My Dear Uncle Susil,

I thought I must write to you because everybody seems to be talking about you these days, what with the blunders in the end of term school examinations making headlines, unemployed graduates staging ‘satyagrahas’ demanding jobs and some universities being closed.

The way matters in the education sector are unfolding, Uncle Susil, you are giving Uncle Bandula and Uncle Nimal a good run for their money as the most ridiculed and humiliated minister among the more than hundred or so ministers out there!

Someone tells me, Uncle Susil, that there are six ministers in charge of Education: we have you, we have a Minister of Higher Education, a non-cabinet minister of education services and deputy ministers of education, education and vocational training and industrial education. Is it a case of too many cooks spoiling the soup? And, can you blame those who hark back to the ‘good old days’ when we had just one minister of education and things were quite alright?

There are those who ask whether the government can get anything done in this country when it cannot even get a term test paper printed properly. I suppose someone will respond to that by saying that the government defeated the most ruthless terrorist organisation in the world-and even captured its overseas based ‘acting’ leader-but that again raises another question, Uncle Susil: why is a government capable of attaining such great achievements incapable of doing something as simple as printing a term test paper?

Now, Uncle Susil, we all know that the rot in education began well before this latest hullabaloo over the term test papers. Why, just over the past few years we have had confusion and controversy over the admission of children to schools, the printing and distribution of school text books, crisis after crisis in the universities and teachers refusing to mark examination papers-and there are those who blame you too for this mess...

What is interesting is what you have said about the fiasco involving the term test papers, Uncle Susil. I heard you say it is all the fault of the provincial Chief Ministers and their officials and that you had nothing to do with it!

Anyway, that sounds quite like Uncle Bandula saying he cannot control world gas prices or Uncle Fowzie saying he cannot be blamed for price hikes in petrol. But Uncle Susil, if you are not responsible for this in any way, why do we have you holding that portfolio at all? Let us discard the Ministry of Education, make you a minister without portfolio and save quite a few million rupees for the state every month, shall we?Then, you have even said that term test papers were printed and distributed in the North without any problems whatsoever because there is no Chief Minister there. I wonder what your colleagues who are Chief Ministers from the blue party would say to that-and whether you would make the same kind of statement about the new Chief Minister in Uva too!

The next thing we know is that Mahinda maama has to appoint a special committee to probe this mess about the school test papers. I do pity poor Mahinda maama. When doctors complain about their problems, he has to tell Uncle Nimal what to do, when baby elephants are being mishandled, he has to tell Uncle Gamini what to do, when there are problems in the Foreign Service he has to tell Uncle Rohitha what to do-and now he has to tell you what to do as well. Why, we should make Mahinda maama the ‘Minister of Everything’ and do away with the entire cabinet!

All we know, Uncle Susil, is that you too would have to learn a lot if education is to improve in this country. But then, you can hardly do that when you have to organise provincial council election after election every other month, can you?

Yours truly,
Punchi Putha

PS-I heard you banned the use of mobile phones after a tragic incident. Mahinda maama has also banned ‘adults only’ movies because they can cause problems. So, why don’t you just ban all end of term examinations, and you will have no problems whatsoever, Uncle Susil!