Free education
Government has never
attempted to curtail free education and is committed to protect
and promote it, said President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the
inauguration of the Ruwanpura National College of ICT Education
Tuesday.
Provision of free education has been one of the most
rewarding enterprises undertaken by the government throughout
the post-independence era. If one is to take a cost-benefit
analysis of the funds spent on maintaining free education, it is
sure to reveal a very positive result. Education is an
investment and should not be considered as wasteful consumption.
It is through education that human resources of a country are
developed.
It is no secret that the total Sri Lankan work force, except
for a minuscule, has benefited from free education. Actually it
is hard to imagine what would have been the status of the
country if there was no free education. Without free education,
we would not have seen the vast expansion of educational
facilities throughout the country. Today even the remotest
hamlet has a state school which provides education free.
Most of the renowned scholars Sri Lanka has produced had the
benefit of free education. Besides, it remains up to date the
most reliable path to upward social mobility.
Whatever the defects of our education system the system of
public schools has produced good results, sometimes with minimum
facilities. The defects of the system arise more from wrong
planning and the lack of a holistic perspective in planning
human resource development.
As the President underlined, the government has no intention
of abolishing or curtailing free education. In fact it is
increasing allocations for education with every budget. However,
there are financial constraints that prevent huge increases in
capital expenditure.
This calls for new and innovative methods of getting optimum
use of the limited resources available through pooling the
resources of different institutions or with industry links.
One has also to acknowledge that private sector participation
is also helpful to augment the resources and facilities for
educational development. Those who agitate against privatizing
education see a hypothetical threat to free education. However,
there is no threat in reality. What is envisaged is a system of
private educational institutions that would complement the state
educational system.
As to standards of teaching and curricula the government
should regulate them. The private sector is looking at education
as a business or an industry. Hence, the need for regulation is
urgent. All such schools must be made to comply with national
standards as regards, content and quality of education imparted
and the suitability of academic and other staff. Also the fee
structure in private educational institutions has also to be
regulated for some such institutions are charging exorbitant
fees without providing facilities commensurate with them.
The Sri Lankan private sector has a long way to go in
fulfilling its social responsibility. It does not exist in a
vacuum. They are getting benefits from state by way of tax
concessions and duty waivers on imports etc. Hence, they have an
obligation to give back to society at least a small quantum of
what they receive, through scholarships to students from
low-income families and by other means.
Work to rule
Members of several trade unions are on a work-to-rule
campaign for three days beginning yesterday. In fact they were
preparing for it for some weeks. This raises a series of
questions.
By announcing that they would be working to rule, they have
tacitly accepted that they were not working to rule on other
days. Normally, all employees should work according to rules and
regulations. However, the daily experience is otherwise. You
cannot get a simple eight hours' work from public servants. If
all work is changed to a piece-rate system, we could see how
many work to rule on normal working days.
On the other hand this work to rule will show the real worth
of the trade union claims. There is a saying that the taste of
the pudding is in the eating. Likewise the current TU action
would either disprove or approve the claims they have made so
far.
As far as the ordinary mortals are concerned work goes on as
usual. While there were many media reports of possible fuel
shortages most of the filling stations were working as usual
with no threatening long queues to the dismay of the union
bosses and their political masters. |