Doctor, Lawyer, Engineer
I used to joke with Tracy that my relatives would never understand what I studied (Cognitive Science). The joke was that’d I’d pretend to be a relative and ask ‘Docta, Lawya, Engineer?’ in an accent more Chinese than Sri Lankan. They don’t, but I didn’t know what CogSci was before I studied it so it’s OK. I just say Psychology. Then I get the other question – “So, what do you do with that?”. That is a seperate misunderstanding, to be addressed later. The central issue here is the Indo-Lankan doctor, lawyer, engineer fetish.
This article is in reference to a Lanka Business Online article, btw. My God, their hyperlinks are like 3 pages long, they really need to fix that.
According to the Ministry of Education, annually around 400,000 children enrol into State schools but local universities can accommodate only around 14,000. Because of the single-minded attitude to education children are often never exposed to other types of careers, particularly since most Sri Lankan schools do not offer career guidance or student counselling. And the local tertiary education network is spread so thin the majority that don’t make it into university fall out of the education system completely. As a result the country is chronically short of qualified personnel with lower and middle level technical skills. To fill the skill gaps local private sector is already surreptitiously importing skilled labour despite thousands of unemployed graduates demanding jobs.
So to start, the education system here is generally FUBAR. Given my American High School performance I simply couldn’t get into University here. What you get in Sri Lankan Universities are the extreme keeners, not the mid-range balanced human beings that actually contribute to business and culture. Furthermore, it’s not like these kids are competing to get into the Harvard of the South, more like the Southern North Dakota State Institute of Thinking and Stuff. That is, a lot of graduates aren’t even smart enough to wipe their own ass with their degrees.
I don’t mean that they don’t know their physics or whatever (thought they probably don’t). I just mean that the attitude is all wrong. When I graduated from High School I felt like I was finally getting started. Here’s it’s exactly the opposite. If you get through the gauntlet of A/Levels then you’re done. University is a vacation before you join the Trinity. You let your brain atrophy dicking around for 7 years (seriously, there are that many strikes), waiting to get rubber-stamped as one of the nations 14,000 best-and-brightest. That should assure you a job, oh wait, that was 7 years ago and now you’re actually stupider than when you came in. Many graduates come out without much more than a sense of entitlement. That’s literally all they have, a title. Here’s it’s customary to put your Bachelor’s Degree on your business card.
Sri Lankans have mastered the symbolism the British have left behind, but none of the work-ethic of America. People assume that the degree – not the education – is valuable. They assume that Doctors, Lawyers and Engineers will always be employed – despite a market where only 5% of the population can afford those services.
There’s no similar honor attached to turning a kottu-kade into a national chain and creating jobs for the 95%. Right now the Trinity is just a Colombo 7 Circle Jerk, getting sick, suing their doctor and building a new wing to the house. Before it can get any bigger someone has to get off their ass and start a Walmart or Kinkos. Then maybe the Trinity could get clients besides immediate relatives.
Sri Lankan culture creates Employees, not Employers. For all their value, Doctors, Lawyers, and Engineers are – at the end of the day – employees. A Doctor generally works for a hospital, and Lawyers and Engineers work for Firms. You spend 10-15 years educating this guy and then he employs – himself. Or leaves the country if he’s smart. Sam Walton, on the other hand, was a entreprenuer who ended up employing 1.4 million people. Those 1.4 million people need Doctors, Lawyers, and Engineers now, but someone had to give them enough money to stop dying, getting evicted from their land, and getting their houses trashed by the elements first. Sri Lanka needs generally educated mid-range students to brainstorm, drop out, and do something. We got plenty of Doctors, Lawyers and Engineers waiting to take our money, we just need to get some.
Note: this is pretty much a rant. There are some actually researched pieces in the Education Category.
The Mahavamsa (a history of Sri Lanka) is full of conflicts between generals and kings. Usually, the more bloodthirsty and unscrupulous would win. Our current (elected) ruler Mahinda Rajapaksa has had his own general conflicts, namely with one Sarath Fonseka. In the old days Fonseka would have staged a coup, as in literally try to cut of Mahinda’s head, and Mahinda would – if that failed – tie him to four elephants and split his parts asunder. Can’t do that shit anymore. Instead Fonseka ran for office and lost and Mahinda tossed him in jail.
Today on the 
Janith has updated 
This is highly dubious. Miss Travel is a travel/social networking site that connects ‘Generous’ and ‘Attractive’ travelers. To, like, travel together, I guess. It all seems a bit like arranged prostitution and trafficking. This is part of a broader online trend to connect rich men to younger, attractive women. Sites like 
[...] ign is a delight, especially freelance (re: unemployed) Web Design. Oh, to be part of the Trinity. Keeping Anouka in line is a job in itself. Played Sim City with Eran and Sen-Sen on a l [...]
