{"id":52100,"date":"2012-08-24T13:58:40","date_gmt":"2012-08-24T13:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=52100"},"modified":"2012-08-30T17:32:53","modified_gmt":"2012-08-30T17:32:53","slug":"higher-education-in-sri-lanka-schools-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/higher-education-in-sri-lanka-schools-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Higher Education In Sri Lanka: School&#8217;s Out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By The Economist | Colombo &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/press-freedom-in-sri-lanka-gota-explodes\/the_economist_logo_180-5\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-47828\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-47828\" title=\"The_Economist_logo_180\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/The_Economist_logo_180-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/The_Economist_logo_180-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/The_Economist_logo_180-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>An elderly couple sat inside an auto-rickshaw holding a placard with bold red and blue writing: \u201cDon\u2019t mess with our granddaughter\u2019s right to free education\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The pair, both in their eighties, were among hundreds of protesters who met at Colombo\u2019s Hyde Park on August 23rd to demand a dramatic increase in the government\u2019s education spending. \u201cDarling, I\u2019m nobody,\u201d the old woman said. \u201cBut poor people are having trouble getting their kids educated.\u201d And she wanted the president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to take note.<\/p>\n<p>Sri Lanka\u2019s state-run universities have been crippled since July 4th, when nearly 5,000 lecturers went on strike to call for a 20% salary increase. The <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=FUTA&amp;x=12&amp;y=7\">Federation of University Teachers\u2019 Associations (FUTA)<\/a><\/span> said droves of academics were leaving Sri Lanka because of poor wages.<\/p>\n<p>The union\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/futa-sl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/FUTA_Demands_Comprehensive_19_06_2012.pdf\">wish list<\/a>\u00a0expanded significantly as negotiations with the government broke down. It now includes a stipulation that the government should increase expenditure on education from the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=6%25+of+the+GDP+to+education&amp;x=13&amp;y=6\">current 1.9% of GDP to 6%<\/a><\/span>. This became the battle cry of a determined\u2014and growing\u2014movement that has rattled the government so much that on August 22nd it shut down all universities indefinitely.<\/p>\n<p>To read the full article in the Economist click\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/blogs\/banyan\/2012\/08\/higher-education-sri-lanka\">here<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/higher-education-in-sri-lanka-schools-out\/futa3\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-52122\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-52122\" title=\"FUTA3\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/FUTA3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"605\" height=\"403\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/FUTA3.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/FUTA3-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/FUTA3-800x533.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 605px) 100vw, 605px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/higher-education-in-sri-lanka-schools-out\/futa-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-52101\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-52101\" title=\"FUTA\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/FUTA.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"622\" height=\"414\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/FUTA.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/FUTA-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/FUTA-800x532.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 622px) 100vw, 622px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/higher-education-in-sri-lanka-schools-out\/futa-1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-52118\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-52118\" title=\"FUTA 1\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/FUTA-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"576\" height=\"385\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/FUTA-1.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/FUTA-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/FUTA-1-800x535.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/higher-education-in-sri-lanka-schools-out\/futa2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-52119\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-52119\" title=\"FUTA2\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/FUTA2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"576\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/FUTA2.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/FUTA2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/FUTA2-800x533.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":52110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[4111,4112,4110,4109,4113],"class_list":["post-52100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories","tag-6-gdp-for-education","tag-6-save-education","tag-futa-colombos-hyde-park-on-august-23rd","tag-futa-strike","tag-maduluwawe-sobitha-futa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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