Sri Lankan Universities back to normalcy

Sri Lankan university system turned to normalcy after lecturers are reported to work yesterday finishing three-month long strike and tug-of-war between academics and government.

Majority of Sri Lankan universities re-commenced academic activities yesterday and several universities will be re commenced this week or early next week Higher Education Ministry sources said. Management and Science faculties of Jaffna University will be re-opened on October 17 and 22.

Sri Lanka’s longest lecturer strike commonly known FUTA Strike which continued for nearly 100 days, was called off by the university teachers’ union FUTA last week and government agreed to fulfill FUTA’s demand.

As a result of the three-month strike, universities suspended academic activities for around 90,000 undergraduate students and examinations were affected.

The Lecturers’ union FUTA said arrangements had been made to re-commence academic activities at all universities soon and also they hope to conduct lectures on Weekends to cover the syllabus quickly.

FUTA is currently engaging the evaluation of A/L Exam (university entrance exam) papers delayed by the strikes for more than two months. 
Last week Sri Lankan government has agreed to withdraw all circulars issued so far that obstruct the progressive work of university lecturers.