400 000 to 14 000… Quite a drop isn’t it. Our writer somehow seems to be more worried about the 14 000 that actually got in rather than the remaining 386 000 (something I feel is the most important issue here). Somehow I sense an underlying of bitterness in the whole thing. Given the fact that to get get in to a Sri Lankan University what actually matters is your A/Level results and not the size of your bank account (as is the case with most foreign universities). I would also like to enlighten the writer to the fact that I completed my Bachelors in Physical Science along with 638 others in 2 years and 10 months. Which has been the case at most of the Sri Lankan universities since 1999. I would also encourage the writer to enquire into the number of undergraduates following courses in Sociology, Geography, Chemistry, Physics, Journalism, English, Biology, Zoology, Pathology, Nuclear Science, Architecture, Computer Science….. all of which are not part of the ‘Trinity’. True there still is a large number of students at the Law, Medical and Engineering faculties, but certainly not enough to warrant such a scathing attck on our education system.
Oh, and the work ethic of the Americans (about the only kind of ethic they have), maybe that would explain why America is the country the largest percentage of the population behind bars. Maybe its due to the excellent collection of Lawyers around (wonder how many non-americans). I really could go on and help our writer understand the Sri Lankan education system better, but I have more pressing matters to deal with at the moment. If I have some time later today I’ll be more than willing to help him out.
Ayubowan.
Only about 2% of the poorest of the poor get into Uni. In places like the North-Central province only 31% of students even pass O/Levels. With the heavy reliance on (paid) tuition classes, the rich make up the vast majority of current University entrants. You can feed people all the dogma about equality you want, but that doesn’t put food on the table. There are some stats here.
It’s easy to point out one thing wrong in a giant country. I’d like to see an argument that middle class life in America is somehow worse than here. Nationalism is not an excuse for incompetence. We need to make this country better, not pretend that everything is peachy.
If you’d like to be condescending you should get a blog and do it full time. Try kottu.org for some links.
Butting in for fun – to Mr Mubarak, I personally think Sri Lanka needs a larger percentage of our population behind bars, but the paltry legal system cannot lube things up for this to happen efficiently, and we don’t have the kind of tax revenue to support it either. If wishing made it so.
My second retort(in my head) include the phrases ‘rose-tinted glasses’ and ‘garden-variety graduates’ so i won’t say it here. The largest percentage of unemployed in Sri Lanka are those with degrees. Is this simply because they’re bohemians in wicker sandals who cannot be arsed to find jobs? No, it’s a fault in either one of two mechanisms : The education system or the job-market. The further education system cannot predict the conditions of the job market accurately, and fails in making graduates employable, which is a valid point in the post and I wholeheartedely agree.
If Sri Lanka had a well funded nuclear research facility – I’m sure all those nuclear scientists you speak of would be rushing there for inteviews and if we had a top-brass forensic facility (and the capital to aid it) all our pathology students would be circling it with a bright red pen – this is the second failure – the labour market is simply not tailored accurately signal to graduates seeking employment: where are the vulture-like head-hunting organisations? where are the career-days? where is the competitive market in internships for student who can’t get daddy’s recommendation?
Perhaps a few more substantive examples on how Sri Lankan education is so great may do the trick to refute these arguments.
I have a confession to make. I surreptitiously copied the link to this post to several of my friends who attended university in Colombo (unfortunately sports related rifts mean I have no friends at Peradeniya). While agreeing with the substance of Indi’s (and Ru’s) take on the system, I have to also agree with Muba – he made the Sri Lankan Test team, so bollocks to the fact that we don’t produce well rounded individuals – that the tone you both take borders on the obnoxious.
I have an essay plan due yesterday, so I cannot delve into this in any depth. Indi you will not incur the wrath of Sri Lankan graduates if your heart was in the right place mate. In the words of the Governor of the State of California…”I’ll be buck (sic)”.
[...] nd it gets other people talking and thinking. I honestly love fucking with Morquendi (and Shanaka, watch yourself). If anybody shut Morquendi up I would be pissed. The Net [...]
Shanaka, when I was in high school they let this guy out of jail to come talk to us. He told us not to drive drunk and fk up our lives like him. My Home-Economics teacher told me a story of an even weirder guy on tour. He microwaved a hot-dog too long, bit it, and blew off his own lips. I always poke my hot-dogs with a fork now.
That is to say, thanks for the lessons on tone you lipless motherfucker.
PS: I mean ‘lipless motherfucker’affectionately. Seriously.
Indi – you do realise I am coming back to Sri Lanka. Colombo’s social circles will decree that we meet. When we meet, you will barrack me with World Bank statistics while I pound you into the floor with one of Muba’s old cricket bats.
