Protests in Batticaloa over reduction in university admissions

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 2003, 15:56 GMT]
The Alliance for the Promotion of Education (APE) in Batticaloa Friday held a protest to complain against the reduction in University admissions of students from the district, as the University Grants Commission (UGC) in recent years has been considering the Batticaloa district as comparatively advanced in education in the Northeast, sources said.

Students from schools, universities and other establishments joined the public in a protest from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Gandhi Square in Batticaloa town, carrying placards that criticized the Government of Sri Lanka and the UGC.

Thousands of signatures were collected and a memorandum with the signatures was handed over to the Government Agent in Batticaloa for sending to the GoSL and the UGC, sources said.





The APE said in a pamphlet that nearly 52 students in the district have been deprived University admission in each of the past few years as a result of the UGC’s determination that the Batticaloa district is advanced in education.

According to the APE, this action by the UGC discriminated against the district, and the number of students deprived of their opportunities in the Batticaloa district would normally be broken down by stream as follows: Medicine-4, Engineering-4, Physical Sciences-6, Bio Sciences-4, Computer Science-1, Applied Science-1, Management Studies-9, Management-2, Business Studies-3, Law-1, Arts-14, Agricalture-3.