Can committees eradicate ragging? - EDITORIAL

State Minister for Higher Education Dr. Suren Ragavan had said on last Wednesday that his ministry has decided to monitor university hostels at night to prevent incidents of ragging by the senior students.   
He had stated that information has been received that senior students mostly resort to these inhuman activities between 12 midnight and 5.00 am and the ministry had decided to deploy university security officers and the student counsellors to inspect the hostels whenever they suspect of or receive information of ragging incidents in hostels. 

The State Minister had also said that a WhatsApp number has been introduced to the students to inform incidents of ragging and assured that investigations would be launched promptly after the authorities receive such information. He informed of a national committee comprising representatives of the President’s office, Prime Minister’s office, the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Vice Chancellors’ Association (VCA) that has been appointed to take measures to put an end to the scourge of ragging in state universities. 

Indeed, the authorities responsible for higher education in Sri Lanka must be ashamed to announce these measures as if ragging is something emerged all of a sudden a few days ago. This is a menace that has been prevalent for decades, depriving thousands of students of their right to higher education annually and most importantly depriving a number of students of their right to life as well. Successive governments have announced so many measures time and again to eradicate this menace from the state universities. Yet, the authorities have failed in their efforts. Dr. Ragavan told media last month that 36 incidents of ragging have been reported from state universities during the previous 12 months and 57 senior students have been suspended over those incidents. 
We are compelled to remind the authorities who have appointed a committee on the matter last month that a similar committee had been appointed by the UGC on January 31, 2020, under the Chairmanship of retired Supreme Court Judge, Justice Dr. Saleem Marsoof PC, and it had presented its report to the UGC on August 31, 2020. What happened to the recommendations of that committee? Did the authorities just dump the report without studying it or didn’t they want to implement those recommendations or have those recommendations failed to address the problem? 

The problem is closely associated with free education, as many students have thus far abandoned their higher education in state universities and joined private universities in Sri Lanka and abroad for fear of ragging. In August 2018 the then Higher Education Minister Wijayadasa Rajapakshe had said that nearly 2,000 students who entered universities had left them during the previous two years, due to inhuman ragging. Rauff Hakeem when he was the Higher Education Minister told Parliament in 2019 that ragging had forced 1,987 students to abandon higher education in state universities within a similar period of time. 

We reproduce here two points that we had included in an editorial in the Daily Mirror four years ago. Firstly, the university student union leaders who are in most cases affiliated with the JVP or its breakaway group, the FSP invariably deny the prevalence of ragging in universities must stop trying to pull the wool over the people’s eyes since the ragging is a well-known fact. 

Secondly, interestingly, these student unions that turn a blind eye to the ragging incidents are against the private universities to be operative in the country. But they cannot be blind to the fact that thousands of students who had selected to the state universities have opted to join private universities here and abroad, spending millions of rupees, purely because of ragging in our universities. Therefore, both the authorities and the student unions are to blame for this menace. 

Why are there no incidents of ragging being reported from the private universities in Sri Lanka, while brutal and barbaric criminal activities committed in the guise of ragging in State universities have made the entire so-called students movement a mockery? Can the student unions explain this situation?