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Children must learn English without neglecting their native language - Minister Marapana

by P. D. A. S. Gunasekera, Ratnapura group correspondent

"I am very impressed by the records of the Princeton International School which has fulfilled an urgent need in the Sabaragamuwa Province for the development of the English language, the medium of Commerce, Trade and Banking, the world over. English education received a severe setback in Sri Lanka in general and the Sabaragamuwa in particular by the short-sighted 'Sinhala only' and 'No English' policy adopted by the 'political charlatans' of the late 1950s, said Tilak Marapana, Minister of Defence, Highways, Transport and Civil Aviation in Ratnapura recently.

He said so as the chief guest addressing the ceremonial opening of the 'New Nursery-Building Complex' of the Int'l school on May 31 at Batugedera.

Stressing the importance of English in the school curriculum Minister Marapana said that the blow it received under the 'Sinhala Only' policy, perhaps destroyed in effect, the golden opportunity for the children of the masses to receive an education equal to the children of their masters.

"At a time, when more English and better English were the need of the day for the production of an intellectual community, in a fast developing world, it was unfortunate that the 'baby was thrown out with the bath-water' in a misguided political manoeuvre," the minister thought.

He said the UNP which opposed this unwise move, reversed it and restored English as the second compulsory language in the school curriculum in 1978 at the first opportunity though irreparable damage had already been done by that time to the education system.

"However the people with foresight and means, educated their children in free-levying schools in Colombo become heirs to the 'plums of office' in the private and government sectors while the less-fortunate children of the masses in provinces like the Sabaragamuwa were left at the mercy of the mush-room tutors, who made a 'fast buck' teaching 'wrong and broken English' producing a community of social misfits, speaking neither, good English nor good Sinhala, even at the higher levels of education. That was indeed the result of the mis-guided Sinhala only and no-English policy of the political opportunists of the yester-year.

A large majority of children who went to Colombo for want of facilities in the out-stations often ended in blind-alleys for lack of guidance. It was due to the wrong attitudes of the children and the negligence of the parents, that the children went astray. The language deficiency was also one of the causes of the situation, he said. His advice to the parents therefore was to give their children, opportunities to receive a decent education in English while at the same time taking care not to allow them to be alienated from their native-culture and language.

"Children should be encouraged to learn and cultivate the English language without looking down upon their mother tongue.

The parent must guide their children in cultural habits and the learning of the mother tongue while encouraging them at the same time to learn the English language," he said.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International School, Upali Rajapaksa, a former Mayor also spoke. 

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