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by Dr. Tara de Mel

'Reclaiming Education' by James Tooley (Professor of Education Policy, University of New Castle), a radical piece of writing, sets out an agenda for freeing education from the interventionist clutches of the State. It also sets out the philosophy for reclaiming education from the "tyranny of schooling".

About a year ago I was gifted a book by a colleague; a book that proved to be the most stimulating reading on education I had done in recent times.

'Reclaiming Education' by James Tooley (Professor of Education Policy, University of New Castle), a radical piece of writing, sets out an agenda for freeing education from the interventionist clutches of the State. It also sets out the philosophy for reclaiming education from the "tyranny of schooling". But most importantly the book clearly tells us what education is about, ie: that it is about providing opportunity, easy access and freedom of choice, that it is about facing new challenges and about devolving management adequately and effectively. Tooley's varied arguments for liberating schools from the State bureaucracy and its associated political shackles, rings a bell. In fact it provides a loud wake-up call, alerting us to the scenarios we face in Sri Lanka.

Take the case of our average school-going child. S/he treks miles to school or gets there by bus, often hungry, a dilapidated school building, a classroom with poor light and ventilation accommodating 40-50 children. A tired and de-motivated teacher, herself having woken up in the wee hours of the morning having trekked miles to school after her household chores. She struggles to make herself heard and tries hard to teach with the bare minimum resources.

Accurately described

Save for very few schools in the big cities, most Sri Lankan schools could be accurately described thus. This makes us ask whether extensive and innovative curricular reform, new teaching methods and colourful new books can have the desired impact on a population of school-going children and their teachers, in this setting. It makes us ask if the funds allocated for education in the national budget and the associated loans and grants from lending agencies have been adequate to equip and develop the 9,887 schools strewn far and wide across the map of Sri Lanka. It makes us wonder if new and well thought out Education Reforms will work, given the situations described.

Successive Sri Lankan governments in the post-independence era could not achieve this Herculean task despite relatively reasonable allocations per budget annually. (see box). Are we optimistic of the State alone achieving this in the future?

Around the globe in many developing countries, a pattern has emerged where 'markets in education' have ceased to be a topic of rhetorical debate and philosophical brainstorm.

The crunch point being that the newer such 'markets' have been more successful in providing an education suited for the 'globalised employment market' than the State-run schools. Bearing testimony to the success of such government approved private education institutes, are countries like Brazil, India, Peru, South Africa, Romania, Zimbabwe and Russia - all developing countries.

In Brazil for example, privately established school chain specialising in innovative educational methods with state-of-the-art technology, offer courses in highly employable disciplines for a small fee structure. Thousands of students flock to these schools and the chains are expanding.

Russia and Romania had until recently banned private education, but in Moscow alone, the same proportion of children, attend schools established by the private sector, as in the UK (ie about 7 per cent).

In Colombia 28 per cent of primary enrolment and 40 per cent secondary school enrolment are with the private sector. Indonesia has 23 per cent primary and secondary school students and 94 per cent of students in private tertiary education. Extensive studies done by Tooley et al, show that the hallmark of these 'education markets' is their emphasis on innovation and creative methods of teaching, thus producing multi-skilled students, equipped with attitudes and competencies necessary for the globalised 21st century.

Let's face it, the overall interest in private education, be it in developing or developed countries, is extensive and is expanding.

This interest is fuelled by some major concerns like the lack of adequate State funding for good quality education, doubts about the State being able to assure quality and of course the perceived threat to equity, access and social justice by private education. Fortunately today, the last argument can be confidently met since all socialist countries that initially promoted exclusive State monopoly in education have themselves become role models in experimenting with innovative private schooling systems. In this country, where about 70-80 International Schools of varying quality are already established, today we see a new trend emerging. We see a fledgling market of non-governmental schools coming into the picture.

The fees levied are not exorbitant and these schools primarily cater to children who missed opportunities to get into State schools of their choice. These schools often follow the national policy on curriculum or sometimes cater to the UK examinations system. But the most outstanding features are, that they maintain a healthy class-size, have more opportunities for pupil-based teaching and active-learning.

They are better equipped with human and other resources, have better discipline and order, and are managed by Governing Boards consisting of reputed persons in the community. These significant changes in our education system are taking place unobtrusively, are not highlighted or applauded by the media. They remain low profile, but provide an opportunity to many children. In fact they have become a panacea to most parents with worries concerning good quality schooling for their children.

However, the serious lacunae in this endeavour are the lack of a national regulatory system, lack of quality assurance and lack of a system for accreditation of such schools. The amendments to the Education Act (1939) that were proposed in 2001, included a clause permitting the registration of Private and International Schools based on certain norms stipulated by the Government. The proposed new Act, if it came to being, would have also included possibilities for legalising Quality Assurance mechanisms the Ministry had initiated last year.

