Sri Lanka to ban mobile phone use by teachers too

Posted by Chanuka Wattegama on July 31, 2009 / 6 Comments

“I am the teacher; you are the student; but still we are in the same class” (guruthumee mama, sisuviyayi numba; eath api eka panthiye)

This line from the popular Sinhala song ‘Saroja’ (sung by the wife of a powerful minister of the current regime) tells it all. First it was for students, but now the government wants to extend the mobile phone ban for teachers too. Not a surprising move by a government that wants to block ‘Adults Only’ films watched by…er, adults.

Reported Daily Mirror:

“I have heard that the Nuwara Eliya incident had taken place involving a teacher and the other incident was connected to a female student. Education Minister Susil Premajayantha has taken measures to prohibit the use of mobile phones at public schools. However, I think the rule must apply to both students and teachers. Hence, it is most appropriate if teachers also refrain from using mobile phones during school hours,” President Rajapaksa said.

The President expressed these views while addressing the ‘Nena Guna Weduma’ ceremony under the National Education Programme at Temple Trees to give away appointment letters to 415 graduate teachers by the Western Provincial Council.

Read the full story here.

6 Comments

Cricket Tragic
July 31, 2009, 10:34 am
My Good Lord, stupidity truly has no limits! And I thought that India was the only place where nothing is impossible!

Pray, why does the dear President think that teachers shouldn’t also be allowed to use their phones?

Regulating teachers is just plain stupidity because teachers are adults, for God’s sake! They should be able to regulate themselves rather than the Govt. having to regulate them. Have the prefects got new jurisdiction whereby they can confiscate teachers’ mobiles? Is the president afraid that teachers will start committing suicide once their mobiles are confiscated? What hogwash!

On the topic of adult films, for God’s sake, what they show in adult’s films is (correct me if I am wrong) what happens between all couples. Everyone has sex and every man sees his wife naked and every woman sees her husband naked.

Perhaps adult films do have some wild stories revolving around sex, but it really isn’t a big deal. I’ve gone to plenty of internet cafes and stumbled upon a large number of porn videos being stored in the ‘my videos’ folder of the computer.

Could someone please give the authorities involved in these stupid decision a kick up the arse for me? I’d really appreciate it (if you could provide me a bank account number, I would even deposit some money as a measure of how grateful I am to you)!
Forge ahead
August 13, 2009, 6:06 pm
Dude,seriously. I mean why don’t people just stop using phones all together.The ban on kids using phones will probably be forced on those kids of a middle class family rather than those on the upper class,coz they have political ties and “security” demands they be with vocal communication devices. But seriously isn’t there a way to programme the micro controllers of the phone only be accessible to contact mom or dad.
Sameera Wijerathna
August 20, 2009, 9:03 am
@ Forge ahead

It is an feature to be provided by the service provider, not the phone manufacturer. There are packages with those features in the market.

Sameera
http://ict4d-in-srilanka.blogspot.com
Kirigalpoththa
August 20, 2009, 1:53 pm
Yes, Agree with Sameera.

Service providers can come up with some innovative solutions..
I saw this one already available in the Sri Lankan market..

http://www.dialog.lk/wiki/mobile/prepaid-packages/kidz-phone/
Teachers Can
August 22, 2009, 7:34 am
http://www.divaina.com/2009/08/22/news08.html

ගුරුවරුන්ට පාසල තුළ ජංගම දුරකථන භාවිත කළ හැකියි

සිරිමන්ත රත්නසේකර

පාසල් ඉගැන්වීම් කටයුතුවල නිරතවී සිටියදී පමණක්‌ බාහිර දුරකථන සම්බන්ධතා නතර කරන ලෙස ගුරුවරුන්ට දන්නා සිටිය ද පාසල් තුළ ජංගම දුරකථන භාවිතය ගුරුවරුන්ට තහනම් කර නොමැති බව අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යාංශය සඳහන් කරයි.

අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යාංශය විසින් නිකුත් කරන ලද චක්‍රලේඛනය අනුව පාසල් තුළ ජංගම දුරකථන භාවිතය තහනම් වන්නේ පාසල් ශිෂ්‍ය ශිෂ්‍යාවන්ට පමණක්‌ වන බවත් අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යාංශය සඳහන් කරයි.
Daniel
September 21, 2009, 9:42 pm
The most revolting fact for me is that some people consider themselfs to be morally pure and to have the right to set smb. on the “right” path. Stupid hypocrites!!