Pursuing academic excellence

EDUCATION: Having served on the Board of Governors of Trinity College for the last couple of years, I was sorry to have missed their Prize Giving twice, so I made a special effort to get there this year, in the midst of more extended travels.

It was fully worth the effort, with short and inspiring speeches and quick and efficient distribution of prizes (exemplified by an enormous actor who changed from suit to scout uniform within a few minutes for all that saluting that lends colour to such events).

After the event the College commissioned a new building, an outstanding structure with a simple but charming roof that blends beautifully with the old quadrangle. There was a marked contrast with some of the more prosaic structures of the seventies, but fortunately these were tucked away, and it was the old colonial buildings and this elegant structure that stood out.

The evening ended there, in the top level auditorium that has wonderful views over the city, with a sunset concert that exemplified the range of Trinity's talents, the choir, the orchestra and then the energetic oriental music troupe.

But the highlight of the evening had been the speech of the Chief Guest, the new Vice-Chancellor of Moratuwa University, who has already made his mark as an innovative administrator, following in the footsteps of distinguished predecessors and yet changing with the times as the interests of the institution and its membership require. His theme was the need for Trinity too to change as required, whilst of course preserving what is best in its heritage.

He was uniquely able to address this issue, because he is a child of the seventies, which saw so many social changes to which schools had to respond. He referred in his speech to the realization amongst school boys then that Trinity was not providing teaching of the required standard, that the better minds were leaving for other schools, and his own role as the chosen representatives of his peers to ask the Principal to take action. The action, he reported, was prompt, which is what allowed him to enter the Engineering Faculty at Moratuwa.

This was a student who also captained three sports, exemplifying the tradition of all rounders that sadly fell into abeyance at the more prestigious schools in the seventies.

Reflecting on all this, as I had to do at S Thomas' at a time when the Warden responded, to a query from the Board as to why the Advanced Level results were so bad, that his boys came from a class that did not need to go to university (and being even more astonished that the Board did not immediately take steps to correct this attitude), I realized that the social effects of standardization, and later the District Quota system, had been drastic.

To put it in a nutshell, while I was in school, in the late sixties, a large number of students, even those we did not consider very bright, were able to get into university, doubtless because of the educational advantages they enjoyed compared with students from other areas, advantages due to their home backgrounds as well as school.

Thus those who did well in sports also studied at least to some extent, and a reasonable proportion ended up with degrees, while the others at least had some academic awareness.

All this changed with standardization, which began with my batch (which also happens to be Prabhakaran's). Unfortunately in those days opportunities for other academic qualifications were limited, and particularly in the boys' schools there seemed no point whatsoever in studying.

Of course there were still outlets for those with other qualifications, English and sports, but as these too grew limited, and as promotion within those areas began also to demand some level of qualifications, there was a return by the eighties to at least some concern with academic work in most schools.

Parents, and students too, began to realize that professional qualifications also required some Advanced Level passes, while the foreign universities (including those that have developed in-country facilities) have attracted increasing enrolments.

However, there was what I would term a lost generation in the seventies when those from prestigious schools who, like the Vice-Chancellor, distinguished themselves in university were few and far between.

I have seen this exemplified in a couple of families I know well, each with three boys, of whom the four elder ones would not by any stretch of the imagination be described as intellectually distinguished. The two eldest, now in their late fifties, both obtained law degrees, and have done very well. The next two, both a few years younger than me, thought studying useless.

Though, given their backgrounds, Royal and S. Thomas' respectively, they have never waited for jobs, and well-paying jobs at that, neither has had careers that can be compared for distinction with their elder or their younger brothers - both of whom got to university in the eighties, one in Sri Lanka, one abroad, and have done very well, academically as well as professionally.

Unfortunately a lot of heavy weather is made by those I have described as the lost generation, when it comes to what they see as the tradition of their old schools.

It was therefore heartening to note that the Vice-Chancellor praised the achievements of the current Principal in raising academic standards, whilst also achieving better results in the range of sports and extra-curricular activities Trinity excels in.

And in recognizing the need to work on these too, he added the need for special attention to academics, including perhaps through the institution of an 'Academic Lion', so that this aspect of the school would also share in the height of recognition available to students.

He also suggested scholarship mechanisms, to improve the academic quality of the students, and measures to improve teaching, through a body of old boys and parents who would do for academic development what the Scrummage has achieved for Trinity rugby.

Whether all this can be worked out is another question, but the arguments were persuasive, and I believe those who have the best interests of the school - and future generations of students - at heart will I am sure be motivated to work on the idea.