Education does not mean just book knowledge
Shenali WADUGE
COMPETITION: One of the realities of the present situation
plaguing our education system today is the over indulgence on passing
the exam.
One would expect very high results considering the high percentage of
tuition goers in both urban and rural Sri Lanka. However the O/L results
of 2007 revealed tuition teachers contrary to common perception do not
have any magic to usher brilliant results.
Sri Lanka’s education culture is plagued with a need to feel a step
ahead of the other child - this notion gets
carried from parent to child and from there onwards the cancer
starts to spread.
The stiff competition imbedded in a child no sooner he/she enters
montessori builds to greater proportion as the years go by and made
worse by the favouritism of teachers whose actions are often swayed by
parents who are ever ready to “give” anything extra to ensure ones child
is given prominence over others.
This ill-practice soon creates an atmosphere that is not at all
conducive to the learning that a child should receive from any
school. We have the richer children soon becoming aware of their
importance and how they could push their way through administrative
systems while the lesser privileged children may stick it out in
silence, feel a significant inferiority complex and even perhaps blame
their parents for their plight.
But it is these ills that usually get carried over the years even to
university and comes out eventually when they try to finally become the
“boss” through student circles in the form of ragging the “rich” who
enter - thus turning the tables around.
This is a social malice created by our own selves and for which
parents rich and poor as well as middle class should shoulder equal
blame.
However, these are things that can be defeated and it takes a
courageous Principal and his/her team combining innovative techniques to
be able to rise above shadow systems.
However, we find that some Principals, teachers and administrators in
schools have in fact aggravated the scenario for their own gains. We
hear of Principals and teachers who have been accused of taking bribes
during admissions, molesting children, running brothels, indulging in
pornography, beating children and the list continues.
True children need education outside of their textbooks but children
should not have to go through such “education” which leaves irreparable
damage to not only themselves but also breaks down an entire family.
The Ministry of Education inter alia the Principals and teachers need
to realise that each child spends a significant time within the school
complex.
The time-tables, the discipline expected and the rules that should
prevail in addition to the guided teaching should enable the child to
carry invaluable lessons that the child will never forget - these
lessons should be good lessons and not those the child has to take pains
to forget.
The teacher becomes sort of a mother - the child in his/her innocence
is usually mindful of how the teacher dresses, talks, behaves etc..
However, teachers do not seem to know or perhaps may choose to ignore
this.
A child as they begin school is ever mindful of learning something
new however most of the primary teachers today are
either shouldering personal problems which are often taken out on
these children or have not been taught the art of “teaching” a young
child.
Added to this is the startling news we hear across the daily
newspapers. Many Principals, teachers, administrators and children are
following a path completely different to what is expected of them.
Sadly enough it is these very people who enter society eventually and
take the wrongs they have been committing to another high and their
story continues in worse dimensions.
It is the ill-practices that have prevailed in the education system
aggravated by the authorities manning the schools which has created the
mess in Sri Lanka’s education system.
If the children are to be blamed for their part they may be forgiven
due to their youthfulness but what about the authorities who knowingly
have played a pivotal role in taking this issue for countless debates
and answers which are really within reach but will remain in stalemate
because of the lack of courageous people to change the systems.
What is important today is that children need to know much more than
mastering the art of memorising their textbooks and scoring brilliantly.
Adults should not feel that their child’s scores equates to having
“learnt” - we are living in a world of bad people because “learning”
hasn’t been properly imparted to children but it is not too late and
before any child is taught it would be good for the Ministry to engage
the School Administrators in an exercise of not what to teach but how to
teach.
Tuition: Not a bane but a boon
N.U. Abdul RAZZAK
EDUCATION: There are many important factors such as education
health and wealth which decide the destiny of a person in the society.
