Saturday, 17 May 2003  
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English medium schools and its teachers

International schools and English Medium National schools have become increasingly popular in Sri Lanka. As a result, International schools have been set up every corner in Colombo City and Outstations with no adequate facilities but not forgetting to charge exorbitant school fees.

Irrespective of the school, obtaining a sound English education is the main expectation of the parents who send their children to these institutions. On the other hand the government also has taken measures to provide English medium education in Sinhalese Medium National Schools too. This move is expected to give the next generation ample opportunity to improve their English ability.

However I believe that our main concern should be about the teachers who are expected to teach in English. Whether these teachers have adequate knowledge of English I would say is highly questionable. This does not restrict to International schools, but to English Medium National schools and to Sinhala Medium National schools who have just introduced English Medium education.

Except for a few recognized International schools and Sinhala Medium private schools I wonder whether the other schools have adequate teachers who know their English properly in the first place and who could deliver value for money. I wish to state an incident which occurred when I went to the British High Commission to apply for a Visa few weeks ago. I was asked to stay in a queue to hand over my application to the visa officer when I observed a young lady who seemed to be in her twenties at one of the visa officers counter.

I could not help but overhear the conversation between this lady and the officer since she was standing very close to me. She was terrible in her English and she was not able to speak a single sentence without any grammar mistake. Although her standard of English did not concern me I was totally shocked when she loudly mentioned that she has been a teacher in a reputed English Medium National school in Kirimandala Mawatha teaching English and Buddhism.

She continued to speak for another good 45 minutes with so much confidence but could not manage to speak just one sentence without grammar mistakes. My heart went out to parents who pay so much for their children's education. I wondered whether these are the types of teachers who teach in English Medium in International schools. Isn't it a shame to have this type of teachers teaching our children "english subject".

Whose responsibility is it to ensure that so called English Medium schools have proper resources to conduct their activities. Shouldn't there be proper authority to look into the standard of such schools to ensure that they provide a proper education to our children who will take over the future of Sri Lanka, or are they just treated as business establishments who should pay their taxes to the government on time. Isn't it a shame to let our children suffer with teachers like that. I think its time that something is done to regulate such bodies and ensure that the interest of our future leaders are safeguarded.

I. BALASURIYA, 
Malabe

High incidence of fatal motor accidents

Of late, it is observed that there had been a rapid increase in motor accidents, with resultant loss of life and serious injury. Some of the victims had been innocent road users and others who travel in the motor vehicles.

It was reported in the media that several head-on collisions had taken place recently on the highway claiming the lives of the occupants of the vehicles. The reasons for these spate of accidents are many - vehicles driven by those who are not competent to drive motor vehicles and driving without a valid licence, driving under the influence of liquor, driving at excessive speed with no regard to the highway code with scant respect to the passengers and other road users. As regards tragic accidents caused by public transport (buses), it should be stated that one glaring reason is overloading paying no regard to the permitted number of passengers and causing great inconvenience.

When a bus or lorry is overloaded, the strain is on the steering wheel and the driver loses control of the vehicle when negotiating bends specially in the hill country. In a recent fatal mishap in the hill country, the bus had been carrying nearly 100 passengers. As the bus was overloaded, the driver had lost control of the vehicle and had gone down a precipice causing the death of 6 passengers and injuring many.

It is not understood why overloading is permitted and whether there is no traffic law to check this illegal practice. It is time that the authorities concerned take meaningful steps to arrest this trend by implementing the laws in force.

D. Madurapperuma, 
Nugegoda.

National Productivity Award to SLT!

S L T is a service organization which is getting criticized almost everyday by its clients. Newspapers carry many readers' letters pinpointing the short-comings of the S L T and every customer does not write to papers and it may be only a 0.01% does that.

What is the criteria for the selection for this Awards? If one goes through the newspapers of the past four months the following may be very prominent:

No response to letters written to SLT officials or published in the papers Inability to contact officers over the phone from RTOM upwards to Chairman No answer when dialed 121,122 etc.

