Open University closed its doors to Priyanka Lal

Demand for course fees led to his suicide

by Pearl Thevanayagam

(June 06, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Amidst all the brou-haha of military conference on defeating `terrorism’, Roshen Chanaka’s murder for demonstrating against FTZ workers’ conditions and Channel 4 news exposition of video evidence of torturing and killing Tamil captives at UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Commission) sittings, there was a hardly noticed news item that a university student committed suicide because he could not afford a course fee of Rs 32,000!!!

Priyankara Lal, 26, A third year student of the Open University of Sri Lanka at Nawala, committed suicide recently by throwing himself before a moving train at Dematagoda a few days ago. It transpired at the inquest held by the Inquirer into Sudden Deaths at Ragama, that the student was in a depressed state of mind as his parents could not find the Rs 32,000 for course fees at the university.

This reminded me of the time my youngest sister while obtaining 2Bs, C and an S in bio-science was not selected to the university. On hearing this she brandished a knife in the kitchen in front of my mother and said that she was going to kill herself. It was the timely intervention of my father who promised her that he would sell everything he had, to send her to Oxford which saved her from carrying out her threat.

Thankfully she relented and although my father’s words were only to thwart her pent- up frustration and wrath, she is now a cancer researcher in Silicon Valley in the US all because unlike her native country of birth the US universities recognise a person’s potential and hard work rather than his/her ethnicity or purse.

While she was at Open University in Nawala, she remained a demonstrator for six years and was never promoted to the lecturer’s post despite her second class Honours Degree in Chemistry from the Institute of Chemistry in London. And she paid for her education and did not receive state grants.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike went down in history as the leader who damaged and derailed our educational system thanks to her own inadequate academic achievement in that she only studied up to grade 8 at St Bridget’s Convent so much so that when she became Prime Minister following her husband’s assassination in 1961 she had to have her speeches translated into English by Buddhist monks one of whom was Buddha Rakkita Thero, the assassin of SWRD, her late husband.

She brought in the Draconian standardisation policy and district quota system in university intakes under I.M.R.A. Iriyagolla, another warped politician, which set the stage for Tamil youth rebellion and the country turned from Serendib (meaning tranquil) Isle to one of the most volatile and violent states in the whole of Asia.

According to a veteran journalist at Lake House (now deceased) who was a frequent visitor at Rosemead Place, Buddha Rakkita was often seen sprawled across the settee in the Bandaranaike’s sitting room with his robes in disarray and a glass of whiskey in his hand.

My mother, who was an avid listener of radio and eavesdropped when my father discussed politics with his friends always referred to Mrs B as the one who plotted her husband’s murder. Her perceived theory was that SWRD relegated her to the kitchen and never afforded her the company of intellectual discourse among his learned friends and she sought vengeance for this oversight.

Is it any wonder that the woman would not understand the need for higher education?

MRs B also spawned unrest in the country when she did away with English stream in schools in 1972 and made it compulsory for even Burghers to study in Sinhala whereas they only spoke English both at home and in public and were not proficient in the national languages. The Burghers who had no revolting genes in their bodies nor given to ultra-nationalistic feelings did what only their genteel demeanour and good breeding would do.

They migrated to Australia and other Western nations who welcomed them with open arms. Sri Lanka lost some of its most outstanding scholars and citizens who following independence still held responsible administrative positions such as Superintendents of Police, Government Agents and Head of schools and universities instilling honesty, hard work and discipline in public institutions following on the footsteps of their forebears, the British, Dutch and the Portuguese as a result.

But the rural Sinhalese youth although given opportunities to pursue higher education could not use their qualifications to find suitable employment due to their inability to be proficient in English which was still a criteria for white collar jobs. Their revolt finally brought an end to her political career and set the country on a collision path of violence and student unrest from which the country never recovered.

Mrs B also deported all missionaries, nuns and priests who nurtured our private educational institutions and who instilled discipline and sound all-round education, in the name of nationalising them and Sri Lanka being freed from Western dominance.

All the while she enabled her offspring to study abroad along with those of her political coteries. One cannot forget that she limited foreign exchange to one Sterling Pound in the early seventies and students who went West had such hard times sustaining themselves that they never removed their shoes for a week since they attended colleges during day-time and worked in factories at night!!!.

This is a far cry from the students migrating now who have plenty of opportunities by way of scholarships and fellowships and limitless amount of foreign exchange available.

Apart from the nuggets of rumours which are discussed in newsrooms when stories dry up , there is something seriously wrong with the educational system when those who most deserve assistance in their pursuit of higher education do not receive state grants. If Dr W. Dahanayake brought in free education why is it now that students are required to cough up for courses?

Now Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake is in the process of privatising higher education and has inadvertently set the stage for mass uprising by undergraduates not unlike the JVP rebellion which could see the country in reverse gear and LTTE terrorism would pale into insignificance.

The late PLO leader Yasser Arafat placed prime importance on youth acquiring higher education and paid for their studies in foreign institutions. Even Robert Mugabe classed as a dictator by the Whites in Zimbabwe made sure Black Zimbabweans received a minimum of secondary education.

Priyanka Lal is not the only victim of this country’s warped educational policy. Many such suicides have gone unrecorded or forgotten. Until such time the leaders realise that the ocuntry’s future lies in giving the youth fair opportunities to pursue their goals of attaining higher education it can only pre-empt unrest and instability.

Educating the young is a priority and not a luxury.