Out of all these ingredients, education is an essential spice which adds
flavour for the perfection of life. Our beloved isle, Sri Lanka
is one of the few countries that provides free education from Grade 1
to the university. But sadly, a bigger slice of the population of this
glowing pearl has failed to get the desired benefits of this essence of
life due to various reasons. The unprecedented increase in crime,
poverty, unemployment and frustration among youth show that something
has to be urgently done to arrest this precarious plight.
Look at the typical class room of a school where approximately 30 odd
students wait for the teachers to deliver the goods. Undoubtedly, most
of our teachers are well qualified and sincere for their profession.
But alas! see the output at the end of the year. Nearly 30 percent of
students fail to get their level of promotion though most of them get
automatic elevation. So the rot starts at this point.
There are several factors which stand as stumbling blocks in a class
for a teacher. The mixed ability is a major challenge which has to be
tackled by an instructor to successfully guide his or her students to
achieve success in the class room.
Besides this there are a few naughty fellows who make prank to
disturb the teacher. So naturally teachers are put under pressure when
they start explaining the lessons.
As the lecture goes on talented students grasp the concepts easily
while the weaker ones hardly get anything. The average students can
succeed if they get the cooperation form the gifted ones and the
teachers.
Then, where will the weaker ones go? Definitely tuition is the ready
made solution for this hapless lot. When a student studies in an
individual or group class he has no disturbance whatsoever around him.
The students who learn under tuition have the complete freedom to ask
any questions which are restricted in a typical class room. Many shy
students never open their mouths in class rooms.
Therefore, it is crystal clear tuition goes in no small way to help
students easily understand lessons and catch the concepts.
Doubt is key of success’. Are our students allowed to clear their
doubts in our schools? Don’t the talented students laugh at weaker ones
when they make queries which may seem to be easy for the talented
students?
So it is apparent that there are a lot of hurdles which prevent whole
class from getting a smooth learning. On the other hand our tuition
masters have the knack to understand the real problems of students.
Hence they prepare themselves to convince that they are the best choice
for the learners.
Under the system of tuition students have the choice of selecting the
teachers whom they want. So they can go for the most famous teachers
though most of them don’t necessarily possess the higher paper
qualifications as that of their counterparts at the government schools.
Let’s focus our attention on Advanced Level Education. A large number
of them depend on coaching centres as such institutions pick the cream
of teachers who guarantee to ensure an “A “ or “ B “ in their respective
subjects.
The annual results clear show that they help many a weak student come
off with flying colours.
Nobody can deny that a large number of tuition centres do a yeoman
service. That is why a good number of students make a bee line to these
centres when the schools get closed for the day. So it is obvious
tuition helps immensely to fill the work which is not properly done at
schools.
Undoubtedly a school is the second home for students. They are
expected to get a lot of things besides mere facts and knowledge. Can we
satisfy with the performance of our schools? Today discipline has gone
to dogs in some schools. Corporal punishment is the order of the day.
Have you ever heard that a student got punishment at a tuition centre
or in an individual class? This is why a bigger chunk of the student
population drop out of the school. In many schools teachers have no
remedy for boredom.
They follow traditional methods of teaching which let no children
actively participate in the learning process. Consequently, a good
number of students give up their studies.
So where will such students find shelter where they can study feeling
at home? Tuition readily welcomes them for a bright future. Teachers at
academies show love and sympathy for poor and unhappy students.
They build up their confidence through hard work. At tuition children
never feel bored as teachers add fun and humour in their teaching.
Therefore, it is evident learning is not an unpleasant experience under
the system of tuition.
Today a good knowledge of English reserves you a cushy life. All our
parents want their children to be armed with this wand. But a
considerable number of schools miserably fail to prepare their students
to get success at the job market.
A majority of students who get merit passes in the English Language
and English Literature have no command to express themselves when they
go for an interview.
Therefore, their parents are compelled to arrange tuition or send
them to tutoris to give them a better future.
Look at the scenario at the universities. A large number of our Arts
graduates are churned out. Unemployment welcome them when they go back
to their villages as they have no guts to wield the Kaduwa (sword). Most
of them find a change when they get a knowledge of English.
