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A tribute by Sterling Perera, former Commissioner of Examinations and Director, Planning and Research, Ministry of Education.

Prof. J.E. Jayasuriya

It is customary to publish a special tribute to the revered teacher and educator, Prof. J.E. Jaysuriya, on the occasion of his birth anniversary which falls on February 14. A special lecture by a distinguished invitee, at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute and sponsored by the J.E. Jaysuriya Memorial Foundation, has been the main event in the annual celebrations. This year however, the fourteenth of the series of memorial lecturers, will be delivered by the distinguished economist, Dr. G. Uswatte-aratchi on February 13. Hence the scheduling of this newspaper article for publication today.

I consider it an honour and a privilege to be provided the opportunity to add my humble tribute, on this 86th birth anniversary, to the series of such annual tributes already made by a galaxy of Prof. Jaysuriya's distinguished pupils and admires. He passed away on 23rd January 1990, at the age of 71, having led an exemplary and useful life all the way. It is usually after the passing away, that one begins to recognize what a fortune and privilege it had been to have come under the influence of such a great personality.

Great personality

Prof. Jayasuriya was in every respect a great personality, who distinguished himself in every sphere of his activity, as teacher and school principal, university academic and UNESCO consultant. I shall briefly dwell on the biographical details (for which I am indebted to the writers of previous articles and to 'Essays in Memory of J.E. Jaysuriya', edited by his son, Dr. D. C. Jayasuriya), and on some of the many facetted, distinguished career of Prof. Jayasuriya before adding my reminiscences and comments by way of a personal tribute owed to him as a pupil and beneficiary of his very helpful advice and guidance.

John Earnest Jayasuriya was born in Ahangama on February 14, 1918. He had his school education at Dharmaskoka Vidyalaya, Ambalangoda, Anuruddha Vidyalaya, Nawalapitiya and at wesley College, Colombo. Although a devout Buddhist, he studied Christianity as required at Wesley College, College, and as he told us later, was able to read the New Testament in the original Greek. His brilliance as a scholar was amply demonstrated when he secured the third place in order of merit, among all candidates from the British Empire, at the Cambridge Senior Examination.

As to be expected, he entered the University College, Colombo and graduated in 1939 with a first class in Mathematics. As a young graduate of just 21 years, he became the founder principal of Dharmapala Vidyalaya, Pannipitiya. It was an auspicious beginning as Dharmapala Vidyalaya became a leading school within two decades. He obtained ample experience as a school teacher and principal during the next eight years, as Vice-Principal, Sri Sumangala Vidyalaya, Panadura, Principals of Central Colleges of Matugama and Wadduwa and as lecturer, Government Training College, Maharagama.

Post graduate

Prof. Jayasuriya did his first post graduate studies at the Institute of Education of London University, obtaining a Diploma in Teaching in 1948 and a MA in Education in 1949. At the London University he specialized in psychometry related to education, which was a pioneer field then for any Sri Lankan. Thus at the age of 31, he was ready to embark on an academic career with a preparatory background of a brilliant school and university career and experience in teaching and school administration.

Prof. Jayasuriya joined the newly instituted University of Ceylon, Faculty of Education, with Prof. T.L. Green as head, as a lecturer in 1952. Prof. Jayasuriya together with other lecturers such as Dr. Nesiah helped Prof. Green to develop the Department during its formative years. In 1957 at the age of 39, Prof. Jayasuriya succeeded Prof. Green. During his tenure of 14 years from 1957 to 1971 the department was transferred to Peradeniya and under his leadership, foresight and dedication it acquired maturity and stature as an important department of the University of Ceylon.

The development of the department and its expansion had to depend, to a great extent, on its own alumni and Prof. Jayasuriya was able to produce qualified and competent academics for the purpose. Masters' and doctoral courses in education became possible with the recruitment of qualified academics in sufficient numbers. BY 1971 the Peradeniya faculty, as the premier postgraduate institution in education, was able to supply qualified academics to the departments of education instituted in the other universities from the sixties onwards. As required of a university academic. Prof. Jayasuriya made several contributions to the development of his field of expertise. Among these were the development of an Intelligence Test suited for local use and the standardization of Raven's Non-Verbal Test.

Pupils cohorts

For nearly a thousand of Prof. Jayasuriya's 19 cohorts of Diploma in Education pupils, he was the stern, absolutely punctual, exacting but devoted teacher of Educational Psychology and Measurement. During his entire tenure he was 'the Professor of Education'. Undoubtedly he influenced the education system through the inculcation of knowledge to so may pupils but even more through his exemplary attributes which the pupils emulated.

These pupils manned the upper echelons of Sri Lanka's education establishment as senior administrators of the Ministry and its departments, as principals of the larger schools, as supervisors and as senior teachers till about the nineties. Some of them continue as the senior most academics of the faculties and departments of education in the university system. Others above-retirement age continue to be in positions of influence as office bearers and members of institutions such as the National Education Commission and professional organizations and as consultants.

