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Take on corruption in school admissions

Deeply entrenched corruption in the school admission process has just claimed a major victim. A poor and distraught mother who had failed to have her child admitted to a national school in the provinces has taken her life.

This highlights the extreme torment suffered by parents and elders who have to contend bitterly with an array of seemingly insurmountable obstacles to obtain for their children the legitimate entitlement of a sound primary and secondary education.

We could take heart from the fact that corruption in the school admission process is now receiving the attention of President Kumaratunga herself, the Minister of Education, who has already ordered tough disciplinary action against some errant school principals. We request the President to do everything within the bounds of the law to bring to book corrupt officials, including school principals, who would bend and even do away with school recruitment procedures to fatten their bank balances with ill-gotten gains.

It is no longer a secret that all is not well with school admissions, particularly at the level of Year I. Quite a few palms are needed to be greased, it is told, for the admission of a child to primary school although not all school authorities should be tarred with the same brush. Nevertheless, it is quite some time since the rot set in and hitherto very little drastic action has been taken to stem it. However, now that the President has taken cognisance of this problem, we urge her to leave no stone unturned until corruption in school admissions is wiped out.

The President has proved that she is eminently suitable to launch drastic remedial action in this regard. Right along she has not only shown that she has a special place in her heart for children but made it amply clear that she is for equality and fairness in the educational sphere. For instance, last Friday, President Kumaratunga visited Calvary Centre at Maggona, where a number of displaced children are housed and remained respectfully until they had said their prayers before enquiring into their well being. Among other things, this also proves the President's secular credentials, which we believe should be highlighted by everyone of the same mind, now at a time when religious begots are trying to make inroads into our tolerant cultural ethos.

Coming back to corruption in school admissions, it must be recognised that such distortions are a two-way process. Inasmuch as there are corrupt school officials there are corrupt parents. Corrupt school principals are fattened by conniving parents who are willing to pay the prohibitive price demanded by the former. There are parents who would go to any lengths to get their children into fancied schools.

Ideally, both partners to the crime must be brought to justice. Besides the educational authorities, the law and order machinery and the Bribery and Corruption Commission need to make a frontal attack on this form of corruption. The higher the price to be paid for corruption, the greater would be the disincentive to engage in it. May all systems go to stem the rot.

War against poverty

The World Economic Forum in Davos is usually driven by, and focused on, big business. This year, though, global poverty was the main issue in the spotlight. This was helped in no small measure by a slew of stars who shone on the summit.

US big screen stars Angelina Jolie, Sharon Stone, singers Bono and Lionel Ritchie vied for attention with the leaders of Britain, France and Germany, leaving chiefs of oil, pharmaceutical, computer, and industrial conglomerates to play supporting roles.

The Swiss Alpine resort is the last place on Earth where one thinks of poverty, but this time there was no escape from the glaring fact that half the world is poor. Starpower brought it to the surface and actually raised funds for the anti-poverty drive. This enhanced focus on poverty is especially appropriate in the case of post-tsunami Asia, where several countries were adversely affected.

Asked by the forum organisers to choose six issues that urgently needed to be tackled in the world - 64 per cent of participants placed poverty at the top, followed by equitable globalisation and climate change.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac, and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder pledged to find ways of ploughing billions of dollars in aid, trade or debt relief into poor countries this year.

But the stars truly drove the point home. Stone, an anti-poverty activist, stole the limelight by extracting one million dollars from the largely corporate audience within minutes. Bono told the audience that a whole generation in Western countries wanted "to be remembered for something other than the war against terror".

Apart from the stars, various anti-poverty groups are putting pressure on the developed world. A coalition of groups at the alternative World Social Forum (WSF) in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre called for a global mobilisation against poverty.

The war against poverty must start now. Aid is just one aspect of the anti-poverty drive. Enhanced trade and concessions for trade are far more effective ways of helping developing countries. Rich countries must also abolish or scale down subsidies granted to their farmers, which affect exports from developing countries. Davos is an ideal starting point for a concerted global effort to fight poverty.

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