But seriously – I’m sleepy and Liverpool just won. So I can’t get into this just now. You really need to revise your attitude to matters you know nothing of. Starting by saying “I know little about this but….”, will help.
By matters I know nothing about do you mean… my own personality?
I like debate and I like learning. Unfortunately, you haven’t given me anything except 2-bit psychoanalysis. We haven’t met and you’re not a psychiatrist, so I could give a fuck what you think of my attitude or heart. If you think I know little then teach me something. If you got points bring them. If you got problems with my personality then bring the cricket bat.
wow …wow …Wait a minute….
Given the size of the country and social circles of Colombo ,I ‘m sure everybody will bump into each other.
No need to take cricket bats out yet.
Just need to figure out why our system cannot create a bunch of guys who are creative enough to drag us out of the shit hole.
It’s good that J_Mub also joined in.It’s true that we have our best3-4 %(in terms of A-Level performance ) get into the university regardless of the bank account.We need to figure out a way to get at least 25-30% to get some kind of tertiary education to drag the country out of this pathetic state.
If you take any country which has a mix of state and private education ,I guess brightest 5% will anyway get some kind of free eduaction via scholarships .
J Mub ,I have some problems with this quote
“Oh, and the work ethic of the Americans (about the only kind of ethic they have), maybe that would explain why America is the country the largest percentage of the population behind bars.”
It’s comparing apples and oranges.
Productivity of US workers has been rising steadily in the last couple of years and american workers are one of the hardest working in the world(they even take less vacations than Japanese!).Those two are directly realted to work ethic rather than the number of prisoners in prisons I think.(Of course they have a serious case of prison population,I agree)
Chandare, not that I dispute the “hardest working” (I don’t know how you define this, so I can’t comment) but American workers taking fewer vacations does not necessarily imply productivity rises. Correlation and causation, blah blah blah. Americans also stay up the latest and are the most sleep deprived. Americans probably have the highest rate of burn out.
Former burnt out dot bomb drone, so I do have some experience on the ground. Longer hours do not mean the most productive workers. Unless (and I stretch a point) you’re talking about factory workers.
I don’t know whther they are the hardest working but I think most of them have pretty good work ethic compared to Sri Lanka.To tell a personal story , It took me less than half an hour to renew my drivers license at the BMV.Fucking BMV!It is the government institute most rediculed in late night talk shows ,take the brunt of the attacks by stand-up comics and sitcoms!
Mubarak is fucking ace at Anagrams (Quiz Night). Seriously, they had ‘Double Indemnity’ all scrambled and he got it. That is impressive, though I dunno if you’d source it to the Uni system.
Mate you’re talking of a severely depleted Bush. When at full strength we are what Australia is to cricket.
Oh yes…I had the points you so desperately craved but I was filtered.
Ya, true. Probably can’t generalise on the americans about their ethics. Its just that their international policies are not winning many friends. Anyway, thats beside the point. I agree that tuition classes are killing the education system, and i also agree that we need to create a much wider scope for jobs. Open up jobs in a variety of fields. Don’t think setting up a Nuclear Research Facility is safe these days, we’d probably have George W blowing up half the country looking for WMD.
Oh, and no arguments about americans work ethic, pretty sure they work much harder than sri lankans. But I think its more out of necessity rather than choice. And I’m not too sure about the american economy, George hasn’t been too kind on the budget deficit.
Still can’t believe i missed patriot games.
Wrote mother of a post and lost it. Indi, I have absolulte no grouse with the points you make in your post. As I said earlier I agree wholeheartedly that the system is fundamentally flawed, however it is the best we’ve got and and you can’t blame people for wanting to excel within their system.
On a daily basis I am exposed to Chinese students poring over texts books with dictionaries in a vain attempt to understand the subtleties of the English language. They are rich – they can do it over here. If you venture into the campus library you’ll see a relatively similar number of students doing the same, except that their dictionaries are Sinhala ones and not Chinese ones. They are poor – they can’t do it anywhere else. The same is true of European students. A fact that I found hard to comprehend. But it’s true.
And therein lies the rub. The basic flaw with our system is the total absence of English. Graduates don’t get employed not because they’re ‘stupid(er)’ but because they can’t communicate. And communication is everything. Poor blokes. And until they get upto speed and the job market is willing to take a chance on a guy that’s probably willing to learn if you treat him right the sooner the problem will be solved.
As it stands no graduate – who has worked damn hard to get where he is, wants to be treated like a peon by some wanker who got 3 E’s from CIS and could afford to do a degree in basket weaving from the polytechnic of Slough. They too have their pride. And the Sri Lankan employer his prejudice. The sense of entitlement is bred of sheer hard work and righteous indignation at the fruitlessness of it. It doesn’t make it right. But that’s where it comes from.
