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EVERYONE wants to learn English and this has become a bonanza for
hundreds of teachers to cash in by offering private classes. There’s a
lot of money to be made and English language teachers and others have
been quick to exploit the demand.
At Rs. 200 for a two hour session, it’s easy to rake in four to six
thousand rupees, or as much as 25 per cent or more of a teacher’s
monthly salary for an easy mornings work.
Ironically, it is often the same teachers conducting these tuition
classes as those teaching English in schools. If they are using the same
failing methods, then the parents have been unwittingly deceived, and
the students will make little or no progress.
Parents do not question either the qualifications or competence of
these teachers, and since most of the parents have few English language
skills, how are they to judge?
Why is it that after 11 years of daily English lessons at school, so
few exhibit any real knowledge in reading, writing and speaking the
language?
Surely there must be something wrong but few are willing to confront
the situation or to apportion blame. It’s easy to blame the students for
not studying and applying themselves to the lessons.
Likewise, the teachers can be blamed for using poor teaching methods
and lack of dedication. Principals, who all too often do not speak
English, exhibit little influence over their teachers as long as they
follow the prescribed syllabus.
Divisional inspectors make very infrequent visits to schools, and
when they do perform an inspection, it is little more than checking that
the textbook units for the grade have been covered.
These inspectors all too often have little insight into modern
teaching methods and it is the ‘blind leading the blind’.
Ultimately, it is the desk-bound officers at the Ministry of
Education, and the N.I.E. who have the responsibility for syllabus,
textbooks, and monitoring standards.
How often they actually visit schools, especially in rural areas, to
experience first-hand progress or lack of progress in English language,
is questionable.
In many aspects English should be easier to learn than many Asian and
Oriental languages. First of all English writing is seen everywhere, and
many words have become part of everyday language.
In spoken and written English, a high percentage of basic words are
single syllable. The boy, dog and cat are in the big house. When this
sentence is translated to Sinhala or Tamil, it requires almost double
the number of syllables. In fact very few words in Sinhala are single
syllable.
In English there are approximately 300 words that are CVC -
consonant-vowel-consonant i.e. cat, dog, pot, tin, etc. using mainly 20
letters of the alphabet. In addition, many of the common verbs such as
walk, hop, can, run, cook, read, look, etc. are also single syllable
words.
Contrast these with the words in Sinhala for boy, girl and other
everyday words and it should be obvious that learning basic spoken
English (and spelling), with far fewer syllables, must be relatively
easier.
Simple questions such as ‘what’s your name?’ is far shorter than the
Sinhala equivalent. With an alphabet of only 26 letters, there are many
similarities: a, o, b, d, p, q, g and f, t, h, j, l, y.
In urban and even rural areas, you don’t need to look far to see
English words on shops, notices and on the huge advertising boards
polluting main roads.
So why is it that so many students find it so difficult to become
reasonably proficient in English? And why is it that the majority of
teachers and civil servants have such a poor working knowledge of
English? What has gone wrong and is still going wrong? With children the
spoken language must precede reading and writing. \
This is fundamental educational theory and psychology. Yet most
children begin their formal English in Grade 3 with reading and writing.
The very first page of the required Government textbook contains 12
words for reading.
The 256-page teacher’s guide does not even suggest to practise asking
students’ own names. Instead it focuses on stories with 4 children and 2
animals. Children are told to repeat the phrase ‘that’s my name’, -
hardly useful or colloquial!
In spite of the fact that the initial pages display lovely pictures
of boys, girls, an elephant and a monkey, in the entire 132 pages only
the word elephant appears and we have to wait until page 34 for this.
The words for boy, girl and monkey do not make an appearance! Yet the
15 joint authors, whom we assume are highly qualified English language
teachers, did consider it necessary to include words such as rectangle,
wound, stethoscope, saucer, syringe, handle, beautiful and many other
words that are more in keeping with “O” level standards. This initial
textbook for Grade 3 includes a vocabulary of almost 350 words.
