Leadership Training for University Entrants including Monks

The Government via the Ministry of Higher Education, has decreed that all University Entrants including Buddhist Monks who have also obtained entrance to the University, must undergo ‘Leadership Training’ prior to entrance. This was first instituted with much fanfare last year and was opposed by most student groups as being a means to perpetuate the current policy of containing freedom of thought by instilling values that are based on the governmental thinking rather than on reason and intelligence.

I blame the education system in Sri Lanka for not giving youth of Sri Lanka the tools to think, and all independent thought is suppressed even at the classroom level. Even school teachers shout down students who express an independent opinion, as being trouble makers!!

It is simply an extension of this system that the leadership training aims at achieving. One main aim was ostensibly to prevent University Students from joining the JVP led IUSF which is supposedly involved in the initiation rag to suppress any independence students may have into only their philosophy.

I do not believe three week training at an Army Camp can do that. In any case, whilst I subscribe to theory that inhumane humiliating initiation rights are wrong and must be banned, I do believe the students must in competition decide which student body represents their true interests. So if the leadership training is to instill Mahinda Chinthana policies on impressionable poorly educated youth, then it is plain wrong and an attempt at brainwashing.

Further I believe that training of any sort should not be conducted at Army camps that may have facilities but bear no relationship to the students learning process, and must be conducted by life skills advisers and NOT army personnel who are a further part of the mindless order takers who just repeat what is taught them, not being able to think for themselves.

It is important that if there is a conscious effort at instilling confidence and ability to think, it is done by life skills instructors. That philosophy however is anathema to the present regime as they will not be able to manipulate the minds of youth anymore.

Young people MUST understand that adults are forever in the business of wanting you to think their way not your way. You must reason and find your own path. It is how you do that which makes you strong and able to stand up for your rights. Let that be your primary goal.

In these circumstances when the 300 or so entrants to the University, who happen to be Buddhist monks, who may or may not go to Pirivena or Buddhist University education, have to undergo leadership training, it is to be held at either the Pali and Buddhist University at Homagama, or at the Buddhasrava Dhamma Faculty in Anuradhapura.

What was amusing was that the Secretary of the Minister of Higher Education has stated that the training would include ‘going in search of alms and meditation and day to day conduct’. For a servant of the state to make such utterances with a straight face itself, is a matter for amusement, not to be taken seriously. A monk worth his soul will learn from the elders at the Pirivena he is enrolled in to obtain his religious education about these aspects and does not require a three week leadership training course for that. It is more that they too require the basic life skills training that everyone else must undergo, due to the fact that all young people no matter what field they go into, must acquire basic knowledge.

It is even more important for Buddhist monks who are sheltered from day to day problems of living to be aware of the world around them, so that as part of their pastoral duties and ability to deliver sermons to the laity are fully aware of the conditions upon which they live and the daily trials and tribulations faced by the lesser mortals in our society.

If at all the life skills training is a vital part of the training of a Buddhist Samenera over the way to gather alms. After all the pinnapada route has changed somewhat from days of old, where traditionally every morning the village priest went in search of alms before he ate his midday meal. It hardly ever happens and the laity bring it to the temple instead, and there are many a story on what is prepared and how it is prepared. That is a whole different story not part of this topic.

It is important for young people to fight for what it rightfully theirs, in a way that does not prevent others from conducting their day to day activities, and inconvenience them. It is therefore necessary that students who enter University understand what it is they are entering, what is expected of them, and what they can expect from it, and not be fooled by the likes of Govt. or JVP unions to mislead them into entitlements they have not earned!!