Inability to provide certain basic technological facilities in most exchange areas Mistakes in billing

Delays in sending detailed bills

Delays in attending to faults

Long delays in shifting a telephone from one location to another due to cumbersome procedures.

Delay in issuing Directories regularly

Wrong subscriber information in the Directories

DESHAPRIYA RAJAPAKSHA, 
Colombo 6

Is life precious?

Life is precious! That is what we all say and preach. If life is so precious why do we let tens of thousands of people in Africa to die of starvation every year while tons of wheat and mountains of butter are dumped in the sea. Life is precious, to whom - to oneself, family or to the country?

One million abortions are caused every day in the world. Over one million children under 5 years of age die everyday of starvation, malnutrition and disease. Who says human life is precious when the rest of the population is made to be totally unmindful of the life of the others. For many, the victims of murder are less precious than the murderers themselves.

They, the NGOs, intellectuals, professionals, human rights activists and academics talk of the irreversibility of the death penalty to murderers. They never talk of the irreversibility of the millions and millions of lives dying of abortions and starvation. Instead of trying to save one murderer those who consider life as precious could rush to save the lives of those millions.

Who starts wars which had destroyed millions and millions of innocent lives over the centuries past? Don't they know that life is precious? Is one's life precious only to oneself and the life of the other is not worth even that of a chick.

E. M. G. Edirisinghe, 
Dehiwala

Employment of women in private banks

It was disclosed in the media that private banks are reluctant to employ females in their banks, due to the reason that they become mothers as soon as they are married, resulting in wastage of their funds. Further it said that these banks are now cutting down on their female staff recruitment.

A just married girl who went for the interview at a private bank was told by the HR Manager to give a verbal undertaking that she will not get pregnant for the first two years of the appointment, if she wants to keep the job.

A question arises whether these personnel/human resources managers were not born through human mothers? They have simply forgotten the importance of their mothers, motherhood and how they came to this world.

How about colossal amount of funds spent by these managers and top brass, through their so-called entertainment allowances? They only want to save funds spent on the payment of salaries during maternity leave of their female employees?

In the post-colonial days, there was an ex-colonial rule that CTO girls (Govt employees) were not allowed to marry.

If they got married they had to leave the service. Thanks to Minister Marikkar who changed this rule. During the same period Govt nurses were not allowed to marry for first 5 years of their employment - this too was changed in 1960s due to agitation by the Nurses Unions.

We see now, that these colonial macho rules are raising its head through the private sector banks.

If the private sector banks do not want to employ females, why should the Sri Lanka female population maintain their accounts at such banks.

If they don't want female employees why do they need female account holders money? It is simple as that.

Women population of the country, should rally round to teach these macho banks a lesson.

All female account holders of the country should show their protest, by closing their accounts at such banks which has this draconian rule.

They could open accounts at banks which has at least 50% of females in their total staff strength.

Women's Affairs Ministry should take up this matter with the private banking sector and publish a list of all banks and the percentage of their female staff strength for the protestors to move forward in this matter.

ARIYASUMITHRA WIJEYARATNE, 
Piliyandala.

Paying salaries through banks

I read with interest the letter by Meththananda Wijekulasuriya published in the Daily News of May 2 under the heading Robberies and banking habits. I fully endorse his view that robberies of monthly wages and payrolls will decrease if salaries and wages of employees both in the public and private sector are paid through the banking system.

This happened in England as far back as the mid 1960s and in all developed countries this is the normal practice. As a result, the robberies of pay-rolls declined and the banking habit and bank accounts increased. As pointed out by Mr. Wijekulasuriya, the Automatic Teller machines at banks can enable employees to withdraw monies easily.

As a member of the Governments Financial Sector Reform Committee (FSRC) and a consultant to the ongoing financial sector reforms I had prepared a short note to the Minister of Finance K.N. Choksy recommending that the establishment code and Financial Regulations of the Government be amended to pay State sector salaries to employees through their bank accounts. banks can be asked to activate a promotional campaign in this direction which will encourage employees to accept this mode of receiving their monthly salaries.

Dr. Wickrema Weerasooria, 
Consultant, Financial Sector Legal Reforms.

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