Teaching and learning English:
A failed exercise?
HISTORY: When did the Sri Lankans (before that the Ceylonese) start
learning the language of the British? Maybe from the 1790s or the early
1800s! We have at least had an exposure to this funny language for 200
years.
The following account from “A Short History of Lanka” by
H.W.Codrington will provide more evidence to the reader that the then
inhabitants of Lanka would have had even an earlier exposure! “The
Maritime Provinces of Lanka were now in the possession of the British.
The first Englishman who is known to have lived in the Island was the
Franciscan friar Andrew, who laboured in the North and lost his life
there at the hands of the Hindus in 1627 or 1628. Another was the master
gunner in the Kandyan service who was killed at the `Great Stockade’ in
1632.
Ralph Fitch had touched at Lanka early in 1589, and James Lancaster
in 1592. But the Englishman best known is Robert Knox, who with his
father, the captain of the Ann, and her crew was taken prisoner by the
Kandyans in 1659, and after a captivity of twenty years escaped with one
companion in 1679 he has left us a most complete and accurate account of
the interior of the country.”
Be that as it may, we have had enough opportunities to be masters of
the English language which today is the foremost world language. Even
after the first British Governor Frederick North established schools
that taught English and there were many Ceylonese who learnt English, we
have not been able to take English language to the far corners of our
small island.
Clearly, it is an exercise mishandled by successive governments.
Presently, of those who face English Language at the G.C.E O’ Level, it
is just a mere 30 - 35% that passes the subject; but, it doesn’t mean
that all of them can use the language effectively. It must be a very
small number of students who can read, speak and write with ease. If
that is the case, it is not a happy situation.
On a closer analysis of the examination statistics, one can discern
that those children who pass English at the O’ Levels come from a mere
500 - 600 schools out of 5200 odd schools that prepare children for
their first major public examination where English Language can be
taken.
There is something radically wrong in this national endeavour. At a
time when there is a heavy demand for all sorts of skilled categories in
all parts of the world, English has become the passport for entry into
greener pastures. We talk about the global village and the Information
Technology revolution that is transforming the world, but we are not
issuing the necessary ‘passport’ to those who badly need it to become
global citizens.
There are over 23,000 English teachers in the state education system.
But, how many of them are trained to teach correct English is not known.
But, they are for all purposes English teachers who have gone through
some kind of specially designed programme, RELC, GELT, etc.
There are so many that one doesn’t know how many such courses exist.
Some bright spark in the Ministry of Education or the National Institute
of Education will come up with a musical acronym and some methodology to
improve English teaching skills of the teachers and pronto, we adopt it
discarding all what we had been doing earlier.
With change of every government, our methodology of teaching English
has also changed! This columnist strongly believes that the day we
decided to close the Teacher Training Colleges (in the 1980’s),
particularly the well known Maharagama TTC, we destroyed the strong
English and Mathematics teaching cadres of our country. The National
Colleges of Education that replaced the TTCs could never surpass the
quality of the TTCs.
It is time for President Rajapaksa to put this sad story right.
Sorry, Mr. President, we are asking you to manage the war, contain the
cost of living, eradicate poverty, eliminate bribery and corruption, and
all the other things that other ministers are neglecting to do, but we
have no other recourse.
Please use your executive powers and in the same way you have
successfully fought terrorism, lead the battle to teach English to our
rural children. With your love for the rural poor, this battle too is
yours to win.
We are not experts in teaching English or designing curricula. But we
think that the general public in this country have a lot of common
sense. The Brahmins in the Ministry of Education may pooh pooh these
simple ideas, but Presidential authority can surely override all these
impediments. If Presidential targets are given to the Ministry of
Education, then we will have results.
The common sense approach would be to appoint a single, dedicated and
capable person to lead this campaign. He or she must first identify
schools that have a poor record in securing passes in English for their
students. That’s not too difficult; the Commissioner of Examinations
will be able to provide the information. We guess this to be in the
region of 4500 plus schools.
Ask each Zonal Director to provide an action plan for his zone, in
consultation with the director in his office responsible for English.
The aim should be simple; the number of English language passes in the
zone must be increased by 5% at the 2009 G.C.E O’Level examination.
Between now and then, teachers’ English teaching abilities must be
evaluated.
If the zonal director fails in this task, he or she must be made
liable for some sort of penalty such as the salary increment being
refused. Unless and until we have penalties for not doing what one
should be doing, this nation will not prosper in anything.
The zonal offices, as I have said earlier, have a large staff, most
probably with no specific job descriptions and clear targets to achieve.
These targets for improving English competencies of children must be
achieved by the designated staff and if they don’t, there must be a
penalty. We have to learn from our armed forces to work on specific
projects and reach our targets.
If we do accept that competency in English will open doors of better
employment for our rural children, let us embark on this literacy war
and win it somehow. On the contrary, if we believe that English language
competencies are not important for our rural children or for that matter
all Sri Lankans, then let us not waste time teaching shoddy English to
any of our children and waste our meagre resources. But if we do, let us
win this war of the “kaduwa”.
If a national English learning drive were to be launched, this
columnist believes the following methodology should be adopted and
implemented with finesse, as if we would prepare for a battle.
Appointment of a “General” (battles which the Army engages in, are
headed by Generals) to oversee the operation with definite outcomes ?
Setting out the battle plan, deciding on the competencies (national
level) children of different ages should attain (this must include
speaking ability), Preparing and making available good teaching-learning
material to both students and teachers, Conducting a national level
examination that really tests the competencies at preliminary, middle
and advanced level (a fine example is the examinations conducted by the
Trinity and Royal Colleges of Music for which students are prepared by
teachers in different countries).
City & Guilds have also immense experience in competency testing. The
competencies to be tested could be incorporated into a well compiled
syllabus and thoroughly publicized.
The National Television stations should hire competent English
teaching professionals to prepare audio visual teaching-learning
material to teach students islandwide. There are many business houses
that will sponsor a programme of this nature as Corporate Social
Responsibility. The programmes can be telecast using time slots that are
convenient to the majority.
All these activities must be under the purview of the “General” for
whom the victory in the battle will be when our rural children will be
using English as a means of communication and using as a ladder for well
paid employment.
A separate examination with special provision to test the spoken
competencies must be held for all English teachers in the government
schools so that they could be graded into at least 4 levels in the two
branches of English language competencies: Spoken: Excellent, Very good,
good and weak; Written : Excellent, Very good, good and weak
As an earlier column written by this columnist revealed, there is a
great need to revive our rural schools and along with such a revival,
English language development must also be given much emphasis.
Language tethers us to the world; without it we spin like atoms. -
Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
The Reformist
|