Darker Side of University Education in Ceylon

It am 7 years off from the university education and this piece is only a reflection.

We used to have Inter University Sports Events in the past and now we see Inter University Events on the streets.

These events are organized by a hegemonic union.

I will start with a real event, I reported to the university administration long before I joined it.

I had just returned from New Zealand and I noticed unauthorized guys entering the university from its back entry.

Little investigation revealed that guys were taking drugs to the university.

I reported this to the university authorities and they only erected a metal door and they did not not do a proper investigation, fearing the local mafiosi.

For that matter, I managed to help the Police in New Zealand to round up a gang of young drug offenders and dealers.

Only later, I got to know that there are over 50 members of Ceylon parliament (both sides of a aisle) who are dealers including female members.

My only other, interventions were to introduce an attendance list and each student had to sign it (not tick it) and we increased the percentage of attendance to 80% from earlier 60%.

If the guys want to do politics, they are free to do it full time outside of the university setup and displacing an academic entry point to another deserving guy or girl is criminal.
University spend a hugh some (free education) on each student and for a medical student the expense is massive.

If I remember correct there was student of mine who failing in his academic work but a bright guy. I advised him to do law which he successfully completed. He was politically active full time and when I did a follow up I found him in prison.

I am not sure whether he is dead or not but I am sure he was brainwashed by the J.V.P.

It did cause, (attendance list) a few dropouts and we had a sort of semi assessment program, in the name of English Intensive Course.

English was a requirement and was not compulsory.

I initiated a course called "Academic English" and almost all students could not define the word define at entry point.

I am one who believes in that, a proper interview should be undertaken by each faculty to recruit its prospective candidates.

The failure would lead to catastrophic events.

My analysis was we needed only 25 dental students a year to fill the vacancies in the department of health.

Of course, the faculty increased the input to 75 and I was not worried being a Medical Guy.

That is their problem!

We had only 4 medial guys in the entire faculty (recruited another one on a different criterion). All of us, one by one retired and I was the last one to (I was the youngest) retire.

Two of them, I believe either diseased or incapacitated.

This is to expose a virulent disease called Faculty Rivalry.

I won't reveal the details, only the sketch to hide the identity of the individuals and many of them have left the country for good.

A certain medical student got hitched to a dental student. I believe there were other prospective clients.

We used to have a Medical and Dental Dance at Queen's Hotel to deal with these extracurricular activities including finding short term and long term partners.

All the faculties were under one umbrella and the Veterinary Faculty departed first and the Dental Faculty, later.

On the day of the annual dental event the medical faculty guys crossed the Peradeniya Hospital (Medical Director would have been sleeping) and entered the Dental Faculty premises with sticks and poles for a major onslaught.

The police station was on the other side of the Faculty of Dental sciences and they were very slow to respond.

This happend on a Friday.

To my luck, mother in law fell sick and I excused myself from the event and went home after lunch.

I came to work on the Monday morning to see that the  hospital (pathology division was on the clinical side) was closed and went down to the faculty section to see the wanton  destruction of our property.

University was closed for 6 weeks as usual and without leave I could attend to the funeral of the mother in law and subsequent religious events.

We had an emergency meeting soon after the reopening and the consensus was to identify the individual students and suspend them as per university regulations  and per public disturbance ordinances of the government.

Luckily for us we had video and photo evidence (poor quality).

Nobody wanted to go to the Faculty of Medicine and as usual I volunteered.

I went there and made an appointment to see the dean without a topic.

He was not in his seat when I went there.

Police was making an investigation on their own.

For my luck he was a Colombo graduate and now in the Peradeniya University Staff, I genuinely expected him to be neutral in his investigation.

One the next visit, I told him I have photo evidence and I wished on behalf of the faculty, I could look at the record books of the students and identify them.

He declined and I told him in that case we may provide the police with tell tale evidence and they will come with a court order.

He knew I meant business and I said he could call a special faculty meeting and decide.

I said when these guys become doctors, good luck for the patients and I came back and reported the outcome.

In our meeting we decided to informally dissociate with them and break all formal ties until a global apology is made.

In fact, we independently developed our resources and for our luck J.IC.A was there to finance.

Since then, I never went there to visit my alma mater.

I even boycotted the 75th anniversary.

No wonder many guys pass me as a dental guy!

I am a medical guy but fully retired.