Action against ragging in SL universities

[Godman]

UGC plans web-based complaints system to stop ragging
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The University Grants Commission (UGC) will soon introduce a web based complaining system for victims of ragging, UGC Chairman Prof. Mohan de Silva said. The move came as anti-ragging groups are activating themselves to containing ragging in universities.

Prof. Silva said that the Standing Committee Gender Equity/Equality is discussing the introduction of a policy against ragging that could be practiced island wide. He said that the process of establishing a web based complaining system is a lengthy process and already the support of information technology experts has been sought to develop the system.

“ This web based system should be accessible to all students throughout the country and at the same time it should be effective,” he said. Prof. Silva said that he too was informed about students being ragged by seniors, cases of students escaping from ragging as well as those supporting anti-ragging campaigns.

“However the system to make complaints should be set up soon so that action can be taken against such incidents.We are even discussing with the Federation of University Teachers Association about ways to stop ragging,” he said.

He said he has also scheduled a further meeting with the Colombo University authorities about the complaints of ragging and a case of anti-ragging students at the Institute of Indigenous Medicine being assaulted.

Chanuka Perera, president of the students’ union of the Faculty of Applied Sciences at Sri Jayawardanapura University said that ragging is not needed to socialise and introduce a subculture in a university.

He explained that the whole faculty took up an anti-ragging stance and introduced a combination of items to cultivate leadership qualities among the students. Mr. Perera said that the student identification programme would be effected by organising a sports meet or a blood donation programme or by letting freshers stage a drama to collect money for charity work.

“ We university students are here because we are the knowledgeable few who passed exams and scored high marks. We came to climb the ladder of education therefore we can unite by using that knowledge for the good of society,” he said.
A student who is supporting the anti-ragging concept at Kelaniya university said that the science faculty there is also taking a stand against ragging. She said that the student union of the science faculty of which she is a member is not linked with the Inter University Students Federation (IUSF).

“We too are carrying out a campaign to establish an anti-ragging culture by having no ragging since 1999,” she said.
The Federation of University Teachers’ Association (FUTA) chairman Dr. Rangika Halwatura said that two meetings with the IUSF had been held and a dialogue started between students and university academic staff.

He said that FUTA supports anti-ragging ideas but he personally does not like to divide students as ragging supporters and anti-ragging groups. Therefore FUTA has started to have a series of meetings with each student union.
Lahiru Weerasekara, Convener of the University Students Federation (IUSF) said his organisation is not aware as to who is creating an anti-ragging group.

 

[Godman]

Sri Lankan government to strictly enforce law against ragging
Sat, May 14, 2016, 11:19 am SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

May 14, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government will strictly enforce the law banning the ragging in state's higher education institutions, Leader of the House and Minister of Higher Education and Highways Lakshman Kiriella said.

Although the law banning the inhumane practice of ragging has been passed in the parliament ragging still continues in Sri Lanka universities as the law is not strictly enforced, the Higher Education Minister said.

"Ragging is prohibited through a bill in Parliament. The Parliament has passed a set of laws that allow students who engage in ragging to be punished. But what has happened is that the law is not operational," the Minister has said in a statement.

Sri Lanka parliament in 1998 passed the "Prohibition of Ragging and other forms of violence in Educational Institutions Act, No. 20 of 1998" banning the practice and clearly specifying the punishment including prison terms for violators.

"As a government, we will enforce the law accordingly. This is good governance; it was in the past that the law wasn't operational. During the previous regime journalists were killed, media organizations were set ablaze, people were kidnapped, the Chief Justice was removed, etc. That was a time where injustice ruled, but as a good governing regime we will enforce the law accordingly," he has said.

Minister Kiriella said authorities will take action according to the law against university ragging.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan universities have also decided to fully implement the Charter signed by the Commonwealth University Union and the University Grants Commission to eliminate ragging and violence against women and to take stern action against ragging from the 12th of this month after a freshman female student of Kelaniya University was assaulted by a group of senior students during ragging.

Vice Chancellor of the Kelaniya University, Professor Sunanda Madduma Bandara said last week under the Universities act, the offenders can be sentenced to two to five years in prison.
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No wonder how many dumb Sri Lankans are their when the place where open thinking and debate is supposed to be developed is turned into a hell by the same students who are selected for these and it's these Psychopaths that are against private universities

 

[HeinzG]

Ragging in the universities cannot be eradicated by simply banning it or by just wishing it to go away. The root cause of the ragging is deeply embedded in the system itself. Therefore the whole structure of the education system needs to change top down.