Patali Calls For Amendment to University District Quota System

Megapolis and Western Province Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka has asked that the 40-year-old district quota system for universities be amended instead of promoting SAITM as the solution for the problems caused by the district quota system.

The best solution to overcome the district quota system, he said would be to expand the existing government medical faculties and have a quota for fee levying students.

“Those who have been disadvantaged through the district quota system can then get an education. If we open up at least 17 percent of the university for fee levying students, this could cover the capital expenditure of the expansion,”the Minister said.

Minister Ranawaka was addressing a forum organised by the National Intellectual Council at the Mahaweli Centre yesterday.

Ranawaka also asked that SAITM be absorbed into the State University system or have its Medical Faculty taken in while letting it run its other courses independently.

“SAITM was just a fore bringer of other private medical councils which the rulers of the previous regime wanted to open in Divulapitiya, Ratmalana and Suriyawewa. But history has shown us, with the example of the North Colombo Medical College that these don’t work and that we cannot depend on legal solutions to solve the problem,”he explained while observing that it was too risky to allow the private sector to handle medical education.

The Minister thus recommended that there be an immediate halt in the intake of new students into SAITM and to suspend its degree awarding status, “We also know that almost 70 percent of SAITM students are qualified. To help them, the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) has the responsibility of arranging additional training and exams and allow them qualify as doctors. Those who are less qualified can be given the opportunity to be assistant medical officers. Those who fail, give them back their money and send them home”, he added.

Ranawaka also believed that SAITM should not be allowed to function even if they were to implement the required minimum standards, “given the manner in which they have acted, especially the recent actions of their own CEO, this is clearly a crooked enterprise”, he said.

With regard to the district quota system, Ranawaka proposed that it be eventually amended to have 50 percent district quota and 50 percent merit. “We also know that many students who come from the district quota find it hard to cope with requirements of the degree and often abandon it. We have to make the system based more on merit,”he said. The issue of SAITM, Ranawaka explained has the potential to escalate beyond control and that it would lead to social unrest similar to that of the 70s and 80s.

“We call on the parents to look into the actions of their children, because what started as a protest in the 80s over the North Colombo Medical College became a bloody revolution. Those political parties who arouse such protests do not want to solve the issue, they simply want to recruit more party cadres. We cannot let our children be sacrificed again”, said the minister and added that while there were a few vocal ministers in support of SAITM within Cabinet, there was also a silent majority who have understood the brevity of the situation.

“Medical faculties cannot be created on a whim, you need the right urban, middle class and educated to establish them. The ones in Galle, Peradeniya, Kelaniya, Jaywardenapura and Colombo have established well while in Anuradhapura it is failing. If they are to open more, the Western Province and Kurunegala are good places,”he said.

Courtesy –  Daily news