A University professor in South Africa wrote an expressive message to his students at the doctorate, master's and bachelor's levels and placed it at the entrance in his university. This is the message:
“Collapsing any nation does not require the use of atomic bombs or the use of long range missiles.
It only requires lowering the quality of education and allowing cheating in the examinations by the students”. “The patient dies in the hands of such doctors. And the buildings collapse in the hands of such engineers. And the money is lost in the hands of such accountants. And humanity dies in the hands of such religious scholars. And justice is lost in the hands of such judges...The collapse of education is the collapse of the nation.”
How very true and particularly apt the quoted advice and summation is for Sri Lanka, at this time. This feline would expand the idea expressed that collapsing a nation requires a lowering of the quality of education and cheating at exams, by adding: preventing others from being educated and creating chaos through morally wrong acts of subversion in the way of strikes. Because this is just what is being done now: lowering standards of education by preventing those unfortunate students who were debarred from the government medical faculties by just a couple of marks from studying in a local private medical college. And thus the practising doctors of the GMOA lower their professional standards too. Patients die at the hands of such doctors. And thus, the threat of the collapse of the nation.
In which local arena is the quotation most apt? In the conflicted sphere of medical education. One simply cannot understand why the dead horse of the SAITM issue is still flogged by the GMOA and Inter-University Students Unions. This feline is utterly sick to the point of puking when at press briefings one or two doctors sanctimoniously pronounce that the GMOA is striking work the next day for 24 hours since the SAITM issue is not resolved as they want it to be. That is to close the college, dismantle the attached hospital and let the students who have already passed the final exam and others who are following the course be … damned! The last time I heard the big guns of the GMOA (not Dr Padeniya) make their warning of a 24 hour strike; i.e. on Monday 22 May, they had two further reasons for striking which were even more ridiculous, unreasonable and completely unjustifiable. They were striking before lawful action was taken against Dr Padeniya who was accused of contempt of court. The third reason was that the striking university students were stopped in their illegal and manic march in protest of SAITM. Now these last two reasons hold no water and they go to show how far removed the GMOA is from sense and reason.
Yet another medical strike in the offing
A daily newspaper on Wednesday 24 May headlined, “GMOA threatens indefinite strike”. Why pray? Because “…The government doctors had appealed to the President to place before the judiciary the proposals put forward by the Minister of Higher Education to resolve the SAITM issue…. However, despite the government proposals SAITM continued to enrol students, the GMOA official alleged.” It is not stated whether the President did as he was bid. Now, that seems to be what the GMOA aims at – calling the tune to the President himself and so their destructive juggernaut to destabilize the government. People really and truly are disgusted at how these lightening strikes disrupt one of the most essential services: care of the sick and disabled.
Teachers follow suit to disrupt normalcy
One of Wednesday’s newspapers carried a letter to the editor headlined “Sick leave to attend Conference”. Only in this bit of Paradise does such things happen. The Lanka Guru Sangamaya urged its members numbering 11,000 to apply for sick leave on May 24 and attend a conference to be held in Colombo. Shocking, the writer of the letter says. Worse is this cat’s opinion. Shocking, disgraceful, completely immoral, underhand, and even subversive. What about the thousands of children in schools without teachers? If members of the said Sangamaya obeyed orders, then most teachers would have taken three days off: one to travel to Colombo, one to attend the conference and one to return home. How moral obligation has deteriorated; how indifference to duty and responsibility has increased!
Times gone by
This cat in her just-past-kitten-days was a teacher. She started her pedagogical career in a Christian private school in Kandy. The Principal was kind and approachable but the staff treated her with great respect. The just maturing kitten three days into teaching was summoned to the Principal’s office. She shivered and shook fit to suffer a seizure, so nervous was she. The Principal very kindly suggested she wear her hair up and not in a pony tail. Promptly done, though a daily early morning struggle ensued until the art of tying a kondé was mastered. She then taught in a remote government school. Her shock was immense when she heard teachers at break in the staff room pronounce they had leave left. “Heta indang mung leave gannawa.” No concern at all for duties. She went back to a private school in Colombo this time, and palpitated with other teachers whenever leave was needed for a wedding of a close relative and such like. Leave was always granted if a child or parent was ill, and never were reasons for application of leave lied about. A foreign school forbade leave taking for funerals unless it was a member of the family, meaning parent or child who had died. These were justified strictures since weekends were off days and every three months came almost a month of holidays. Self centredness, deceit and lack of a sense of responsibility were totally frowned upon then.
How is it now? It seems to be that money, being the be-all and end-all, has almost all professionals in its clutches. Also, disregard for what is morally correct is rampant. Further, to compound matters, politics have invaded almost all professional and non-professional fields.
No wonder the nation could collapse without a gun being fired, leave alone an atom bomb exploding.
- Menika