As “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop” unemployment can lead many
of them to commit crime. So it is obvious tuition plays a pivotal role
to give a bright future to our student population who is the backbone of
the nation.
The writer is an English Coordinator working in Pakistan.
Education reforms needed
Lalith de KAUWE
MODERN EDUCATION: I positively welcome your concerns and agree
that it is high time that there was a proper debate about the deplorable
state of education in the country.
You are right to pose the question whether we really want to breed a
generation of children to be dishonest or to be skilled in the art of
bribery and corruption? Yet, one should not unduly blame the victims
(the desperate parents and children) of this educational mess but rather
the perpetrators who have created it.
In that context one has to question whether in reality there are
“reasonably high standards of education; free education from Grade One
to university education; and all education ceased to be a luxury,
affordable only to the rich way back in the 1940s.”
The truth is more uncomfortable. The vast majority of school children
do not have access to the “magic circle” of privileged schools based
around the metropolitan centres of Colombo and to a far lesser extent
Kandy, Jaffna and Galle.
So how can you satisfy the rights of millions of underprivileged
children by the maintenance of this colonial system of “haves” and “have
nots”?, “Good schools” and schools without a name that anyone cares to
remember. Is this universal education? Is this education for all?
Isn’t it time to explode the myths about how literate we are, how
clever we are, etc? What do we mean by that? At every levels of analysis
this is an absurd statement. We have fallen way behind the rest of the
world. We cannot understand let alone converse except in Sinhala and
Tamil - a fundamental reason for the sad ethnic conflict.
At an immediate level isn’t it self evident that the upper and lower
middle classes are hugely over represented in the so called best
schools? If so what kind of education system is it that perpetuates this
injustice to millions of children from the general population?
Consequently, we are very good at exporting two types of Sri Lankan
(whose remittances to Sri Lanka are a major source of the GDP) - brain
and skills drain.
Firstly, we “gift” highly educated Doctors and Lawyers at no cost to
Western countries to provide vital services to their Health and Legal
systems. What charity compared to the pittance that we receive in terms
of so called aid with strings attached.
Secondly, we provide the tyrannical regimes of the Middle East with
menial servants and labourers who are treated with total contempt -
virtual slaves, without trade union rights, sexually exploited and are
at grave risk of torture and decapitation at the whim of bogus legality.
Is this what we should be doing to encourage our poor, naive innocent
boys and girls to do? Would all children be sent to such degradation and
danger?
I do not suggest that we should not be centres of excellence in
medicine or that we should not be training skilled nurses and craftsmen.
My point is that we should be securing their abundant skills for Sri
Lanka.
In other words if we give those who at present do have not proper
education their rights to education, I believe that such morality and
right action will be rewarded in turn by loyalty to this country - what
is given will be received in ten measure.
Therefore isn’t it high time to invest massively in the rural areas
where the majority of people live? Rather than the misery of forcing the
poor to gravitate to the centre in the vain hope that life would be
better for their children in Colombo. Have we learnt nothing from
history?
We need more than clich‚s about “universal education”. Sri Lanka
desperately needs proper modern education for all children irrespective
of the class or race, so that the full potential of all children may be
developed for the benefit of the country.
I hope that this debate continues so that soon we may see sense and
create new Republic with proper democratic values, that treasures its
own whether they are Tamil, Sinhala, Muslim or Burgher and remembers
that democracy is not about who wins but caring for all even those who
have lost the vote or the war or lost it all - in the other words the
poor. We have wasted enough time and lives.
Tuition suppresses the student mind
D. WIJENAYAKE
DEMAND: I salute the teachers who voluntarily carry out after
school classes for covering the syllabus ahead of schedule examination.
These types of classes can be recommended even with a reasonable charge
to the devoted teacher, when the examinations are near.
The most unpleasant thing taking place in tuition system is the
feeling of jealousy among children. Nobody in a city college class is
willing to help a weak student as he does not like to expose his
knowledge to others. No student supports an absentee by giving his
learnt things to a friend.