As Muba pointed out we have scores of graduates following course you wouldn’t from the outside imagine Sri Lankan universities catered for. It may not possess the hype and glamour of a foreign university, or the library and entertainment facilities, but the content is – given the circumstances – on par. A lot of undergraduates I have had the pleasure of meeting here are as thick as two short planks but are studying at the LSE. This spawns a pretentiousness that is hard to endure, and they too feel a sense of entitlement on a wider global circle. After all they did get a second lower in Sociology from the LSE. Our phenomenon is merely a microchosm of the global one.
Once the WB, or any other charitable institution, funds enough competent teachers to teach English in every rural school in Sri Lanka, they may well pack their bags and leave for Rio secure in the knowledge that they have saved a country from the brink of a civil war. It will be manna from heaven and that is all Sri Lanka needs, our blokes will pick it up.
Indi you have highlighted the problems. And rightly so. However, Muba, several others who haven’t posted, and myself took matters rather personally in that you chose to view the victims of this, i.e – the graduates, as perpetrators of their own calamity. Not so my friend. They are merely sheep who had a very bad shepherd to use the Biblical analogy. Everyone wants to earn money. Doctors, Lawyers and Engineers do. So everyone wants to be one. It’s not necessarily a bad thing as long as we don’t stop seeing the wood for the trees. Which is what, as you point out – is happening now.
Muba’s diatribe against the Americans was probably fuelled less from accuracy rather than general antipathy. Who can blame him? But comments like graduates end up stupider at the end of their courses, imply that we were stupid to begin with and are now only fit to be the offal of the public administrative cow. That sort of generalisation and summary dismissal we take exception to. And that is all we take exception to. In criticising the system you are spot on.
Shanaka you touched a part of the problem. English education.
That is the the shit I’m trying tell here comment at serve lanka and here theory no1 (in 4 parts).
There is something fundamentally wrong with the way we approach English.
My solution
——————
1.Take off subtitles in Sinhala from TV (for English programs).
2.For every hour of Hindi movie and Hindi musical program show equal amount of English movies and pop music programs.
(If possible cut the Hindi to English ratio to 0.5 to 1 .thats even better).
3.In Rupavahini and other channels which has the largest coverage, show the latest popular TV programs from US ,England and Canada.If not try to make Cable TV affordable to the lower middle class island-wide.
4.In the above channels bring down the English news to a prime time slot.
5.For Cricket matches try to bring outside commentators as much as possible .Increase English commentator time (back to 80′s level ) .Also no Brian Thomas!
I know the above means sort of controlling media but since we have a handful of TV /Radio channels owners can come to a “Gentlemen’s agreement”.
6.Bring some volunteer teachers from US ,Canada and Britain .There are organizations like peace corps here.It is not hard to find recent college graduates who would love to come and volunteer in a warm country for 1 year.Atleast put one teacher in each school.
7.Try to get high schools/universities connected to internet as much as possible.(Go easy if some of them browse porn.It is a great start to learn the language.oh yeeaahh!)
I think I fucked up the comment .
This is the first link
http://servesrilanka.blogspot.com/2005/04/why-shakespeare.html.
One more thing.
Two British council libraries in Colombo and Kandy is not enough.
Atleast have to upgrade Galle,Matara,Hambantota,Kurunegala,Kalutara,Ratnapura ,Anuradhapura,Ampara ,Badulla,Trncomalee,Jaffana and Batticaloa libraries.
What really gets me is this reaction to English education in the Daily News by Upali S. Jayasekera.
“the medium of education in our schools should compulsorily be Sinhala and Tamil. The use of any other language is contrary to this policy, illegal and anti-national. However, the International schools, where Sri Lanka children study, have English as the medium of instruction… The alien culture based education imparted in the International Schools, will to a larger extent, prevent our children attending those schools from acquiring social values and the ability to live with others, learning, customs peculiar and essential to our country…
It could be argued that education in the English medium is nothing new to us and that it has helped the country. English was imposed on us during colonial times and with it came the spread of the western culture as well. English and westernization at the expense of our own language and culture were thought to be good at the time and this thinking and practice continued long after independence. ..”
So he’s saying we should teach students less English, even though employers demand some fluency. Does Jayasekera care if students have jobs? Does nationalism and fear put bread on the table?
Chandare -Even if you enforce a degree of content control in the national interest there will be a huge demand for hindi/bollywood products. If you limit the supply in the “free to air” media the local video/audio shops will be providing it, after all it is a free market in this sphere. Licensing costs and return on investment are probably another reason for this. It might be just as useful to give each student a singhalese-to-english dictionary as a starting point.
