From: muttiah@thistle.ecn.purdue.edu (Ranjan S Muttiah)
Subject: Re: Education and Jobs in SL
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 17:33:17 GMT

Sarath has asked me to post this.
------------
From: Sarath <sarath@hydra.cis.mcmaster.ca>
Subject: reply to Channa

	>>From sarath@hydra.cis.mcmaster.ca Mon Dec 14 06:46:05 199	
	>> A PARAGRAPH ABOUT PERFORMANCE OF BACKWARD STUDENT DELETED
	>
	>But, still you can't justify the fact that people with 279 have to look
	>the other way, when some people go to university with 180+ marks.  I'm
	>not saying that people in big cities don't have an advantage....but, 
	>quite a few students from "backward" arears come to big cities to attend
	>those so called "cram" schools.  I know somebody who stayed in Colombo
	>to attend Tuition classes instead of going to his so called "backward"
	>school....I even have a few relatives who did that.  A lot of students who
	>get into universities attend Tuition classes no matter whether they are
	>from Colombo or those "backward" schools.  One solution may be to abolish
	>all the government schools and let the tuition classes do their job :)
	>If not for those tuition classes very few students from Colombo will go to
	>the universities.....(otherwise how can they bridge a gap of about 100+
	>marks?)
	You have considered all the points, except one. How about those
	students who go from Colombo to backward areas just to get
	into univ from backward areas. (Did you forget that or you
	convieniently forgot it) 
	>
	>My aim here is not to discredit those students who get into universities
	>from "backward" arears.....It's true if not for the quota system they may
	>never get into universities......but, if that is done at the expense of
	>some other student, then there is a loop-hole in the system.
	Would it help if I ask you to look at
	1. # of students writing AL in bio science
	2. # of students who meet at least the minimum requirment for univ. entrance
	     each year
	3. # of places in med school each year.
	You see, govt. do lots of bad thing, but I don't discredit the
	standardiztion. I know a few of us were able to get out of the
	hell (this time hell=whole of lanka) becuase of it. If you want
	to talk about class discrimination we could talk about it
	endlessly.
	>
	>The point I was trying to make was.....it affects all the communities, no
	>matter they be Sinhalese, Tamils or any other.  Some people claim that it
	>ONLY affects Tamils.....That's a total crap!
	                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
	IMHO this ethinic  problem is just artificially created one, we don't
	have enough resources to go around, so have something like this
	as a cover up. (I think Ranjan already talked about it(I mean the cover up))

	Well, the rest of your article just shows your bitterness (guess
	what I deleted that part accidently, you know it is not easy to
	use a prehistoric modem (2400bps)).  You see if you use the same
	argument and just by extending it a little we could take starving
	Somalian kids on prime time Tv to our discussion.

	I was once bitter because I could not get into Engineering, but
	after getting a good secured job about 6 months before finishing
	my PhD I started liking Stat/AcSci. I saw lots of Eng. PhDs
	going back to hell (just my opinion) because all they could find
	was contractually limited appointments.

	Work hard, there is light at the end of the tunnel. (:-
	Here (in Canada), they consider what you can produce not where you
	did your high school.

	****
	Sarath