The Hon. Chaminda Wijesiri

¶ 01 FORMULATING A PROGRAMME TO MAKE SCHOOL STUDENTS AWARE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VOCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

¶ 02 [2.02 p.m.]

¶ 03 Hon. Presiding Member, I move:

¶ 04 “That this Parliament resolves that the Government should formulate a programme to make school students aware of the courses of the University of Vocational Technology, which, departing from the traditional university framework in Sri Lanka, targets the job market and vocational technology.”

¶ 05 On the very day I bring this proposal, I am pleased about the visit of the President of Vietnam. Vietnam, once devastated by war and reduced to zero economically, has now brought its state and people among the world’s powers. Many parts of his address today, I think, can be integrated into this proposal.

¶ 06 Our University of Vocational Technology commenced in 2008, and by 2009 it began admissions. It has faculties of Engineering Technology, Information and Communication Technology, Industrial Technology and Education Technology, offering various specialized degrees. I believe we can take a model from Vietnam. In Vietnam’s main education system, there is a university that teaches in the Japanese language. When I visited Vietnam in 2013 after receiving Sri Lanka’s Green Gold Award as Mayor, I observed how they align their education system to build a labour force for targeted export markets. They have very direct ties with Japan. There is a university in Vietnam that teaches solely in Japanese with around 50,000 students. After graduation, those students invariably find the jobs they are trained for in Japan. Japan’s needs are met, while Vietnam secures returns that exceed the public expenditure on education through these investments.

¶ 07 Therefore, we should adopt a similar approach within our vocational education framework based on the Vietnamese President’s address, to embed appropriate programmes in our system. Opposition to private universities existed then, but your Government no longer holds that view. That is good. Our only real resource is our labour force; we do not have oil. We must therefore structure and deploy our human capital effectively for national development. If Vietnam industrialized and built its economy through industrialization with clear education pathways, we should craft comparable pathways for our students, not only for the well-known degrees like medicine and engineering but also to channel them into other nationally recognized fields.