Indi- From what little I’ve read in the SL English dailies, there appears to be a general fear of the native/local culture being overridden by Globalisation with English as it’s first wave of assault. The main problem seems to be separating the language of english from the cultural influences (at least the pop culture…I think). Of course learning any language opens a person to a wider array of cultural influences but I think the fear is of Pop Cultural influences overriding the local/native moral and social fabric of the nation rather than Liberal Cultural influences. IMHO, Arguments for english purely on pragmatic grounds will win some but does not address the fears of the nationalists or the english departments.
I hope these arguments are mirrored in the tamil and singhalese dailies as well. Otherwise, you’ve got to question the merits of arguing for the teaching of english in english and not in singhalese and tamil.
BTW, gotta love the shakespear.
Shakespeare rocks. But in some plays he tends to get a bit bored towards the end and kills everyone off. Mad bugger. But superb.
Upali Jayasekera was published in the Daily News. I rest my case.
People like him make a case for the culling of society like a herd of wildebeest.
Yes Ivap – we really need to be able to seperate the language from its peripheral cultural prejudices. English is the most tangible scapegoat for cultural erosion – not the social degenarates parents nowadays are breeding. True international schools are responsible for some depravity but USJ’s arguments are bollocks.
lol shanaka were u referring to anyone in particular when u said ‘some wanker who got 3 E’s from CIS and could afford to do a degree in basket weaving from the polytechnic of Slough. ‘ just curious.. i could narrow it down to 3 ppl but not sure.. lol..
The only reason Osama’s Bush ever wins is because the better teams don’t play all the time :p
No Savi3 I wasn’t referring to anyone in particular, I hope I haven’t caused any offence to someone you knew…:) Totally unintentional I assure you. But the underlying seriousness of the matter is that you identify immediately with the calibre of ‘foreign graduates’ that I’m talking about. My lament is that thick people who qualify abroad, are placed much higher on the pecking order than smart – yet language and class deficient – graduates from this country. You know…the ones that are ‘stupider’ after graduation. Like me – and I didn’t even graduate. How miniscule must my brain be? Shudder.
Ado Morq. I was one bugger that was willing to back you on some of your more obnoxious stances – but if you start knocking the Bush there’s going to be hell to pay…:) You ‘buggered’ are just jealous.
Quoth Shanaka:
So, you’re a bunch of aging foul mouthed sledgers with a knack for “mental disintegration” ? Sounds like quite the killer team there.
I keed I keed. Taking the piss out of Shanaka is so much fun :)
nah shanaka no prob.. offend away .. lol.. i wasn’t fond of any of them anyway so feel free to offend.. :) but falling into the category of ‘foreign graduate’ myself (and No i didnt get 3 Es altho i did go to CIS) I don’t quite understand what ur trying to say abt SLans who go to uni abroad.. ? why is it that u can only be a ‘thick graduate’ if u qualified abroad? is that an inferiority complex ppl from colombo tend to have or is it more than that..? pls explain :)
My point Savi3 – and I’m glad no offence was taken – was that if you are a thick bastard, which you are undoubtedly not, the only way you can ‘graduate’ is to pay through your parents nose for a foreign degree from a less than reputable university. Or, for that matter, a reputable one (I met today with the Admissions Officer of UCL, and he said that UCL has been advised to ‘encourage’ foreign student intake and raise it to 25% from the current 20% to help funding issues. The LSE will raise it to 65% foreign students next year). My point is that it is easier for some to get into university abroad than to qualify on merit in Sri Lanka. Hence, some – not all – foreign graduates end up being able to afford their mortar board and not actually ‘earn’ their degree.
The Sri Lankan graduates face the other extreme of this problem. That has been highlighted in previous posts and I’m too hungry for my bland English food to go into it now.
My point in a nutshell is that the oxymoron of ‘thick graduate’ can only be achieved if one can afford it. Indi’s criticism that SL graduates are also ‘thick’ is a point well made, but we differ fundamentally in our criterit to define thickness. But you know what I mean. And I certainly don’t intend to tar all foreign graduates with the same brush. Any ambiguity in that regard is sorely regretted.
Ado Thimal! Magen mukuth ahaganna epa harida!! :) Do I know you from somewhere machan. And yes that is exactly what we are. Although, Michael Clarke, Brad Hodge, Brett Lee and the likes are hardly ‘ageing’. Ponting too is about your age isn’t he :)? If you are earning millions of rupees playing test cricket you should have the mental fortitude to tune out what Adam Gilchrist claims he did with your mother last night. If you can’t – you’re not a professional sportsman. Go home and cry. But I will say the same about Osama’s Bush as Ricky Ponting said about Australia – “our onfield behavious is improving.” Heh heh.
And Morq yes I admit that the ‘better’ teams you were on were severely weakened when the nth member was not sitting in front of a google access device. Muahahahaha!
