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by Dr. H. L. Obeysekera

The reformation process of education should be handled to suit the needs of the period or of particular instances. Through education reforms, it is not practical to gain a complete product instantly. It is also difficult to plan perfect education principles as well. It is important that timely results are achieved. Education principles should be planned for a particular time span relevant programs should be implemented to achieve the expected goal and if not a process which is not parallel to national requirement with timely irrelevance will be carried out. There are occasions to identify this situation practically. Very often suggestions for education reforms are forwarded to suit the needs of the hour.

The public opinion on educational development is that it should be structured in a manner, which is agreeable for the country. But in implementing certain reforms the public response is not optimistic, or else is rather contradictory. Therefore need for a change in education and resistance in implementing such, will both be seen as social responses. The ultimate results of this will either be a drag in the time for or total annihilation of such a change.

Even though in a country where literacy rate is minimum a refusal of all favourable suggestions would be expected, in a society such as Sri Lanka where 85 per cent of the total population is literate it is not wrong to mention that a situation such as this occurs due to unawareness. During the past few decades in educational reforms what we witness was a strong students resistance and only a dull response of the society.

The reason is though the literacy percentage increases yearly the public contribution for the development of education had not been significant. The unavailability of an appropriate environment has become a problem in achieving this aim. If so, the intelligent majority, capable of understanding social development should be well informed of these reforms. Articles on education development and research should be made accessible to the public and thereby analysis of constructive suggestions is of great importance. Therefore more than in a country where literacy is poor a country such as Sri Lanka should involve the public in an intelligent discussion on its educational development.

national requirements

Though the principles of education were occasionally subjected to various revisions during past decades these were implemented only for a short period of time. The expected results could not be attained due to poor political reconciliation during these eras. It is an achievement of education field to gain ability to some content to focus on national requirements of education and accomplish, uncomplicated results, along with the understanding of implementation, free from political interference.

The importance of education reforms in Sri Lanka was introduced a few decades ago. The youth uprisings in the beginnings of the 70 decade and at the end of 80 decade may have drawn the attention of the scholars to this issue. The reports of the committee for resolving youth unrest and education development reports on the importance of education reforms showed that the national education has not changed along with the qualitative changes in the present world, and as a result the educated youth produced by the traditional education system have failed to ensure a secure future for themselves. Facts have been forwarded on the local changes based on scientific, economic and social changes of the world or the influence of such, and the question of survival of the traditional education system.

In addition, our attention should be focus on challenging social demands of international and national importance. There are many factors to be taken into consideration in reforming the education of which the following bear direct influence on us.

* Change in the world's economic pattern and divergence to free trade and free economic principles.

* Environmental destruction at the global level, and need for wide social contribution for protection.

Conservation of bio-diversity, solution for food, water, and fuel crisis, destruction of forest and minimise air pollution, population distribution and focus on economic development, increase in protein deficiency and eradicate malnutrition, static and sustenance development are some of these. Minimised community relationships, negligence of national peace, rapid deterioration of human values, morality and discipline, underestimation of aesthetic pleasure, are some of the social changes we faced during the immediate past.

The remedies for the above challenging problems should be sort by the relevant professional fields. But doubtlessly beginning or foundation for which should be education. There should be knowledge, understanding and attitudinal changes to incite.

Sometimes relative pre skills would also be necessary. It is important to find measures of facing these adversities by planning the education system. Not only us the entire world community is now faced with this challenge. This can be achieved only by educating the society by the society itself. The beginning should be education and training and some countries have practically shown the extent of success of this.

decisive situations

Very often is organising education system, implementation is worked for a long time toward a specific objective. By this even though central to developing knowledge skills and attitudes, education system is utilised to face decisive situations and challenges in the society. This is successfully implemented in developed countries. There are instances where the entire education system of the country, based on essential reasons is geared towards a common social goal, which is of immense importance.

A country such as Australia organised the year 2000 Olympic games not only at the statutory or private or at relative sports levels, but also by implementing education programs around the country that ran parallel with the occasion. Thereby the whole country participated at the national level in this international event.

The future generation was organised to express national unity and peace and also new energy. Leadership at various levels was achieved in addition to knowledge, skills and attitudes they obtained. The basic attempts were geared through education for the socio-economic productivity at such crucial events. The experience gained by the youth through education programs based on social requirements is significant. Many countries have arrived at solutions for long standing social problems through education and training. Similarly indirect remedies could be gained for some of the social corrosion Sri Lanka is facing at the moment. Education is not clearly meant for gaining knowledge, understanding and skills.

Nor it is designed only to impart vocational skills. In order to apply knowledge, understanding and skills one should be quipped with correct attitude and experience as well. Similarly it is important to improve creativity to face any crucial situation society. The question whether the education is planned to suit these treads is the challenge before the youth of the present day.

It is important to find the extent to which the above is evaluated in education reforms and also whether it is agreeable in reality to further control the prevailing education system without any revision.

It is very clear that there has been no clear compromise between to socio economic development and the labour contribution during the past decades. There is no doubt about the discord between the economy of the country and the education system up to now. Therefore it is extremely important that, not only the educationist, and scholars but also, the entire society comprehend the timely need of education reforms.

education reforms

During the past decades economic reforms were made to secure an education system, which is suitable. It is true that the education reform is not an automatic shift nor it is a task fulfilled in a day or in a week by some divine power. It has the features of the production process of a finished good. The ultimate wholesome result cannot be obtained on fixed dates or periods. This is a continuous process, which alters timely. To achieve identified objectives within this frame we should manipulate an active process in a fruitful manner. The contribution for this should not only be from the scholars but also, from the entire society. The social contribution for this should be great.

