TNA opposes move to appoint a Sinhala Vice-chancellor to Eastern University

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 November 2010, 15:57 GMT]
Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian C. Yogeswaran in a letter to Sri Lanka Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake has brought to his notice that steps are being taken to appoint a Sinhala person to the post of the Vice-chancellor of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka replacing the Tamil Vice-chancellor. Tamil academics in the East are perturbed over the alleged move by the University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka to appoint a Sinhala person as the Vice-chancellor of the Eastern University that is located in Vantharumoolai in Batticaloa district.

Tamils had held the post of Vice-chancellor of the Eastern University since its inception while South East University located in Oluvil in Ampaa’rai district is exclusively meant for the development of Islamic culture and its studies.

Yogeswaran has said in his letter that appointing a Sinhala person as Vice-chancellor would harm the development of Tamil language and culture besides affecting future research and study in these fields.

Tamils in the Eastern Province consider the Eastern University of Sri Lanka as an institution that would safeguard the study and research of Tamil language and its cultural values in the province, he further pointed in his letter.