Shanaka, I’m going to argue the opposite for a change. Wealthy folks are going to leapfrog the poor, no matter what you do. It happens in SL, it happens everywhere. Some can afford the Ivy league, others can’t. Railing about it ain’t gonna help. If these “thick” (I dispute the fact that anyone is “thick” as in stupid. Personal philosophy, maybe, but I think people described thusly are either unmotivated or lazy or just haven’t figured their shit out yet. They’re almost never stupid) foreign graduates can’t find a job, I have no doubt some of them will persuade daddy dear to start up a company for them. Then, they not only are higher up in the pecking order, but are actually at the top of the heap. Would you really want to enforce a pecking order like the medics in SL do ? (The rules are that all non-SL educated medics sit a qualifying exam [Act 16] and even when they pass it, their order in the merit list starts below the lowest graded local medic. Each year, around the time for appointments, someone files a fundamental rights court case because they don’t want to be stationed in the boonies. And it gets tossed out, of course.. but I digress.).
Focus instead on why (if this is indeed the case), the locally educated chaps find it harder to compete ? Now, I have little sympathy for graduates who go in to do obscure degrees and then bitch and moan about not having jobs. Face it. If you do certain subject specializations, sometimes your best possible route is to become a school teacher (or lecturer) in that area. It’s either that or switch fields. Plenty of Americans (that I know personally) had English Lit. or Sociology or some other weirdass degree.. yet ended up in project management or an IT drone like myself. They adapted. Why can’t our chaps ?
Campuses are somewhat overcrowded. At least some of the lecturers don’t give a crap, they have tenure. There are no incentives for graduating 10 people instead of 5. Or a 100 people instead of 20. There are few tangible incentives for making sure graduates succeed in the real world … The reputation of the university does not seem as closely bound with the quality of it’s graduates as you’d expect. And of course, there is the language and cultural barrier which other people have addressed better than I ever could. Aren’t those problems enough ?
I personally feel that foreign graduates have an advantage initially.. but over time, this tends to even out. The thick ones get weeded out (unless there is outright nepotism at play). Most (all ?) of the people I know who went to university for Comp Sci are dead smart. It’s like not knowing a programming language, you see. Initially, you start off at a disadvantage, but you can use your other attributes to compensate. People who got into campus in the first place slaved over their tuition, crammed their notes.. they worked damn hard. If they slack off later, that their own damn fault, but then this is no different from a rich kid thinking that daddy is gonna pay his way all through life.
By the way, I dont know if I know you from somewhere.. I doubt it. When I was in SL, I used to hang out with mostly IT drones myself, so it’s unlikely our paths crossed that way. Of course, I am sure I’ve probably seen you around your watering hole of choice (but not known who you were, obviously). Even more sure that I probably know a lot of people you know as well (but that’s Colombo for you).
I take your points on board Thimal. My original argument was that given the level of education, i.e. – at basic level, a degree, the foreign graduate stands a better chance of being employed as compared to the local graduate of the same educational standing. Yes, there are a huge amount of variables, and I am guilty of generalising as far as foreign graduates are concerned, although I tried my darndest to explain the reasons for doing that.
On your stance that people are not thick/stupid, I was merely sticking to the seminal word that inspired Muba’s and my ire to begin with. However, we must agree to disagree. I think some people are inherently stupid, and there’s nothing they can do about it.
Your example about the foreign medics is a case of almost reverse discrimination when juxtaposed with the phenomenon I have been condemning from the outset. Finally, the tables are turned. If you were good enough to get into med school the normal, cheaper way, you wouldn’t be at the bottom of the ladder. I’m not saying SL medics make better doctors. That would be an insane claim, but there has to be a system. Foreign meds infiltrate the system and good administration – and nothing else – demands that they start at the end of the queue. As far as fundamental rights cases are concerned…don’t get me started mate. They should all be lined up and shot.
Wittingly or unwittingly you homed in on my chief grouse. Nepotism. It is the engine that powers Sri Lanka. And as long as that remains in place, not only will the poor graduate be marginalised (this I agree with you is almost a truism), but he won’t have even as much chance as England have of winning the Ashes.
being a ‘foreign medic’ who has no intention of going back to be discriminated against or be at the bottom of any ladder or ‘lined up and shot’ (lol) i think it is the small mindedness of our ppl and our leaders that account for systems like that.. cos surely if ever CBK’s daughter who is a cambridge medical graduate were to decide she wants to practice in SL are u telling me that she will be ‘discriminated’ against or be at the bottom of any ladder altho she might be shot that i dont know.. lol.. the system as it exists for foreign medical grads again only serves to make it more difficult for the average joe who goes to india or latvia or russia (if they trained in england they r unlikely to go back looking at all the SLans i know who trained here who are now on the brink of becoming UK citizens)to work in SL.. without mentioning names the offspring of some well known influential ppl (ie Drs and politicians in SL) who trained as Drs abroad all walked into Colombo posts without any hardship which proves Thimals point that wealthy folk do leapfrog the poor no matter what the system is :) btw Thimal r u a Dr?
