As has been stressed by The Daily Morning on several occasions, the crisis that has surrounded the country’s education sector is not a mere crisis of the present, but is more of a crisis of the future that is likely to extend to more sectors beyond the education sector and lead to far-reaching, long-term impacts. The sector is struggling to get back up, although newer issues keep affecting the sector.

The latest development in this regard, which has attracted criticism from different fronts, is the university lecturers’ decision to withdraw from the evaluation of the answer papers of the General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (GCE A/L) Examination of 2022, which has brought to a halt the process of A/L students getting enrolled in universities. The leading university academics’ group, the Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) this week announced that it had decided to make a final decision with regard to resuming those activities following a discussion it is planning to have with President Ranil Wickremesinghe. This decision has received the attention of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka as well as the criticism of the general public including students who urge the FUTA to suspend their trade union action provisionally, at least until the paper marking activities of the 2022 A/L are completed. 

The reason for FUTA’s decision is neither a secret nor a problem that only university lecturers are facing. The FUTA claims that its decision was caused by the Government’s failure to resolve the issue of excessive taxes which it claims has affected university lecturers. Demanding the same, during the past few months, professionals from various backgrounds collectively took to the streets against the Government’s new tax policy, which resulted in tax hikes across all personal income tax groups. However, many groups that engaged in those protests, many of whom represent sectors or services that are essential to maintain the public’s daily lives, were open to temporary solutions or agreements in order to continue their fight while also continuing their services, which has resulted in the resumption of the services rendered by them. The simple request that came from the Government and was accepted by many of those groups was, even though any person has a right to protest, that should not affect the general public who are already battling the impacts of the socio-economic crisis.

There is no question that every citizen is entitled to the freedom to protest. However, when groups on which many rely decide to protest, “at what cost?” becomes a question. In this case, the cost seems to be too high to not be flexible, because the majority of the students are victims of the Covid-19 pandemic-related developments such as school closures and lockdowns, impacts of the socio-economic crisis including inflation and the postponement of examinations and academic activities, and above all, the adverse impacts of the disputes between the Government and the education authorities, the educators, and trade unions representing the school and university systems. The impacts of any disruption to their academic activities or examinations have the potential to worsen the issues that they have been going through during the past two-three years, and therefore, finding a way to continue protests without causing further disruptions to education is the only way forward.

While it is true that the Government and education-sector trade unions have had never-ending disputes for a long time, even before the prevailing crises befell the country, the circumstances in which such disputes existed before and how they exist now are vastly different. The future of many students is at stake, and by extension, the country’s future which depends on its next generation is also in a precarious state. This is a time where educators should set an example about how to prioritise students’ education over all other issues. If children actually are the country’s future as claimed in the general society and on political stages, why it seems like the responsible parties have taken the children’s future to ransom in their tug of war, is a question that is worth being asked.