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Equipping our students for the future

Our heart-warming, front page picture yesterday of Employment and Labour Minister Mahinda Samarasinge handing over a scholarship to Menaka Devi Udayakumar, a student from the Jaffna peninsula, spoke volumes for the success of the Government's North-South bridge-building program. Here is evidence that the needy of the North-East are being brought into the mainstream of national life. It is important that these efforts continue for the establishment of national reconciliation.

The function in focus was the disbursement of scholarship funds among children of migrant workers by the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment. The event happened to coincide with a protest wave among some of our undergraduates over the alleged inadequacy of State bursaries provided for their upkeep. Very much in the news is also a protest by a section of the unemployed graduate population for State intervention in resolving their problem.

Speculation in some quarters that disgruntled political elements may be behind these demonstrations is not quite to the point because the problem of educated unemployment and the financial upkeep of needy students have been ranking problems in our body politic over the decades. That these problems need to be resolved as quickly as possible goes without saying.

We are glad to note, however, that a National Employment Policy, which would be looking closely at these problems, is already in the making. We urge its speedy implementation for the defusing of the current student unrest, which could blow out of control if not resolved in a just manner.

It augurs well for the future that efforts are under way to kickstart the Northern economy, through, among other things, enterprise development and investment promotion in the region. Industries Minister Rohitha Bogollagama did well to accompany the Prime Minister on his landmark tour of the North, with a view to injecting life into this process. Students such as Menaka Devi Udayakumar, who are today recipients of State bursaries, would be in a position to have themselves employed and prove self-sufficient with the rejuvenation of the Northern economy, if they are sufficiently equipped to take on the new jobs which would be on offer.

Much will depend on how well these students - whether they be in the North, South, East or West - equip themselves, in point of skills and qualifications, to take on future employment opportunities which would, generally, have very little to do with the Arts or the Humanities.

This position should not be misunderstood to mean that one could summarily dismiss the Arts as being irrelevant and valueless. Far from it. The Humanities and the Arts are essential for civilized living and there is no getting away from this fact. However, educational reform at the graduate and post-graduate level, particularly, should take cognizance of the need for subject combinations which would ensure the employability of students.

While the Arts should not be jettisoned, students should be encouraged into trying out new subject combinations which would be responsive to emerging national needs.

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