as for shanaka’s comment abt UCL taking in more foreigners well what can i say standards have dropped since i left in 2000 :) i agree that its somewhat easier to bypass bad AL results if u hv the money to go to uni abroad cos u hv more options.. Aussie doesnt require ALs neither does the US and the UK has this thing called ‘foundation programmes’ for ppl with bad ALs who cant get in straight away to do wateva course they wanted.. its all a money spinning exercise like the GMC in the UK lures hundreds and thousands of S.Asian Drs here to do the PLAB exam with the promise of jobs so that GMC registration has more than doubled in recent yrs (its £290 per Dr per yr to stay on the GMC register ) when the reality is if ur a foreign grad u are the bottom of the ladder when it comes to getting proper postgrad training jobs here and from the latest figures published by the BMA the avg wait is 9 months for a foreign grad to get a job in the UK if at all..not fun is it especially if u brought ur family with u and are not entitled to any state benefits while ur unemployed not to mention the high COL in the UK :) aahh well..
so yup hv to agree if ur loaded ur pretty ok no matter what cos even if u get bad AL results u can still get into uni abroad and even if they kick u out cos u fail u can always return to colombo and daddy can start up a pvt uni affiliated to the University of London so u can do ur degree there with all the home comforts..lol.. again no names mentioned but these are all true life scenarios.. :) only thing i’m not sure abt is do u call these ‘thick’ ppl local graduates (bcos they went to uni in SL)or foreign graduates (cos the uni was affiliated to London)? :)
It’s also why companies hire from outside instead of promoting from within, why grass on the other side of the fence appears more verdant :) In Bavaria, it’s a point of pride to be able to afford a BMW (Bayerische Motoren Werke, a local company). In SL (sweeping statement alert!), people tend to value outside experience/foreign degrees more. It’s not the only problem dogging local graduates, but it does play a significant part in why their chances at the job market are worse. Can’t say I haven’t profited from that attitude myself :)
My beef with the medics example is this … If (and only if) there were sufficient places so that anyone who displays sufficient aptitude and drive to become a medic gets the chance, then it’s fine. But the thing is that few people are allowed that chance. The rest have a difficult choice. Either find something else to do with their life (the great majority choose this) or gather up enough funds to be a medic anyway (because either you or your parents want this badly enough). And then you haul your ass back home and umm… guess what ? You’re at the bottom of the pile, regardless of ability, experience or anything else. This just codifies discrimination into our very system. If this were not Shanaka that I was replying to, I’d quote Gandhi and “eye for an eye” and all that flowery BS, but since it is him, I’d just say that it’s never been proven that affirmative action (as in this case) is successful.
In a nutshell: Can’t get a degree in SL, even though I may deserve one. Go outside the country, get a degree. Come back to SL. Be told “get in the back of the line, beyotch, you ain’t from our hood nomore”. Yes, my attempt at a gangsta accent is weak. Deal. You think those people aren’t going to be pissed ? You think they’re not going to tug strings and find out if their uncle’s cousin’s nephew can somehow influence their posting ? Heck, you think people who graduated from local universities don’t go down that route to influence their posting ? Nepotism and corruption are (imho) separate issues.
I sorta agree about the fundamental rights cases though.. perhaps public humiliation before the firing squad ? ;) and for heaven’s sake, I don’t think England has much of a chance of winning either, but you weren’t here for Euro2004, were you ? If you plan on watching the Ashes from a pub in your locality, I’d recommend not cheering particularly loudly. (French friends of mine weren’t err.. popular after this match)
And no, Savi3, not a medic. I try my hand at fixing computers, not people :) just happen to have quite a few friends who are medics, though..
but nepotism and corruption seem to be the only ways to get anywhere in colombo these days… pure merit just doesnt seem to be enough no matter where ur degree is from.. lol..
wish i had tried my hand at fixing computers it seems to pay better than fixing ppl these days Thimal… lol..
Two points:
1. The main problem with the education system, especially up to A-Level, is that to succeed in it, you only need memory power. No project work, no independent thinking, no creativity is fostered or examined in primary and secondary education.
2. The choice of subjects when I was in school was absurd. Anyone who wanted to become a doctor (about 25%) had to take Zoology and Botany. Yes, Botany. All about plants. WTF?
I wanted to study economics at university, but I couldn’t combine economics with maths. WTF? Maths is only the most important prerequiste to studying higher economics, that’s all.
