On October 17, the Inter-University Students’ Federation (IUSF) and several other student organizations met with Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, calling for an urgent solution to the deepening crisis in public education, including in state universities. Ta.
IUSF convener Madhushan Chandrajith (centre) speaks at a press conference regarding his meeting with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Harini on October 17, 2024. Mr. Amarasuriya is also the Minister of Education. [Photo: Facebook/IUSF]
Mr Amarasurya is also the education minister in President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s Janata Vimukti Peramuna (JVP)/National People’s Power (NPP) government and a member of its three-member cabinet.
The IUSF is dominated by the pseudo-leftist Front Socialist Party (FSP), which promotes the illusion of a right-wing, pro-corporate JVP/NPP government and has hailed Dissanayake’s election as an expression of “people’s expectations.” Ta.
The Students’ Union Leadership Council followed a seven-page letter written by IUSF convener Madhushan Chandrajith to Mr Amarasuriya outlining some of the issues faced by students at state universities.
IUSF convener Chandrajith said in a media briefing on October 21 that student leaders’ calls for a speedy solution to the difficulties faced by students had not received a “positive response” from ministers. I lamented that.
The IUSF letter listed problems such as a lack of university dormitories and auditoriums, delayed payments of mahapola (financial aid to students), a shortage of teachers, and the privatization of education. According to the report, state universities need 12,900 teachers, but only 6,548 are currently employed. The Faculty of Business Administration and Faculty of Computer Science at the University of Peradeniya and the University of Sabaragamuwa, respectively, lack the necessary facilities to operate.
Southeastern University’s registration fee for new students has increased from 2,100 rupees to 6,100 rupees ($20), while other universities have increased exam fees and other basic costs. The letter called for an end to the privatization of medical education, and Mahapora’s meager monthly student aid payment was increased to Rs 10,000.
As expected, Mr. Amarasurya, like previous education ministers, declared that the JVP/NPP government would not provide immediate solutions to these demands. Education Minister Chandrajit, who convened the IUSF, told the media that he “could not give a final answer” on preventing privatization of medical education, and made it clear that he had no intention of increasing aid to Mahapora.
IUSF said the teacher shortage was the result of many leaving the country due to exorbitant income taxes imposed by the former Wickremesinghe government. However, Mr Amarasurya told the delegation that a review of Colombo’s tax policy would take time and it would be impossible to “take a policy decision” regarding the hostel shortage. In short, the minister deceived the student leaders.
This is not surprising, but it is yet another confirmation that the Dissanayake government and its economic advisers are fully committed to the instructions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The new government has made it clear it will maintain Wickremesinghe’s previous program and is doing everything it can to secure the next $3 billion IMF bailout loan.
These measures include significant tax increases, including value-added tax (VAT) that has driven up the prices of essential goods, forced wage freezes, the initiation of privatization of state-owned enterprises and the destruction of an estimated 500,000 jobs, and government education This included systematic cuts in funding. And health.
The JVP had previously claimed to support the demand of students and educators that 6% of Sri Lanka’s gross domestic product (GDP) be allocated to education. The NPP’s fanciful and nationalistic election manifesto is “Nation Prosperity!” Beautiful country! ” — advocated a gradual increase in allocation to education to 6 percent of GDP.
However, in a workshop attended by hundreds of school principals from across Sri Lanka on September 28, Amarasurya said that funding for education at 6 per cent of GDP “cannot be done all at once” in the face of economic collapse. said. She wryly claimed that the government would “systematically pursue these goals.”
IUSF convener Chandrajith told a press conference that the JVP/NPP had previously maintained that it was opposed to Wickremesinghe’s National Education Policy Framework, which proposed increased privatization. “I don’t understand why nuclear power plants don’t oppose the privatization of medical education when they opposed this policy,” he said. His letter called on the new government to “immediately halt any attempt to establish a private medical college” and declared that this was “the government’s responsibility to fulfill the wishes of the people.”
The IUSF convener told the media that the organization would launch “agitations within the university” to implement its demands. In other words, IUSF will stage a protest claiming that it can pressure the Dissanayake government to implement the students’ demands, just as it has done under previous Colombo governments.
IUSF has been mobilizing students under this dead-end political banner since it was formed by the JVP in 1978. The same perspective was continued by the FSP after it left the JVP in 2012. The main purpose of this program is to prevent students from declining academically. From turning to the working class with a revolutionary anti-capitalist program.
In contrast to the IUSF, the JVP/NPP is not interested in fulfilling “people’s aspirations”. The country has cynically exploited popular anger against the ruling elite’s traditional political parties to gain power, and is now collaborating with the IMF and big Sri Lankan corporations to brutalize workers, students, and rural masses. is making a serious attack.
There are no national solutions to the serious social problems faced by students, the working class, and the poor within capitalism. As the revenue system crisis deepens, public education, health care, and other vital social services will be among the first to be targeted. This applies not only to the United States but also to all other capitalist countries, including Sri Lanka.
The Biden administration in the US has earmarked billions of dollars for the Israeli genocide in Gaza, the NATO-led war in Ukraine, and preparations for war with China. We recently ended federal aid to schools under the Emergency Relief Fund program, which will result in the loss of 380,000 educator jobs over the next two years.
Starting with the Jayawardene government’s “open market” policy in 1977, successive Sri Lankan governments have systematically cut funding for free public education and expanded private schools and universities across the country.
The struggle for free and quality education at all levels, the expansion of Mahapora support, and the escalating privatization of universities and schools are inseparable from the struggle against the capitalist system. This means a political struggle against the Dissanayake government and its IMF policies.
The accumulated profits and billions of rupees extracted from the working class and rural masses and now used to repay foreign creditors must be used to expand public education, health and other necessary social services. Must be.
Students must rely on the working class, the only international and revolutionary force that can advance this struggle.
FSP and IUSF leaders are hostile to this point of view, falsely claiming that students alone can pressure capitalist governments for solutions.
During the 2022 mass uprising that toppled the Rajapaksa regime, the FSP and IUSF directed workers, students and youth to support Samagi Jana Balawegaya and JVP/NPP’s call for a transitional capitalist regime. . This perspective betrayed the mass movement and paved the way for the Wickremesinghe government and its implementation of IMF austerity.
We, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE), urge our students to stand up to the working class and fight for a revolutionary program based on the following principles:
Nationalize large corporations, plantations, and banks under worker control! No to IMF austerity and privatization! Refuse all foreign loans!
Let us advance the struggle for a workers’ and peasants’ government as part of the international socialist struggle. This is the plan promoted by the Socialist Equality Party in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
We strongly encourage students to join IYSSE, establish a chapter at their university, vote for SEP candidates in their district, participate in campaigns, and advance the fight for that vision.
Please contact us via email or WhatsApp.
Email: iysseslb@gmail.com
WhatsApp: +94773562327
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