- Recommends 80 institutions to be suspended
- Calls for uniform for Vocational Training
Nearly 80 institutions of higher education have been listed for suspension, for allegedly running substandard courses of study, The Daily Morning learns.
The decision follows recommendations submitted by the sub-committee on Tertiary Education of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) on the matter. It is learnt that the suspended institutions are suspected of having conducted substandard courses of study, with the prime consideration of only gaining financially.
When contacted by The Daily Morning yesterday (06) the Chairman of the Committee, MP Madura Vithanage, said that the sub-committee recommended to the relevant officials to take legal measures after publicising the recommendations in a newspaper, and sealing the identified institutions.
The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Parliamentarian also said that the committee advised the relevant authorities to take immediate actions to regulate all the institutional bodies which offer National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) certificate courses.
According to MP Vithanage the sub-committee recommended to the Secretary of the Ministry of Education to speed up the preparation of a common program to consolidate all vocational training institutions and resources and take the necessary steps to streamline this process. “As there is a great demand for certain foreign jobs with high salaries, we, in the sub-committee, pointed out the need for all institutions to work together to produce qualified trained workers,” he said.
He said that the heads of institutions including the Ministry of Education, Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission, National Apprenticeship and Vocational Training Authority (VTA), Vocational Training Authority, German Institute of Vocational Training had been invited to a meeting where the recommendations and decisions were revealed. Vithanage said that the need for a common programme was discussed at the meeting as the uniformity of tasks and objectives of some professional training institutes is an issue and the committee emphasised the need to formulate a common policy so that such projects do not change under different governments.
Meanwhile, the VTA recently said that they are to implement a new programme to promote vocational education within Government schools, following the statement made by Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena last month that immediate steps should be taken to direct school leavers to vocational training and to direct them to job opportunities.