What Is Wrong With Kndu Bill?

Having a ‘university’ with a military structure coming under the remit of the UGC while retaining its essentially military character, amounts to the UGC administering militarised education, and the military being authorised to make inroads into civilian education

- Hasini Lecamwasam

The Kotelawala National Defence University (KNDU) Bill is wrecking serious havoc in Sri Lanka’s educational landscape. Students and teachers unionized or otherwise, seem to have reached a rare consensus about its undesirability, though perhaps for varying reasons. The bill’s ridiculously obvious militarisation drive is what has attracted the most criticism, and for good reason. However, my intention here is to highlight it’s subtler – and perhaps more enduring – implications for privatization, and demonstrate how privatization is also intrinsically connected to militarisation, thus doubly intensifying the present crisis in higher education.

THE ‘WHAT’

To put it in a nutshell, the bill proposes expanding the reach of KNDU to encompass civilian students. What this means is that the military-style of command and control prevalent within the establishment, which is justified for a purely military academy, will govern the conduct of civilian students enrolling for degrees as well. By extension, the knowledge imparted to them will also be within this frame, largely devoid of critical reflection which is the hallmark of any meaningful university education.

Another point of contention is that the UGC exercises no authority over the civilian component of this proposed expansion. This is currently being sought to be rectified by amending Section 23 of the Universities Act authorizing the Education Minister to “establish a University for a specific purpose” in consultation with the UGC. This does not quite do the job, however. Having a ‘university with a military structure coming under the remit of the UGC while retaining its essentially military character, amounts to the UGC administering militarised education, and the military being authorised to make inroads into civilian education.