These measures obviously would have prevented schools of sub optimum quality from either entering or remaining in the market. The Bill, however was never presented to parliament.

The fundamental question often asked is, "Is the role of the state critical, in the provision of education?" It is indeed. Most educationists would argue that the role of the state is primarily one of providing resources for the large majority of schools in existence and setting overall policy with regards to the curriculum. But more importantly the state should bear the responsibility of regulation, monitoring and evaluation. Ideally it should be the 'watch-dog' of the entire education system of the country.

True devolution

However, Tooley emphatically argues, from the examples drawn from his study that the state must free itself from the parochialism of the present. That it must truly devolve its powers, allowing schools to run themselves, giving the freedom and autonomy to the head and the governing body of the school.

The plans for introducing school-based management as proposed by the Ministry in 2001, dealt with true devolution of school management, where autonomy is given to the school principal and the School Management Council (SMC). In such a system the Principal and the SMC would have determined the number of students enrolled, class-size, time table and other general managerial aspects of the school. This project was to be implemented in stages during 2002. Unfortunately it never was.

It is only in very few countries that the state determines school enrollment numbers or interferes with class-size and school admission. Sri Lanka is one such example. Although serious attempts were made to curtail class-size with the onset of the new Education Reforms in 1999, implementation of this policy met with little success. Furthermore, a new school admission scheme developed by the National Education Commission after much consultation and discussions met with wide political opposition last year and was not implemented.

Relinquishing one's powers in regard to school admission, class-size and teacher deployment are areas that no politician - whichever party - will ever take on. Rest assured, it is too big a gamble to take when nursing an electorate. Giving priority to sound education policy which might result in creating disappointments within one's constituency and running the risk of losing it at the next election are nightmares to any parliamentarian.

Most governments around the world, despite their repeated reassuring rhetoric, have a 'philosophical hole' in the heart of their thinking on education policy. Governments that took revolutionary but correct policy decisions had to be courageous and progressive to truly free their education system from being handcuffed to the state bureaucracy. These were difficult decisions to make, but enlightened and visionary leaders who thought of the future generations decided to make them.

The conventional wisdom that private education in developing countries fosters and creates social and economic inequality and that it is the exclusive domain of the wealthy, has already been successfully challenged.

Notable feature The newer writings argue that the traditional picture of private education in developing countries as being elitist, is misguided and misconceived. That education 'businesses' cater to a wide spectrum of socio-economic groups and that they pay special emphasis to being quality-conscious and innovative, has been clearly shown by case studies done in many developing countries.

The most notable feature is how in all such cases the disadvantaged groups are assisted through scholarships, loans schemes, cross-subsidisation and by novel public-private partnerships.

This reminds me of a programme initiated last year, when recognised companies and banks decided to 'adopt' certain rural schools selected by the Ministry through its 'Navodaya' programme. The input made by these private organisations had a significant impact on the schools 'adopted'.

We should note with caution that as economies of developing countries grow, more and more people will see private education as a rational option for their children. Herein lies the possible danger of governments showing reluctance to invest more in public education. None of us want the inevitable consequence of such a situation - i.e. less moneys allocated for the state education sector, resulting in a poor service for the poor people. It is also hard to imagine how effective social cohesion could occur under such circumstances. It is only if public education delivers and delivers quality, that we can avoid this unwelcome but inevitable prospect.

Professor Michael Barber described by Tony Blair as "one of the most stimulating thinkers on education" summed this up lucidly in his book The Learning Game, "Don't compromise on quality, invest in it. Except schools and teachers to perform with excellence and hold them accountable. Reward success and challenge failure ." The proposed annual Teachers Convention planned by the Ministry last year to felicitate and reward teachers, would have met with some of the objectives Barber had in mind.

This year's Human Development Report ranks 173 countries according to their score on the Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI takes education (adult literacy and school enrollment), life expectancy and per capita GDP into account. Sri Lanka is ranked 89, while Norway, Sweden and Canada take the top 3 places. Although India is placed at 124, several "developing" nations are ranked within the first 50. This shows the importance of keeping populations educated and healthy.

Longway for Sri Lanka

This also shows that Sri Lanka has a long way to go. It shows that Sri Lanka cannot keep on boasting for too long about its high literacy, numeracy and school enrollment levels, together with its similarly satisfying health indicators. Sri Lanka has to wake up from its somnolence, climb many a rung in its social development ladder, sturdily and fast, if it wants to keep pace and hopefully one day overtake, its 'developing-nation' colleagues around the globe.

Michael Barber, succinctly but eloquently summarises: "Much of what I have always advocated demands a government which puts education at the heart of its work... requiring visionary and assertive leadership". James Tooley on the other hand, demands a government "which gets out of the way of education".

The question that arises then, is whether our decision-makers will have the vision to implement a sensible balance of the two and do what is best and what is right for our children.

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