Jaffna University: A Poor Case for Privatisation by SB

by John Ratnathurai, Jaffna

(February 07, Jaffna, Sri Lanka Guardian) I read with some puzzlement the news on the public anger over the delay in appointing Jaffna’s Vice Chancellor and the earlier interview with the Minister for Higher Education, S.B. Dissanayake. He complained of bad management and neglect at Jaffna under the present VC (Acting VC since mid-December) despite ample allocation of money. The UGC recently transferred several tens of millions in generous building funds allocated to Jaffna to Rajarata University because they were unused by the VC as the budget year came to a close.

The IRQUE Project (Improving the Relevance and Quality of Undergraduate Education) of the last seven or so years was greatly appreciated by us, the people of Jaffna. Suddenly computers appeared as if from heaven; as did gym equipment, books for the library, training programmes and scholarships. For us it was boom time. With the end of IRQUE, HETC (Higher Education for the Twenty-first Century) is the new World Bank project breathing life into dead universities.

But there is a catch. To be eligible for HETC funds, a university has to complete an internal Institutional Review. Two years ago HETC officials visited Jaffna and told the VC to submit the review. Most universities had completed their reviews a year ago and had started drawing on the funds. But Jaffna got a warning letter last week saying until it is done, the funds cannot be used. Even this news leaked out from Colombo rather than through the Council or Senate which are kept in the dark. Jaffna now stands to lose hundreds of millions as the Acting-VC is busy outside, politicking for reappointment by carrying boxes of mango to Colombo officials, getting the Fine Arts girls to provide dance shows at Palaly Air Force base as condemned in The Uthayan newspaper recently, and declaring open shops and temple ceremonies rather than doing his work.

No wonder the public and the teachers’ unions are visibly angry with the VC as your correspondent correctly reported. Despite our being brought up on ideals of feminine virtue as in The Silapadikaram and Kannaki’s magical powers acquired through her sexual virtue, the Jaffna GA Imelda Sukumar only yesterday lamented the large number of abortions and illegitimate births while a woman’s rights activist stated that there had been 38 abortions at Vembadi Girls’ School last year, once the Methodists’ puritanical stronghold.

As Jaffna reels from one shock to another, credible stories emerge of widespread sexual perversions at the university. A person who returned from jail accused of abusing his child servant was immediately made department head by this VC who himself has problems controlling his sexual urges even at work. Several other senior academics too, many on the Council, have been known for their unbridled sexual libido. So no one is ever punished. Jaffna lies broken and needs the government’s sympathetic attention if it wishes the people of Jaffna well.

Yet the Minister in his interview was making the case for private universities. He held up Jaffna’s VC as a prime example of how state universities are intrinsically bad, while he himself is responsible for keeping the former VC going as Acting VC. The Minister must also take some responsibility for appointing the present VC three years ago. In fact the ministry sends lists for appointments to universities. While other universities hold sham interviews allocating marks prior to selecting off the list, Jaffna’s VC in his eagerness to please, appoints without even bothering to allocate marks. Persons so hired do not work. When the government gave expensive plastic waste bins to prevent dengue from the uncleared ice-cream tubs scattered all over the campus after eating, these workers burnt the bins because they added to their work and now public health officials are threatening to fine the university. These workers threaten their supervisors asking “Do you know who appointed me?” As a result all the toilets on campus (often in new buildings) stink.

The VC continues to disobey the UGC order to introduce timecards for workers and to outsource cleaning. For he cannot handle the employees he hired without any standards at all. Yet the minister and the UGC have appointed him Acting VC?

And there lies the problem with our state universities – the appointment of persons out of patronage and political loyalty (and boxes of mango) rather than talent. Perhaps that is why private universities do better; not because state universities are intrinsically bad. For example the University of California at Berkeley, a state institution, is said by many to have the best postgraduate programmes anywhere.

It is within the Minister’s powers to rectify the situation at Jaffna University. If after the Minister has done his part there are still problems with our universities, then we can look to private universities to solve our problems. Not before.