We, the citizens, were erased from the Independence Day ceremony, presided over by the supreme civil and military leadership of the state, at Galle Face. This was a far cry from last year, when this same space became the site of mass protests, as a collective expression of our agency, solidarity, and anger.
Student unions and hegemony: Confrontations and continuations Read More »
Sri Lanka is trapped in debt due to decades of corruption and short-sighted economic policies. To come out of the trap or, I would say, escape the moment, the government is seeking loans from the IMF, or anybody else who is willing to lend, no matter the conditions. To this end, under the IMF’s tutelage, the government is seeking to privatise education, aware that it will face the wrath of the people.
Privatisation of education and demonising of students of Lanka Read More »
As Sri Lanka tumbles further into the abyss of economic misery, pressure on state universities to focus more on quality assurance (QA) increases, supposedly to justify the ‘strain’ they are placing on the public purse. QA purportedly seeks to improve the ‘quality’ of education that state universities deliver, by ensuring certain generalised standards are met and maintained, and extensive documentation is considered evidence of such.
Quality assurance: The Great Scramble Read More »
This short piece is based on an anecdote of a striking memory that I have of a particular classroom at the Faculty of Arts, University of Peradeniya. Every time I walk past this particular classroom, it triggers the same memory and it has still not weathered. In this piece, I look back on this memory self-critically, in an attempt to understand my own self and analyze my thought process at the time of this incident.
Secularism, the Muslim body and the Sinhala-Buddhist polity Read More »
The year 2022 draws to a close, a year that has been the hardest and the most glorious of the past 10 years. It has been the year of exploding gas cylinders, the fertiliser ban and women rising against micro finance. It has been the year of long queues. It is when Colombo erupted in protest as millions converged in its centres, and the President fled the country: the year of the Aragalaya and the year of the Poraattam and the Struggle. It is a year of victories, big and small.
The Year of 2022: The Democratic Turn Read More »
Recently, I was in a discussion on Feminism with the members of the Post-Graduate Research (PGR) community at the University of Hull, in the United Kingdom. They were my colleagues, from the Middle-East, Asia and Europe, representing the natural and social sciences, but, apparently, did not possess any prior knowledge on feminism.
Teaching feminism at SL universities Read More »
Healthcare is in crisis. Medical doctors, and other health professionals, are leaving the country in droves. The WHO (2010), in its Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel, while discouraging the active recruitment of health workers from “developing countries” (p. 7), urges source countries to “address the geographical misdistribution of health workers and to support their retention in underserved areas” (p.8).
Brain drain and future of medical education Read More »
Any type of protest, today, is met with brutal force and a campaign that systematically attacks its leaders and uses fear tactics to dissuade others. Perhaps, the biggest weapon is psychological, however; separating those who can endure the economic crisis, or even thrive during it, from those who struggle to survive.
The burden of our wellbeing: Seeing class within narratives of blame Read More »
By Aruni Samarakoon Modern university education was introduced to Ceylon by the British colonisers in 1921 with the establishment of the Ceylon University College, which eventually developed into the public university system where academics and researchers could explore universal knowledge. In 1947, the very first University, the University of Ceylon, was established. Later, the Ceylon
‘My hope is necessary, but not enough’ teaching and learning Feminism at the University Read More »
By Ahilan Kadirgamar Universities are meant to be open spaces for higher education and the production of knowledge, and in that sense, are considered to be the bastions of freedoms and democracy. However, the reality is that universities are institutions seeped in hierarchy, among and between academics and students alike. These dynamics even take violent
Repression, Resistance and the University Read More »
