Based on this background, I suggest the Government to review the plan to test avenues like identifying key National challenges that is best solved in collaboration with local Universities in order to provide broader opportunities for students to discover their leadership skills before sending them on compulsory leadership training in military establishments, because future intellectuals are best nurtured through exposure to diverse leadership opportunities than through moulding them into one Worldview. The Government itself can show leadership by increasing engagement with students in humanities to develop know how in conflict resolution, peace, democracy, rule of law, justice, anti-nepotism, combating corruption, strengthening the notion of citizenship etc.
by Thrishantha Nanayakkara
(May 21, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Do Sri Lankan University students lack leadership skills? The Government of Sri Lanka believes they do, and has come up with a remedy to provide compulsory leadership training in a military establishment under a secret curriculum. As usual, the basis to take this decision, nor the details of the program have not been made clear to the students and their parents. Submit without questioning is the order!
My experience with Sri Lankan students and graduates prompts me to disagree with the Government's attitude. Let me quote few examples. I was in the staff of the University of Moratuwa when 2004 Tsunami Struck Sri Lanka. Students took no time to organize, plan, and launch a humanitarian mission for one week from 28th December, 2004, in Hambantota. About 200 students hired four buses, packed food, medicine, computers, and other hardware for a mission nobody expected. They converted a mountain of dry rations in sacks and boxes piled up in some warehouses in Hambantota to a sorted resource so that when a request came from a refugee camp, a database could be searched to find the exact location of any item. Since communication towers were broken, they set up an HF link to communicate with Colombo to update the status. The students even initiated a plan to dry up the Saltern, worked closely with the Engineers Brigade of the Sri Lanka army to clear bodies, etc. Their task sharing was so impressive that a sub-group kept documenting the progress and status of finances to keep their sponsors like the Lanka Academic Network, Sri Lanka Mini Hydro Power Association, etc, in the loop. In fact the military officers expressed their surprise at the way the students planned and worked. Meanwhile, the students and staff witnessed the dedication, leadership, and effectiveness of the Engineers Brigade, and were proud of them. The students even proposed to grant leave to all University students in Sri Lanka to participate in various fact finding and documenting missions in the humanitarian efforts, so that those who show leadership skills in such crisis situations can officially mention their experience in their curriculum vitaes, that might enhance their employment opportunities. Such requests fell on the deaf ears of the political leaders who were busy planning for the opportunities that came in disguise. This particular example suggested me that the nature of student leadership is different from that of the army in so many ways. First, the students didn't have an apparent leader nor a command structure. They moved to Hambantota with an open mind, and then figured out the best courses of action given the limited time and resources. Decisions were based on discussions and consensus. The leadership of the army was far more authoritative, had a defined mission and modes of communication with other organizations. No doubt, students benefited from collaborating with the army. However, if they were to work within the modus operandi of the army, their experience would have been much more restricted.
The Inter-University Federation Front (commonly known as "Anthare") approached me to solicit funding to support an education program to support A/L students affected by the tsunami. Their plan was to photocopy a series of tutorials made by a popular tuition master to be freely distributed among the affected students. It gave me an opportunity to learn some strengths and weaknesses of this rebellious student body. They had an impressive idea. Rather than asking money to cover the photocopying expenses, they calculated and showed me that buying a second hand photocopy machine and toners would be cheaper. I asked two questions: one was whether they had obtained permission from the author of the tutorials to copy them. The answer was NO. the justification was that their initiative is based on a pure motive. I did my duty by highlighting the importance of respecting intellectual property no matter what the objective is. They agreed. The second question was about the guarantee that the machine would not be used for political purposes. They were honest to tell me that they will try their best to use the machine for the welfare of the students. The take home lesson of this encounter was that, rebellious student groups are not entirely non-negotiable, and their leadership skills can be properly directed towards good purposes through consultation and negotiation.
Sometime later, in 2006, I became the commissioner of the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission, that idles without a board and a commissioner these days. Among the staff of the institute were a group of new recruits under a Government scheme to provide employment to unemployed university graduates. Everybody looked at them as "unfit" graduates needing "Government compassion". Though none were from the University of Moratuwa, it did not take much time for them to reinforce my generalized positive view about the leadership skills of Sri Lankan university graduates. These "unemployable" graduates requested me few favors. First was to equip them with mobile facilities like laptop computers, video cameras, scanners, etc, so that they could go out of Colombo to serve village level innovators. They also wanted me to sponsor them to obtain a better training on computing, English language communication, and business planning. The National treasury was kind enough to grant funds for these initiatives. All what I did was to equip them, train them a little more on areas of their own needs, and to let them lose to be driven by their own leadership skills. Within few months, one of them was coordinating very dynamic programs in the North, East, and Central provinces without any demand for additional pay. Others led product incubation initiatives in collaboration with universities to empower village level innovators, and gave leadership to hold the first National exhibition of such incubated products under the title "Opportunities 2006". They communicated with local and international banks, investors, and lawyers with a determination to commercialize as many exhibits as possible. And they did it. It kept momentum even after I left Sri Lanka, though it has come to a halt after the Government decided to keep these energetic graduates without a board of directors and a commissioner for SIX months as of today.
I have numerous other experiences with student initiatives and leadership in engineering, through projects to support National efforts like demining, agriculture, security, etc. All those who volunteered not only surprised me, but also impressed their subsequent employers with tangible results. Based on this background, I suggest the Government to review the plan to test avenues like identifying key National challenges that is best solved in collaboration with local Universities in order to provide broader opportunities for students to discover their leadership skills before sending them on compulsory leadership training in military establishments, because future intellectuals are best nurtured through exposure to diverse leadership opportunities than through moulding them into one Worldview. The Government itself can show leadership by increasing engagement with students in humanities to develop know how in conflict resolution, peace, democracy, rule of law, justice, anti-nepotism, combating corruption, strengthening the notion of citizenship etc. Science students could develop their leadership skills through projects in areas like micro-forestation in tropical cities, technologies for more efficient humanitarian demining, better technologies for marine resource exploration and value addition, city planning, traffic management, agricultural productivity, food preservation and transportation, nutrition, etc. Even the military should not be excluded to show better leadership in areas like conducting a court martial without losing notes of the hearing, respecting the rights of an accused till proven guilty, etc. The Government could also consider encouraging the private sector by offering TAX concessions for collaborating with Universities, while encouraging vice chancellors to spend more time promoting student engagement with the society and the private sector without wasting time in efforts like checking the virginity of female students.
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