Is it any wonder that by Grade 5 less than 10 per cent of students
have achieved the expected standard. The National Education Research and
Evaluation Centre in a thorough research ‘Achievements after four years
of schooling’ was highly critical of the N.I.E. and concluded that “The
low levels of mastery attainment (in English) call for comprehensive,
systematic and sustained strategies to accelerate attainment by quality
improvement, in particular, by diagnostic and remedial interventions,
serious attention should be focused on quality improvement in teaching
and learning English”.
Since the report was published in 2004, there have been numerous
pronouncements by Ministers, Directors and others both in the Education
Departments and other institutions, yet the same system prevails. No one
will take responsibility for this abysmal failing.
They continue spending vast sums on new textbooks, seminars and
Ministerial expenses, either ignoring the situation they are fully aware
of, or are totally unable to offer any practical solutions.
Meanwhile, the teachers and businessmen involved in private tuition,
are happy with the present situation. International schools now educate
over 200,000 students and the number of these schools are rapidly
multiplying.
It may be the expressed desired outcome that every child has equal
access to quality education. However, some are more equal than others.
Those parents who can afford a private education, or good tuition or
can get their children into the top schools are confident that English
standards will be high. Meanwhile the majority will continue to spend 11
years of daily English lessons to little profit.
PETER MELVYN - via email
In this age and time when most people consider that money is
everything and all their actions are towards it, there are still some
honest people around and I had the privilege of coming across one such
person.
He is a petrol attendant at the Lanka Fuel Mart shed D. S. Senanayake
Mawatha, Colombo 08. Last week, I pumped petrol for Rs. 2,500 and gave
him three Rs. 1,000 notes.
I requested for the bill, which he issued. I then got into my car and
drove off. It was when I stopped to buy dinner that I realised that I
had not taken the balance of Rs. 500. I went back the next day and while
I was telling the cashier about my balance, this attendant walked up to
me and handed the Rs. 500.
I was glad about his action not only because I got my money but to
find such honest people even amongst the poor.
My faith in honesty around us has been given a new lease by the
action of this attendant.
IQBAL MOOSA – Dehiwela
A few years ago we had a plentiful supply of Pakistani fresh
mandarins that were not only cheap but also were far better than any of
the dried up old oranges imported from other countries.
Some racketeers stopped this a few years ago, so that they could sell
their very old stock of dried up oranges and mandarins from other
countries.
Pakistan has good grapes and apples as well. Why can’t we enjoy them
instead of the watery tasteless grapes that are now sold at Rs. 40 to 50
per 100 grams? Even the Jaffna grapes are sold for Rs. 40 per 100 grams
while the grower may not be getting even Rs. 5.
Even the Jaffna mangoes are sold in the season at pavements in
Wellawatte and at supermarkets at Rs. 30 to 40 each while the grower may
not get a tiny fraction of it. Then how about our own pineapples?
They are picked very raw and are made yellow with carbide or they are
kept till they become yellow. Under the latter conditions the stem gets
dried up and in both cases the fruit is tasteless. We now come to
papaws. Commercial companies are now growing genetically manipulated
papaws that are red and tasteless.
Earlier there were large tumours inside the papaws as could be
expected in anything that is genetically manipulated. They then
genetically removed the tumours and in the process removed the seeds as
well.
Some of those papaws weigh anything from one and a half to two and a
half kilos. That is where the profit is. Broccoli that grows in some
parts of the country costs Rs. 85 per 100 grams whereas the same product
imported from Pakistan may cost a fraction of that price.
I suggest that the government of Pakistan has one outlet in Colombo
to begin with for fruits and vegetables. If successful they could have a
few more and the people of this country could once again enjoy the
fruits of nature.
L. JAYASOORIYA - via email
I refer to the letter of Dr. Mareena Raffai on March 2. Man is more a
herbivorous creature than carnivorous. When processed and cooked man can
eat any type of food compared to carnivorous beings can eat raw meat and
their dentition and the digestive system is capable of handling such
foods.
Dr. Raffai should understand, in nature there are exceptions to the
rules. Eating meat is definitely a cause of cancer and other diseases of
the intestines. (See world medical literature). It appears that Dr.
Raffai has got the religion mixed up with the true facts. I have all my
regards to the Muslim religion, but facts are facts.
SARATH GUNATUNGA - New Zealand - via email |
