Strike continues despite university shutdown

The Buddhist monk, staring intently at the smoke rising from an incense stick, said the government was destroying state-provided education because it was “easier to control uneducated fools”. Maduluwawe Sobitha is an influential figure among Sri Lanka’s majority Sinhala population. He is also a loud critic of the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, reports The Economist.

The monk’s new National Movement Against Social Injustice is, with other groups and unions, backing a university lecturers’ strike for more state spending on education. Almost 5,000 academics stopped work on 4 July. Like them, he is angry that the government spends a mere 1.9% of GDP on schools and universities. On 23 August Higher Education Minister SB Dissanayake responded by closing down indefinitely the country’s state universities and institutes. He accused lecturers of dragging students into their campaign.

Yet students, among them young Buddhist monks, still protest, demanding that the universities be reopened. On 29 August police in Colombo fired water cannons and teargas at hundreds of students marching in support of academics.
Full report on The Economist site