The parents of the child are responsible for these bad habits. There
is an undeclared fight between one’s child and neighbours created by the
parents. The pressure exerted by the guardian on the child for topping
the examination is the reason for this.
The struggle for the solidarity prevailed in the school during our
era does not exists today. The moneyed elite group can afford to send
their kids to International schools and get the international standard
of education.
This system has widened the social inequalities. The children of poor
and middle class citizens have to go after the tuition traders and buy
the knowledge.
This baneful event has been raised to a level that most of the
children ask for individual classes in which the teacher charges around
2000 Rupees per month per subject per person from the student who sit
for General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level Examination. Some
teachers are making luxurious income out of private tuition.
Here tuition master teaches hardly about eight hours per month. This
system has created an environment for the child to react and collect
full contents of the subject without trouble. Doesn’t this let the child
to act in isolation rather than group action in the society?
In my opinion the new culture created by the tuition is not healthy.
The children put in this highly competitive race will be fed up and a
healthy nation for the country cannot be expected from this lot. The
educational institute or the school has a responsibility to produce good
citizens for the country.
The child should learn everything in the school which is the
professionally qualified body established to accomplish that task. I
think very rarely the child is consulted in selecting his subjects
learnt at the school.
Most of the parents want their child to be an engineer, doctor or
lawyer in future. So they are pushed to do that and finally end up being
a patient or a self-centered person unfit to the society. This child
tends to commit suicide when he is disappointed.
Whatever the profession or the trade the child is going to be
occupied he should have the ability to discharge his duties with
dignity. There is a saying that mothers take all pains to make her son a
king. The struggle for making kings begins with seeking school admission
for the child.
How many of us can win in this race? The aim of parents and teachers
should be to create a good citizen for the country.
Most of the children who go after the tuition master do not like to
work hard and find a solution to their mathematical problems on his own.
They bring the entire problem to the tuition master. They are
reluctant to go to the school teacher because they do not like to expose
their knowledge level in the subject.
The student will not pay due respect to the teacher, not even to the
parents and elders if this system prevails in the country in future.
The selfish politicians, bureaucratic government servants and inhuman
activists are the products of our said education system.
‘Grade One Admissions: Is there a solution?’
Due to the overwhelming response we received on the subject, today we
continue the debate on ‘Private Tuition: Help or Bane?’ to accommodate
the contributions of all our readers on the issue. The topic for ‘Daily
News Debate’ from next week will be the much disputed issue of Grade One
school admissions.
Diverse views have been expressed during the past week regarding the
new circular for admitting children to Grade one, approved by the
Supreme Court. Many would agree that despite its alleged drawbacks, the
procedure laid down by the circular would act as a check on the large
scale-corruption taking place during the process.
The circular achieves this end in two ways. On one hand, it removes
heads of schools from the selection process and replaced them with a
selection board. On the other hand, it lays down a uniform set of
criteria to be considered by the board in selecting children.
However, at the same time, one cannot help but admit the validity of
certain arguments leveled against the new system as well. For instance,
the ‘parental considerations’ to which 40 per cent of the marks are to
be accorded have come under criticism from many quarters as giving
unwarranted importance to the education qualifications of the child’s
parents, without giving more weight to the abilities of the child
itself.
It is claimed that the system will end up helping affluent parents to
admit their children to the so-called ‘popular’ schools even more than
the previous procedure, according to which at least a few of the poor
and the underprivileged stood a chance provided they resided within the
stipulated geographical limit.
While the mixed response received by the latest circular on school
admissions reveals the difficulty in finding an ideal solution to this
vexed issue, it also reiterates the need for a long-term plan to address
the root cause of the problem - the vast disparities between
under-developed (rural and urban)schools and the popular schools in the
city.
Pen your thoughts on the above issues and send them to ‘Daily News
Debate’, Daily News, Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd, PO Box 1217,
Colombo, or via e-mail to [email protected] before August 25. |