Effective option for youngsters

By Rathindra Kuruwita and Umesh Moramudali

Despite free education up to the tertiary level, about 20 per cent of those who pass the GCE A/L examination give up higher studies. One of the options for them is the vocational training. Renowned educationist, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha in an interview with Ceylon Today (26 Dec 2016) shares his views regarding the importance of vocational training.
Excerpts:

The GCE O/L examination for 2016 has just concluded. About 20 to 25 per cent of students who sit the GCE O/L examination are not qualified to sit the GCE A/L exam. For example, the percentage was 21.21 per cent in 2015. Most of them are from disadvantaged families. Are there any courses offered to them by the Vocational Training Authority (VTA)?

A: The VTA is one among the agencies of the Ministry of Skills Development and Vocational Training that offers courses for those without GCE O/L and those with GCE O/L and A/L qualifications. But the system was confused with little clarity about the different levels and the curriculum incorporating different levels. So, it was not quite clear what was available and what prerequisites were needed.

The Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission (TVEC), which is the coordinating body for all the agencies decided to rationalize and set out clear career paths. The ministry consolidated it by clearly matching the NVQ 3 to the Ordinary Level for relevant jobs in government service while NVQ 4 has been equalized to the Advanced Level.

We also decided to provide skills to any student who seeks better employment prospects at any level, by starting a number of 3-month NVQ level 3 qualifications. In addition to the technical subjects in the fields generally associated with Vocational Training – construction, automobile repair, manufacturing – we have decided to move into the service sector in a big way, based on current labour requirements. So, there are several 3-month courses for the hotel industry, logistics and office work. Interestingly enough, the most applications for the 3-month Introduction to Office work course came from Jaffna, where bright youngsters want to use productively the time now wasted because of our mad education system that leaves students at a loose end after the Ordinary Level examination. We have also got many applicants for the Building Career Skills course, including English communication we started this year.

What about the A/L students who don’t qualify to enter a university or do not want to enter universities?

Endgame: Meditations on a House, a Country, a Career – 22 After the funeral

There was much to do in the few days following my father’s death, but we had no complications, because both my mother and he had been very clear when they wrote their wills. My father had not wanted to write one, on the grounds that he had nothing in his name, but I had persuaded him that he had to because unexpected possessions could turn up. And in fact he certainly possessed a car.

He said he would leave that to me, but I thought that would not be correct given that I had persuaded him to write a will. He then wanted to leave it to Anila’s son, which seemed an eminently sensible idea, but she was adamant about not having a benefit for her family over and above what the children of my brother had. So in the end my father decided to give the car to Chamara who had looked after him devotedly over the last couple of years.

Anila, hyper-conscious of equity, suggested he leave it to both those who looked after him, but this was silly because Sunil, whom I had taken on when the Reconciliation Office closed, though a good worker, was not the old friend Chamara was regarded as by my father. I thought it best then not to consult Anila about the will in general, in particular the clause about a residual legatee, which was essential since one never knew what might pop up in my father’s name. Again he wanted to nominate me, but I insisted on Anila and he did not demur. This proved just as well, because there turned out to be a motorcycle he had bought for his last driver, Jayantha, and also some shares in my mother’s name.

The main house had been left by my mother to my sister and me jointly, on the grounds that we would not quarrel. This did not prove to be an accurate prediction, since we had very different tastes, but it was certainly true that no one could have doubted Anila’s financial integrity and sense of equity, and I hope she would say the same about me.

Endgame: Meditations on a House, a Country, a Career – 21 Last Rites

I had left for Jordan the day after my father’s 93^rd birthday, on June 27^th. He had had a party as usual, and all the reception rooms downstairs, the dining room and the rectangular verandah in front, and the large drawing room with its extensions, the round verandah giving on to the garden and the smaller room behind where the piano stands, were all full. But numbers were fewer than in previous years and, though as usual my father enjoyed himself, he had not been as determined as in previous years that no one should be left out, that all friends and relations should be invited.

He seemed to enjoy cutting the cake and I have a lovely picture of him just afterwards, with his three children around him and his oldest friend, C Mylvaganam, who was just a few hours older, seen dimly in the background. We also had the usual ritual of opening presents afterwards, which I remembered too from my grandmother’s birthdays, the last one in 1993 her 93^rd.

I sensed that this birthday would also be my father’s last, though I continued to think, or perhaps to hope, that he would live longer than his mother-in-law had done. She had died on his birthday in 1994, a little over six months after her birthday, so I thought that my father would be with us until Christmas and beyond.

He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, but the doctor had told us that there was no point in any intervention, it was a very slow moving disease, and old age was likely to do for my father before the cancer did. It had got worse earlier that year, but there still seemed no reason to worry overmuch. But after I got back from Jordan I had to take him for several tests, and it was clear that his condition was worsening. After the last test I showed a specialist, recommended when the enormously kind Dr Malalasekera, who had dealt initially with the prostate problem, thought this now necessary, it was clear that nothing more could be done. I was simply tasked then with trying to ensure that he did not worry. Fortunately we could at any stage call on the old family GP, Vimala Navaratnam, the most thoughtful and practical of doctors.

I was still out much of the time, travelling to the North and East for Reconciliation meetings at Divisional Secretariats, in Parliament for various committees, and at my cottage over weekends. This was not a problem for my father still continued interested in his principal pursuits in these last few years, cricket and Hindi films. He also still read, though not as much as he had done when he would sit upright at his desk in the lounge. Now he spent all day in his room, in his armchair, though he did still make the effort to come to the dining room for meals. But he had at last accepted the need for a wheelchair, and I had my coffee alone in the lounge until he was ready to emerge for breakfast.