Leadership Training Programme –Does It Create a Positive or a Negative Impact? A Case Study of the New Entrants, University of Kelaniya

Abstract

The leadership training programme launched by the Ministry of Higher Education has become a widely discussed, controversial topic among most of the scholars and the general public. This study attempts to find out whether the leadership training programme creates a positive or a negative impact among new entrants. A sample of 100 undergraduates who followed the English Intensive Course at the University of Kelaniya was used for this study. A well structured questionnaire and interviews were used as the major method of qualitative and quantitative data collection in this study. The questionnaire administered to the new entrants was designed based on several factors related to leadership training programmes, such as, pragmatic knowledge about society and the world, awareness of modern technologies, conflict resolution capability, problem solving and facing challenges of physical fitness. Furthermore, 15 ELT (English Language Teaching) lecturers were interviewed with special focus on discipline, eticula patterns and sensitivity of the new entrants. The results of the study highlight that although the leadership training programme helps to build innovative, courageous, challenging and dynamic undergraduates the cultural norms, discipline and the sensitivity of the new entrants are deteriorating rapidly.