Chandare: The reason why prime time is prime time is because it’s got the ratings. People don’t want to watch English news. So it doesn’t have ratings. That’s why it’s not prime time. There were similar flaws with some of the other solutions you suggested.
I do agree that Sri Lanka would grow much faster if the education system was in English, but I don’t think it is absolutely necessary. Plenty of countries have done it without English.
I think J’s 1 and 2 points are very good. If the graduates we produce have higher unemployment than non-grads there’s a quality issue.
As to the language, I think it might make sense for people to learn Tamil. For one it makes us less likely to kill each other, and it can give Sri Lankan businesses access to a South Indian market.
When Canada was faced with Quebecois separatism they responded with aggressive bilingualism. So much so that most people in my generation took French in school. I’m not saying that most people are bilingual, but an awful lot are. It’s kept that country together, and those people are more employable now.
Ah yes – the Canadian solution. How could we have missed that one?! Nation of bloody morons that we are. Please regale us with more details of the Ohio State 12 step way to Weeding Out Mediocrity as well.
Remember kids, if trying to pick up girls on blogs has made your wrist tired, Nationalism is there for you! No need to type or think, when foriegners are soooo scary. Aaaaah, they’re colonizing us again!
In case anyone has the audacity to suggest that Sri Lanka might learn something from the world,
here’s looking at you, meddlesome Canada…
yup agreed with J.. but i thought u cud study in english after OLs in Colombo schools now? and havent they made the choice of AL subjects more flexible now? all heresay pls correct me if i’m WRONG :)
I’m following Jehan’s and Indi’s advice to use a pseudonym. It’s a damn shame…but still, one must cover one’s bases.
Yes Savithri your hearsay evidence is correct. The system is being changed. As Indi pointed out in his original post the system really was deficient, but I think Tara de Mel has gotten off her pretty little ass and is doing something constructive in a way that only she seems to know how. Banning alcohol at the Roy – Tho though was a big big mistake. Stupid woman. Anyway – live and learn.
Yes J – STC did give you a hard time as far as subjects were concerned. It was more an administrative thing that anything else. You would have had to walk from building to building and be on different rolls in different classes. It would have been a pain in the ass and they weren’t going to change the stuffy system for one bugger. College’s loss – CIS’s gain. And let’s face it you got laid a lot more than I ever did in school.
But the wheels of realisation – they are a turning. A/L subjects are now far more flexible and English is being slowly made compulsory(ish). Aptitude tests are also part of the criteria to enter university. Project work etc., has also been introduced. So things are looking up, even purely because it could look no further down. Maybe Tara de Mel visited Canada once. Who knows?
Ado Indi, Senpathi Maya mage gal kolla…panditha wenna awoth umbatath puke arinawa thadi pollaking.
What is this about banning CH2OH at the Royal – Thomian? Who is Tara De Mel (?) what in the world allows a upstart woman to make such a decision?
i hope you understand that I have to get my mom to translate all these. So, apparently I need to stick a pole up my ass? And you’re buggering Senpathi?
Aney pow…podi kolla…amma ukkungda? For fuck’s sake!
damn it, Amma translated that too! She says to watch your language, Shanaka
I’ll translate any crap that shanaka spouts if you want. So your mother doesn’t have to be blindsided by his dazzling wit. Services offered. No big words please, only invective.
there is something more than a bit creepy about having to get one’s mother to translate invective hurled at you on your own blog. And Babelfish doesn’t support Sinhala yet, either.
Might I suggest the swearsaurus ? (Teach a man how to swear and he can handle abuse hurled at him by errant three wheeler guys etc etc)
On a serious note…I apologise to your mother for any offence caused. I am sure Mrs. Samarajiva is a very nice lady, and hopefully has a sense of humour, which due to the idiosyncracies of genetics she has unfortunately not been able to pass on to her offspring to enable him to take that which he dishes out with such disdain, in good spirits.
However, I do not apologise for content because you can’t expect to dive into the deep sea and expect the sharks not to bite because your mother tells them not to. If so, don’t swim.
I recommend taking Ruwani up on her offer. Thimal…’creepy’ is a euphamism if I ever heard one in this context.
J buddy went to CIS? might i know him sophist? i’ll ask u on MSN cos i dont want to blow ur cover and all.. lol
swearing is all good. Mrs Gamage thought it was funny. She also taught me parri balli, though that is of questionable utility here. My parents were the first people to read this and they still do, so it’s not like I’m hiding anything. Thanks for the swearasauras link, Thimal. Why we have a word for tree fucker is beyond me.
[...] re between me and Sophist. A negotiated settlement, perhaps. Limited autonomy for Doctor, Lawyer, Engineer and a joint mechanism for comments. They’re probably right, [...]