By Kushali Atukorale
Hundreds of students from the Sri Jayewardenepura University held a demonstration against its management, by placing a coffin surrounded with black flags, at the entrance to the university, declaring that free education in the country was now in its last stages. The protest was held to mark ‘Black Week’ titled ‘Death knell for free education,’ which will end on Sunday (16).

The University’s Student’s Union has, meanwhile, handed over a petition to the Dean, Faculty of Management, Prof Hillary Silva, demanding that the requirement for attendance be scaled down from 80% to 40%, as the minimum qualification a student should have, to sit for the examination.
Chairman, Student’s Union, Pulasthi Jayasekara, told The Bottom Line yesterday that it was unfair for the university management to impose a new regulation of 80% attendance for students to be eligible to sit for examinations.

“Most of the students are from outstation and cannot afford to travel daily to university. Hence, they can’t maintain an attendance of 80%. Just because they are unable to attend lectures, it should not mean that they cannot sit for examinations. We have already protested against this decision to the Vice Chancellor and the faculty members,” he said.

“We will continue to protest until a settlement is brought about to our problems,” Jayasekara warned. He also emphasized that among the other problems they faced, that needed immediate attention, was the administrative and welfare problems of the university and the need to admit eligible students who have passed the GCE Advance Level examination with distinctions in all subjects.