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English failures at G.C.E. (O/L) examination

The Commissioner General of Examinations has stated that 57.37 per cent have failed in mathematics at this year’s O.L. exam and has attributed this to the fact that even teachers and educationalists do not know their geometry, which is a compulsory questions in the maths paper.

But then why the 63.18 per cent failures in English language? I make bold to state that most of the present day teachers of English and educationalists do not know their English! I have seen some of the teachers teach English in Sinhala. They give the meanings of difficult words in Sinhala and explain the passage in Sinhala.

As for the standard of English, I would kindly draw the attention of the readers to photography below. St. John’s National College Panadura was a prestigious school established 130 years ago, and which has produced so many eminent persons. I can well remember a period when seven old Johnians were serving Sri Lanka as ambassadors abroad.

But what of St. John’s College now? Almost in front of the principal’s office as you enter the school is this huge board quoting the Buddha. I took the trouble to capture it on my camera because it contains seven spelling mistakes and because it must be seen to be believed!

It had been put up almost a year ago, but none of the teachers of English, nor the various administrators who visit the school seem to have noticed this. This is, needless to say, an utter disgrace to a National School.

Back to the O/L exam results. Most of those who passed in English language are certain to have benefitted from the kana shot or blind guess answers in the multiple choice questions where one has to guess and underline one of the given answers!

Although such students may get a pass in English language, they cannot write or answer a simple question in English. Now, who is to be blamed for this unfortunate situation?


Lasith Malinga and cultural correctness

It was only this morning that I came upon the reference in your letters column, to a critical contribution by D. V. Perera, writing from the USA no less, on the issue of Lasith Malinga. His intervention begs the central question here: Lasith is over 18 and therefore an adult.

What right has D. V. Perera or anyone else, to tell him, or any other adult, what to do about his/her appearance? Any Sri Lankan over 18 can vote and thereby decide on the destiny of this nation. If one is old enough to decide on one’s government, then one is old enough to decide what one wears or how one wears one’s hair!

The very notion of prescribed cultural codes, of ‘cultural correctness’, is pernicious. Who decides on the cultural and ethical code, who has the right to do so, and where does that right come from?

I haven’t the foggiest notion of what Lasith’s parents think of his hair style, or whether they have expressed any view on the subject as a matter of public record.

However, it is utterly irrelevant to me. An adult is an adult is an adult. I certainly do not know or care what my grandparents thought of my father’s safari suits or my mother’s short hair and sleeveless sari blouses.

D. V. Perera speaks of discipline in schools and Lasith’s potentially negative impact as a role model. Well, neither the schoolboys who participated in the anti-Tamil ethnic riots of July 1983 nor those who joined the barbaric second insurrection of the JVP in the 1980s wore long hair, tattoos and earrings. Perhaps had they done so, they would not have been drawn into fanatical movements.

Frankly I consider Lasith and today’s Sri Lankan cricket team, Bhathiya and Santush, Ashanthi and Ranidu, to be socio-culturally more progressive, radical and even revolutionary, than those puritanical Sri Lankan political movements that claim to be so.


Right to die with dignity

My heart goes out to AJN of Australia (DN May 18). With the availability of modern medicine and all of its innovations, there is an imbalance in the way medical assistance is being metered out, compared to the fundamental essence of human life and the freedom and right to die with dignity.

I am saddened and frightened to see that some religious dogmas prevent the forming of a more rational view towards the right to die. One religion’s views on the ‘right to live’ states, ‘medicine has increased its capacity to cure and to prolong life in particular circumstances, which sometimes give rise to moral problems.

Thus people living in this situation experience no little anxiety about the meaning of advanced old age and death. They also begin to wonder whether they have the right to obtain for themselves or their fellowmen an ‘easy death’, which would shorten suffering and which seems to them more in harmony with human dignity.’

However, this kind of dogmatic solution can only make sense if the illness of the person is not prolonged by the artificial aids of medication and medical facilities, and the illness follows the natural course the human body is able to undertake.

If the artificial aid of medicine is given to cure ailments - ailments which go towards the natural and gradual ceasession of life, shouldn’t other aids, medical or otherwise, be also introduced to increase compassion, empathy, acceptance and perseverance of the situation?

What purpose will all this serve other than to uphold the ‘better be safe than sorry’ belief, or the erroneous conviction of holding onto one’s ‘high’ ethical standards.

In comparing human life to that of an animal e.g. to that of a horse, it would be deemed by many that it would be compassionate to shoot a horse which was wounded and in pain and agony, to get it out of its misery - especially a horse which one loves dearly.

It would be argued that it could not be done to a human, as human life is worth much more than an animal. But shouldn’t more compassion be shown towards a human life than to that of an animal?

Is being human, then so special, that it has to suffer undue and untold agony and misery both physically and mentally for the sake of preserving life? Is there a karmic force out there which compels us to use pain as means of cleansing oneself or one’s soul?

Or do we have to consider the ethics, the situation, where if a cure is found, life has to be preserved at all costs, otherwise the fine line between suicide and natural death will be crossed.

Is this fine line an imaginary one created by unrealistic religious and ethical values? Is there no law or doctrine which can give as comfort into knowing that we are safe from making a terrible religious or ethical mistake?

Is the medical cure for one symptom adequate for the curing of the body in all its wholeness? Will medical science ever know the human body in its whole entirety? How far is the dignity of each human mind, will, and self to be condemned, while shrines to medical science and false ethics and dogmas to be extolled for its preservation of life?

Certain religious dogmas will always use superstitious beliefs for fear of the unknown when issues arise about matters concerning life and death.

Those of more non-religious views will debate on the ethics of the situation, where euthanasia or the right to die is compared to and confused with abortion, murder, willful suicide and genocide, and the wondering if the effects it will have on future generations will be adverse.

The right to be compassionate evades them both. They have both missed the great axiom of this earth which all religions and ethics preach about that is of love and compassion in all of its absoluteness.

The right to die then should be left to the individual to decide. The right to die should follow healthier moral guidelines.


Solving language problem

Reference the above titled editorial (DN May 19). The writer says “...but adults cannot grasp languages as easily as children do”. In 1962 I passed the Sinhalese colloquial-one of six subjects at the Departmental Examination for Medical Officers for Promotion to Grade II.

My examiner was Dr. Sumanasuriya - Commissioner of Examinations. My Sinhala colleagues passed Tamil colloquial. We learned from each other. In 1964 I passed the Sinhala Proficiency Grade 11 (JSC) by self study to qualify for further promotion. From 1970, as a Medical Specialist/Administrator, I worked in Sinhala and English and signed cheques written in Sinhala.

If there is a will, there is a way. For the past twenty years, no meaningful steps have been taken to implement Tamil too, as an official language.

If at least all public servants had been made to be proficient in at least spoken Sinhala and Tamil, a lot of barriers would have been broken.


Up country sightseeing by train, only second to Peru

At last, someone has the courage to show the rest of the world what Sri Lanka is about (Reference DN May 19). From the golden sea shores to the green carpets and that’s just the beginning.

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