It is said that, Sir Christopher Wren the architect who rebuilt the City of London after the Great Fire of 1666, needed no special monument. He had only to look around to find one. This example is pertinent to Prof. Jayasuriya also. The achievements of our education system owe a great deal to him as a mentor of so many cohorts of educators. (The costs to the system and the nation of ignoring his advice will be referred to later).

An aspect of Prof. Jayasuriya's contribution to education largely ignored is that regarding his contributions as writer of mathematics textbooks in Sinhalese for the junior school grades. He ably filled the void regarding the availability of textbooks on the subject when English was replaced as the medium of instruction, in the junior grades, in the fifties. His textbooks were very popular among teachers because they facilitated teaching learning of what was considered a difficult subject. His talent for learning mathematics would have made its learning very easy for him.

But he was able to identify and perceive the difficulties teachers and children had in mastering even simple concepts in mathematics and he found ways to present them in simpler terms. He may have devised these as a teacher in the rural schools during his early career.

When it was decreed in the mid sixties, that only books produced under the aegis of the Ministry were to be used in schools he denounced it as an unwise step. Thus he became an implacable critic of the Ministry within two years of the presentation of the Report of the National Education Commission, in 1962, of which he was Chairman. The continued poor performance of students in Mathematics at the GCE examinations became a lifelong concern for him.

When deliberations were under way in 1983, for instituting an Association for Science Education, by the Science Education Research Committee (SERC) of the Natural Resources energy and Science Authority (NARESA), Prof. Jayasuriya insisted that Mathematics also should come within its scope. I was then a member of SERC of which the Chairman was Prof. Valentine Basnayake. That was how the letter M came into the acronym SLASME of the Sri Lanka Association of Science and Mathematics Education, inaugurated in 1984.

Prof. Jayasuriya was elected President of SLASME a few years later and for his Presidential Address he did not choose a profound topic. But his topic was about the teaching-learning of Mathematics - simple errors and how to pre-empt their occurrence.

SLASME continues its mission of promoting science and Mathematics education through a small band of devoted retired senior educators and teachers, working on a voluntary basis, almost unnoticed by the Ministry. The favoured methodology is the use of investigative activities and project work loved by children.

Foresight

Prof. Jayasuriya's foresight was seen at its best when he was appointed chairman of the National Education Commission in 1961 in recognition of his leadership in the field as the Professor of Education. The Commission had a wide mandate and had to report on 31 topics ranging from Organization of Schools to promotion of Educational Research. The aim was to establish a National System of Education, cognizant of national and cultural aspirations, geared to the economic, technical and development needs of the country and ensuring equality of opportunity.

The take over of assisted schools was due and the Commission was required to make far reaching recommendations to ensure a truly unified national system of education. The take-over of hitherto assisted denominational schools created much controversy and the Chairman had to deal with many dissenting proposals. It was to the credit of the Chairman that with all the dissenting voices, the Commission was able to present promptly, very comprehensive and cogent reports in the form of an Interim Report dealing with 18 topics in 1961 (published as Sessional Paper I, in January (1962) and the Final Report in 1962. (published as Sessional Paper XVII, in 1982).

I recall appearing before the Commission as a committee member of the Science Teachers' Association led by Mr. M. W. Karunananda. Prof. Jayasuriya keenly listened to and responded to even the views of very junior members like me, even though I was overawed by his presence and demeanour. The report was very objective as to the origins of discrimination and unequal treatment in schooling among other things, and did not gloss over facts to appease dissenting views.

Recommendations

A few of the recommendations of the Commission are indicated here to illustrate how education in Sri Lanka would have progressed had the recommendations of the Jayasuriya Commission been implemented even partly. With regard to the estate schools the Commission recommended that a national system of education should 'ensure that all children residing in the country are given an education which would permit them, in adult life, to make a productive contribution to the economic life of the country'.

It took the government 16 more years to recognize this and to bring the estate schools under the state system. Prof. Jayasuriya foresaw the alienation resulting from such wilful neglect, and she confided later to us, willingly accepted the suggestion of a revered leader of the plantation Tamil community to provide for admission of children of plantation workers to better equipped secondary schools in the Central Province allowing the pupils to choose the medium of instruction.

Other recommendations which were never implemented included the conceding a degree of autonomy for schools and giving more authority to heads of schools to manage them. With regard to decentralization the Commission conceived it 'primarily in terms the improved quality of education which will result from an administration truly geared to educational objectives - in terms of greater autonomy for the individual school, a more contented teaching profession, conscious of professional dignity.' What followed was quite the opposite with even the former assisted schools losing the autonomy and other salutary features.

The national system was interpreted to mean total control by bureaucrats using a reward and punishment structure as a rein to make the system serve the whims and caprices of politicians with the cooperation of the administrators. The White Paper of 1964 and the Draft Bill of 1967 were far off the mark as regards the recommendations of the Commission. Prof. Jayasuriya published a scathing 'Comment on the Education Bill of 1967'. This did not endear him to the powers that be and one has to regret that his knowledge and expertise was left unused much to the detriment of the cause of education.

(To be continued)

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