No cheers for Govt. or FUTA

The Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) is up in arms.  University students point fingers at the government for non-resolution of issues raised by their gurus.  University aspirants, victims of the Z-score imbroglio, are waiting on politicians to sort out the blame-game.  Add to this the fact that there is a huge mismatch between the education system and overall national skill requirement with a view to the future based on long term development policy with not even a whisper regarding the compilation of an occupational classification and we can conclude ‘Education is a mess’. 

FUTA has now gone beyond the salary issue to talk about education in general and specifically about budgetary allocations, countering claims made by the Government (a statement on the subject authored by FUTA President, Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri is carried in these pages).  It is incumbent on the Government therefore to respond as comprehensively to each and every point made.  Telling lecturers to get back to work and mouthing promises about redress will simply not work because a) FUTA has determined to dig its heels in for a long struggle, and b) broken promises have robbed value from pledge. 

FUTA has now moved from petition and strike to public agitation.  It has taken to the streets.  There is a big gap between taking to the streets and taking the streets of course, but there are talks of an ‘Academic Spring’ and FUTA feeding on general dissatisfaction and disappointment.  It makes political sense in terms of achieving objectives.  The downside is that such a course of action automatically turns teachers into pawns of broader political projects, some of which are orchestrated by forces that really don’t give a damn about education, ‘free’ or otherwise.  If FUTA or anyone else is unconcerned about the names and purposes of political bedfellows it only means that integrity is up for barter. 

FUTA may be made of academics but right now it is made of politicians, activists and, let’s face it, agent provocateurs. Right now it is in unionist mode.  Still, given the vocation, it is not out of order to toss back to FUTA certain tenets that are central to the membership. 

We can ask about academic honesty.  We can ask Dr. Dewasiri if FUTA is ready to write about all the negatives of the academic community that makes its membership.  What about competencies, for example?  How about the incessant infighting for the so-called voluntary posts that the FUTA membership has self-righteously resigned from on occasion?  FUTA’s professed love for students and scholarship does not right true when one considers rank favoritism and a culture of down-grading students who are considered potential threats to position, would Dr. Dewasiri disagree?  Can all of it be put down to fund-lack and flawed government policy? 

How about rampant mediocrity?  Will FUTA admit, for example, that its membership happily made use of a scandalous decision to count in even newspaper articles and appreciations when awarding professorships?  When will FUTA tell us how many peer reviewed articles have been published by individual members in various internationally respected journals? 

Prominent members of FUTA have on occasion written tirades against private universities, even as other prominent FUTA members have openly advocated capitalism and submission to market forces.  In fact the latter kind was conspicuous in their silence in the first two decades of the ‘Open Economy’.  Is party loyalty driving academic thrust, then?   Why have those who opposed the Malabe Medical facility on grounds of quality-lack remained silent about even poorer facilities and human resources at Rajarata?

The Government certainly does not have the moral right to ask such questions.  The people can, though.  Many would prefer academics as opposed to politicians playing Opposition in a nation that sorely needs strong critiques of regime and system.  No one expects anyone to be a saint, but ‘saintly’ is the unnamed tag that FUTA in its many missives have used.  FUTA is a body that has largely concerned itself with any major national issue.  That’s not wrong because unions typically focus on issues that are peculiar to the vocation.  Right now FUTA seems to determined to take on broader issues.  That has to be applauded in the better-late-than-never sense.  It requires responsibility, however.  And responsibility requires honesty.  That’s lacking and that lack may prove fatal in terms of winning over public trust, so important for the role that FUTA seeks to play, going strictly by its statements.

Right now, no one is applauding the government.  There are some hand claps for the academics, but they are guarded.  Rightly so.  Both parties have poor briefs to defend.  That shows how poverty stricken we all our as a people and as a nation. 

['The Nation' Editorial, July 29, 2012]