11 January 2020 05:01 pm
Higher Education Minister Bandula Gunawardane said yesterday he would seek fresh placements at the state universities and the other government-owned degree-awarding institutions for some 2,000 students who abandoned their studies because of ragging.
He said these students could not be readmitted to the universities through the usual procedure based on their Z-scores since they had left their undergraduate studies halfway after being victims of ragging and as such would seek the approval to appoint a Cabinet subcommittee to figure out a way to afford them higher education opportunities at various universities and institutions.
“These are young lives left in the lurch as a result of ragging. We will end ragging. Newcomers are subjected to forms of abuse,” the minister said.
He said the government would invoke the Prohibition of Ragging and Other Forms of Violence in Educational Institutions Act No. 20 of 1998 to contain such abuses meted out to fresh entrants. (Kelum Bandara)