The reformation process of education should be handled to suit the needs of the period or of particular instances. Through education reforms, it is not practical to gain a complete product instantly. It is also difficult to plan perfect education principles as well. It is important that timely results are achieved. Education principles should be planned for a particular time span relevant programs should be implemented to achieve the expected goal and if not a process which is not parallel to national requirement with timely irrelevance will be carried out. There are occasions to identify this situation practically. Very often suggestions for education reforms are forwarded to suit the needs of the hour.

The planning and implementation of these suggestions, are very often made only after a long period of time. Expected goals will not be met during the relevant period. As a result of which by the time these reforms are implemented relevance and results would be reduced to a minimum. In some occasion these processes have been restrained due to public and student resistance. It is unavoidable to reap unsuccessful results owing to this lapse of time.

Therefor when practising decisions of national importance it is necessary that the public response should be correct. The undue interference of public opinion to the time factor may result in minimising yield. Both in policy planning and responding due consideration should be laid on the time factor. The society holds a great responsibility in this regard.

In many occasions both long-time and short-time education plans have been designed and implemented to meet the needs of the situation. In many South Asian countries including Sri Lanka there is a tendency to implement long-term plans and a less attention is focus on correctly identified short term ones. Especially if it aims at fulfilling the future vocational requirements they should be utilised before the importance of such short term plans depreciate. Great emphasis should be laid on technical education policies.

tertiary level

As vocational variation in trade and service increases due to competition, the demand for particular vocations may increase within a short-term. When considering the technical education field, time duration between planning and implementation should be at a minimum.

Various opinions on increasing the processing speed and swift implementation of new policies were expressed during the past. One such argument was that it should be 1st introduced at the primary level and gradually extend to the secondary and later apply to tertiary level.

As mentioned above the importance of reforms became apparent with the reflection of youth unrest. The increasing youth frustration was deeply rooted in unemployment. As the education system does not move in accordance with future vocational needs it is worth considering whether instant solutions are needed from Tertiary education set up or else whether it should be gradually taken forward from Primary education in order to find remedies at the technical level. Clear solution for this could be obtained if the aims and objectives of respective education system are properly identified.

primary and secondary

Even before a child enters the pre-school "How" and "Why" are the questions, which are often asked by him. At the beginning of mental development of a child curiosity to find out about certain occurrences is shown. As this gradually develops to inquire about objects the environment or to understand certain phenomena or to handle certain things or even to unfix them in order to examining would be done. This process is continued at various levels up to various adult stages of his life. The experimentation and research begins at childhood. Since it is natural and genetic tendency, attention should be paid for this at the early stages of education. The child who enters primary education learns from his environment.

The need is to provide a healthy environment of which the involvement of both the teacher and parents is essential. The foundation for school education should be strong. Therefore the responsibility does not limit only for a particular party. The teacher - parent relationship is of vital importance. If at primary level the child acquires knowledge and understanding from his environment, learning cannot be confined to school alone. The relevant program should be applicable to both school and home.

Is not it attainable in a country where the literacy level is high? The need is to introduce the techniques and the involvement of the society with the prominent participation of parents.

Such education system should be planned at a level that is endurable for the child. The tendency of the parents to confine the child to the school education alone hinders his personality development and socialisation. Instead of acquiring knowledge and understanding from the environment if it is injuiries to the child both physically and mentally it is advisable to eliminate techniques, which create such settings, as healthy surrounding with mental freedom for environmental education leads the young mind for independent thinking. The environmental educationist not a new concept. What is necessary is planning the techniques in active achievements. Even though the curriculum is planned at the national level it would be effective to adapt the dynamic curricular at the regional level.

As the utility of resources would vary according to regions the parents would be able to guide the child effectively. Specially if the common curricular could be adapted to suit the employment of resources at the regional level, the extreme competition for super grade schools at the primary level could also be minimised.

social environment

Proper application of what is gained from environment, understanding it within a scientific foundation and comprehended the specific phenomena regarding happenings around, would occur at the secondary education level. For the convenience of learning environment is categorized in to various units identify than as different subjects and opportunity is provided to learn them, separately.

This includes main education fields such as scientific environment, active environment, social environment and application. The importance of knowledge and skills acquired during this state is that it provides the opportunity to get a correct idea of ones own setting and society.

From the junior secondary level subjects such as science, art and social studies could be studied specifically. Accordingly, fields which developed certain skills could be studied with limitation and subjects like mathematics could be used for the development of creativity, in addition to the essence of the subject. The manner in which these are adapted will not be a question. The need is to utilize them to suit the time. This period can be often used to identify the theories related to nature and its being, their application and historical foundation. These features are characteristic of the stage of education. But Senior Secondary Stage is considered to be the last of the school life and later will be moved on to either further education or vocational field. Even though the child may involve in further education the ultimate goal would be a future career. Therefore, though various academic levels are planned after school education, the main objective is almost the same.

(The writer is deputy Director General (Institutional Affairs) Sri Lanka Institute of Advanced Technical Education.)

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