without proper planning and market study. The employers say that many of them are unemployable and lack necessary skills for their requirements. This is proved when the World Bank came forward to re-train Graduates investing a lot of money again. Let us be realistic and sincere so that we may not hinder the progress of the country for our personal interest, jeopardizing the educational system and draining out our meagre financial resources.

Quality of Education

The Private Medical College at Malabe is an attempt by the Private Sector to stop students going abroad for medical studies. It will be interesting to see the quality of education in some of these foreign Universities and also the facilities for students for board and lodging. Nobody dares to analyse and evaluate the quality of education in our own country. Some medical faculties in SriLanka, too should come under scrutiny so as to find out whether they are up to standards. Is it true that the lecturers in some of the medical faculties fall far below the required cadre and the facilities too have to be enhanced? Medical College at Malabe they have good facilities but there is a lot of room for improvement. They are ready to make good whatever shortcomings they have and they have the power to do so. So it is important to see how we can help them to improve the quality of education if the Medical Association finds that they are not up to the standards.It is not a solution to discourage or drive away the Private Sector Investors in the medical field.

These investors can get their children educated in any part of the world but who is going to lose? It will be our own children who cannot afford to go to other countries. Let us not throw the baby with the bath-water because of our own self-interests. Let us see how can make use of the resources we have to get our children educated and encourage and work with the Private Sector to get the best services from them to provide a quality education in medicine.

Bring public, private - sectors together

I was happy to hear that Sri Lankan Honourable Prime Minister has already taken the right steps to see how we can bring both the Public and the Private Sectors together in educate youth. I appreciate the Political Will of the Government to work together with all Sectors for the development of not only education but the whole country. 

We appreciate the critical approach of the opposed sectors which I think is important for any development as Hegelian philosophy teaches us. However when we reach a synthesis for the good of the country we too should have open minds to accept truth with humility and generosity. 

May I appeal to people of good-will to help the private sector to invest in our own country and work for the development of the SriLanka without sabotaging the attempts of the Private Sector. The State can always lay down terms and conditions and consult the General Medical Association so as to improve and enhance the services of the Private Sector in the field of medicine. Let right reason prevail.