English: has the argument to go on?

J. B. Muller

TEACHING: "We have to re-think our teaching of English if we are to save the structure of Sri Lanka" was the last line of an eye-opening article by Maureen Wickremasinghe in the Daily news of Thursday, August 24. After struggling to get the same message across from 2003 onwards and establishing and incorporating The English Language Foundation, I'm constrained to agree with every word she has written.

The fundamental obstacle lies in the Ministry of Education itself and the extremely obstructionist bureaucrats in the section headed by the Director of Education (English), and I can't say that I wasn't warned. Colleagues in the National Institute of Education, too, support this attitude and NO information about any fresh, new initiatives ever reaches the Minister of Education because these sundry and various bureaucrats man the barriers.

I wrote about Sri Lanka's unique national resource of natural English speakers being recruited, trained and deployed to teach English in my article in the 'Daily News' of April 24, 2003 titled "Burghers Teaching English."

That article generated significant and tremendous interest that attracted members of the Dutch Burgher Union of Ceylon, The Burgher Association, and other interested non-Burgher segments of the English-speaking population.

Several meetings were held and leading members of the private sector and civil society came forward to incorporate The English Language Foundation on September 15, 2004.

The Governors are, in alphabetical order: Nihal Bogahalande (Rotary); E.P.A. Cooray (Ceylon Chamber of Commerce); Arun Dias-Bandaranaike (Media Personality); B.R. Lakshman Fernando (Chemical Industries Colombo); Ms. J.D.M. Gunewardena (Women's Chamber of Industry & Commerce); Mohamed Mack Hashim (SAARC Chambers of Commerce); Dr. (Ms.) Tilokasundari Kariyawasam (former head of the NIE); J.B. Muller (The English Language Foundation); B.G.K. Peiris (International Chamber of Commerce); M.H.M. Rafi (Wycherly International School); Michele Rasquinho-Martin (English Language teacher); and Denis de Rosayro (English Language Teacher).

Rotary International quickly responded and the Rotary Club of Colombo East was mandated to establish at least two state-of-the-art training centres, one in Colombo and one at the periphery, perhaps in Kandy or Nuwara Eliya. The game plan was to recruit English speakers, Burghers as well as others to train as instructors.

These instructors would train batches of Government school teachers in batches, giving them an intensive course in English using the most modern electronic programmes to supplement and support the instructors. Once through this pressure-cooker course, the school teachers who passed would have a valid and recognized diploma to teach English (and nay subject in the school curriculum) in English.

Thereby, the approximately 200,000 school teachers would be empowered to teach English in the roughly 10,000 Government schools throughout the island to 4.5 million schoolchildren. The more instructors, the more batches until all school teachers in the country were genuinely empowered.

New school teachers entering the Government schools system would also be trained. It was expected that the cost of training would be borne out of foreign aid funds made available under the 'Education for All' programme and other foreign-funded programmes of the Ministry of Education.

Bureaucracy is ingenious at least in delaying matters to the 'nth' degree and the Foundation was told to do two things before it could receive Government funds as payment for it services.

1. Register as a Non-Governmental Organization at the NGO division of the Ministry of Finance; and

2. Convert itself into a Trust Fund.

Steps were taken by the Governors to comply and a 42 page application in six copies was forwarded to the NGO Division, which then requested for a letter from Rotary regarding the funding of the two training centres.

In turn, Rotary requested a letter from the Ministry of Education's 'Education for All' section stating that the MOE endorses the proposed training programme of The English Language Foundation.

At a conference between M. Sivagnanam of the Education for All Section, Cida Subramaniam of Rotary Colombo East and the writer, M. Sivagnanam promised to send the letter. Rotary promised to furnish its commitment by letter on receipt of the MOE letter. That was on November 10, 2005. After that, there was an election and the Foundation expected the letter from the MOE to arrive after the dust settled down. Nothing happened for three months. Two registered letters were sent.

Finally, in sheer disgust, the writer sought an interview with the Minister of Education and got to see his private secretary. He was informed that neither of the two registered letters had been received at the Ministry! However, expecting such an answer, he promptly furnished the private secretary with a copy of the last registered letter and was informed that the matter would be looked into.

About a month later, the writer received a letter from the Director of Education (English) that was very vague and noncommittal. In order to finalize matters, the writer visited this Section shortly after the Sinhala, Tamil New Year to find the entire Section deserted.

The following week, he was more fortunate in that he was able to meet with the Director of Education (English) who blandly informed him that the Ministry possessed enough resources to do its own training and that it would train the 22,000 English teachers (or so-called English teachers) in the Government schools system.

On being told that The English Language Foundation had been dealing with the Ministry on this subject for over an year up to November 2005, the lady professed complete ignorance of the offer and restated her position that the MOE did not want any outside help to do the job!

It appears from this that those who do know English in the almighty and arbitrary bureaucratic system that rules over us does not want more people to learn English. That's a group on one side that wants to keep the learning of English at bay. On the other side there are bigots, ultra-nationalists and reactionary fanatics that hate English as a 'colonial' holdover. Both are grave dangers to the structure and future of Sri Lanka.

As Maureen Wickremesinghe so rightly states: "The English Language is dividing this country into 'haves' and 'have nots', with the introduction of fee-levying BOI internaitonal schools and nurseries".

The English Language Foundation was established to break the power of the 'kaduva' forever by making as many people as possible literate in the English Language, which is now the international lingua franca and no longer the exclusive language of our former colonial overlords, the British.

The movement to destroy the power of the 'kaduva' is to equip every person with a 'kaduva' so that a few will not be able to dominate the many. A widespread knowledge of English would also destroy the power of the obstructionist bureaucrats and the lunatic fringe that hates and fears the English Language for utterly illogical reasons.

The English Language Foundation is not dead and far from buried, only licking its wounds. Do you want to save the structure of Sri Lanka as a viable and sustainable entity? Write the Editor of this paper and voice your candid opinion and support all those who would want to spread the knowledge of this international language - and its promoter: The English Language Foundation.