Ten problems; one solution

By Ian

The President in his speech at the opening of the Southern Expressway said that this could be the beginning of building a modern society. He also mentioned that had there been such an expressway linking the north with the south the extremists would not have succeeded in capitalising on the mistrust among communities.

The President in his speech at the opening of the Southern Expressway said that this could be the beginning to building a modern society

A documentary that aired subsequently mentioned that it would bring benefits to villages as opposed to the claims of sceptics that the expressway would divide them. These upbeat slogans gave me a boost of a dozen Red Bulls, realising that our leaders are once again capable of strategising.

After a heavy midday meal I was relaxing on my Lazy Boy, contemplating on the strategic thinking mode of the Government, which is seen for the first time after the conclusion of the war.

Brainstorming session

I learned from the evening news that the President had summoned an urgent brainstorming session of the elite decision-makers of the land, namely the Secretary of Defence, the Governor of the Central Bank, the Secretary to the Treasury, the Minister and the Secretary to the Ministry of Higher Education, and all ministers who hold doctorates and also a few bigwigs behind the infamous bid for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The reporter went on to say that, like the expressway, the team is supposed to find a common magic solution to the multitude of issues faced by the country such as:

1.Disparity in access to higher education.

2.Issues with the salaries of university dons.

3.Resistance to private degree-awarding institutions as they will not be accessible to the poor.

4.Massive annual outflow of dollars for overseas education of the children from international schools.

5.Issues with sending low end workers (nannies and housemaids) to foreign countries.

6.Limitations in the avenues of significantly increasing the remittances by the expatriates.

7.The need of development of another significant and sustainable source of income to the country in addition to produce, tourism, expat remittances.

8.Inability to get high-end FDIs due to lack of employable graduates.

9.Corporate sector complaining of lack of employable graduates while the organisation of unemployed and underemployed graduates is one of the groups that have largest membership.

10.Having to make good on the promise of making the country the ‘Miracle of Asia’.

The brainstorming session was over in few hours and the team was coming out of the chambers to face the press. Like the eyes of the Minister of Higher Education, my eyes too followed the shapely female Coordinating Secretary imitating the walk of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the famous L’Oreal advertisement. To my amazement our Rai was to proclaim the success of the session with the pay-off line a ‘Ten Problems, One Solution’.

Magic solution

In the press conference that followed, the eminent persons went on to recommend to the President a three-pronged magic solution comprising:

1. Comprehensive student loan scheme similar to what is in operation in Australia and New Zealand by allocating Rs. 200 billion from EPF, ETF and State banks as seed capital

2. Establishing 200 acre knowledge parks close to each of the interchanges of the new expressway to establish universities

3. Inviting large State sector companies, banks and large private sector companies to fast-track the establishment of universities with a 30:70 mix of foreign and local faculty and a 30:70 mix of foreign and local students and awarding degrees in high-demand categories such as medicine, IT, electronic engineering, software development, nursing, etc.

While the evergreen Governor led the train dance around the podium, the no-nonsense Secretary of Defence was explaining the details such as:

(a)Establish a Higher Education Fund with EPF, Inland Revenue and Immigration Departments together, managing it to ensure a high level of recovery of the loans.

(b)Based on the performance in GCE Advanced Level, 50,000 to 75,000 students (apart from the 25,000 who get admission to universities) to be eligible for loans ranging from Rs. 250,000 to Rs. 800,000 a year for three to five years depending on the duration of the degree.

(c)The loans are given only to study in local universities and not for education in foreign universities.

(d)The loans are only made available to children whose parents’ income is lower than Rs. 1.2 million per year.

(e)The proceeds of the loan to be paid direct to the university at the beginning of each semester. Only two additional semesters for the whole duration of the degree will be allowed extra in the cases of failure to complete the requirements. This was to reduce the non-productive non-academic activities of the students such as holding the vice chancellor hostage.

(f)The State sector universities to embark on an immediate capacity expansion on borrowed funds while few selected public and private sector establishments are also invited to set up formal universities with State recognition. A regulatory authority is to be established to set standards and regular monitoring quality and compliance.

(g)Once the graduate is employed, 10% of the income to be deducted at source as repayment of the student loan. The contribution to EPF and ETF which now is approximately 20% 25% (including employer contribution) to be reduced to 10% to 15% until the loan is fully paid. Hence there will not be a change of the amount the employee receives as the net salary. The Secretary of Defence also mentioned that the committee has not agreed to the request made by a good doctor form Kelaniya to sub-contract the recovery of defaulted student loans to his team.

It was very pleasing to hear that several local and foreign based Sri Lankan millionaires have come forward to donate Rs. 2.5 million each to the National Higher Education Fund as their ‘repayment’ of their dues to the country that educated them.

To reciprocate the Government is planning to honour them with the ‘Deshaguna’ medal, which I was told means ‘gratitude of the nation’ and does not have any relevance to the Metrological Department’s failure to predict the recent cyclone conditions.

The future

A few years after this magic solution was implemented with much pomp and pageantry, in 2018 or so the President and the Minister of Finance was delivering his 14th Budget speech and was explaining its success as:

1.The output of the skilled employees in the country has increased, resulting in higher living standards, higher demand for goods and resultant additional job creation.

2.The country has become the supplier of skilled labour such as doctors, nurses, IT experts, engineers and accountants to the world as opposed to nannies and housemaids in way back in 2011. This also has resulted in a significant upgrade of the standard of living in these families and this too has ended up creating additional demand for goods and jobs.

3.Massive leap in the foreign exchange reserves due to substantial increase in remittances from overseas employment of professionals and savings on foreign exchange that used to be spent on foreign universities.

4.Inflow of high-end FDIs rather than low tech-based FDIs and BOI reaching its annual target is 23 days.

5.Significant increase in the contributions to EPF and ETF due to higher salary levels of the country and also due to higher level of employment.

6.Due to additional (fee paying) students State universities have had additional cash flows and profits that have been used to increase the capacities for the free slots from 25,000 to 150,000 a year.

7.Similar to the Southern Expressway, the knowledge parks at the interchanges have brought development to the areas in which the new universities were established, providing a large number of employment opportunities. In fact knowledge parks (with five to six universities) are now located near the interchanges of the expressway, making such universities easily accessible for local and foreign students.

8.The families, friends or the foreign students have given a boost to tourist arrivals by increasing the number to three million.

About this time the Government MPs, who were doing the now customary chasing of the opposition members out of Parliament during the Budget speech, re-entered the chamber and took their seats.

Needless to say I was so pleased with the success of the magic solution, but felt cheated when my son woke me up to the reality of TV news full of mundane and micro issues. This made me do the gesture that made Russian news Caster Tatyana Limanova famous.