A National Policy on Education - the solution

Jaya Radampola

Sometime back the National Education Commission (NEC) invited for ‘proposals’ for a ‘National Policy on Tertiary and Vocational Education and University Education stating ‘Views and Submissions are invited from the General Public mainly on the following topics’.

It listed 24 topics from ‘Admission to Higher Educational Institutions’ to ‘Linkage between Higher Education Institution; Local and Foreign’, thus constraining ‘Proposals on a National Policy’ by the general public and others to ‘administrative confusions and turmoil within the existing system’ which had nothing to do with a ‘National Policy’ or the two main functions of the NEC as published.

Being ‘confused’ myself I decided to include the 24 Topics and the ‘Two Functions’ of the NEC as published in the said notice in one topic ‘National Policy on Education’ embracing A - Z of education, commencing with ‘School Admissions and School Education’ and culminating with ‘Tertiary and Vocational Education and University Education’ since each ‘topic’ depends on the other(s).

Conditionality is ‘universal’ to all ‘things’ conditioned by causes and justify its application to our problem under review. Accordingly, each ‘Topic’ of the 26 NEC issues depends on the other(s) and the basic cause - Pre-Primary Education, Preschool Education and Admission to Grade/Year One in School.

Thus, with the removal of all ‘cankers’ that afflicts and pollutes the ‘basic cause’ all the other ‘issues’ will cease and create the ideal situation for a wholesome National Education Policy creating access and opportunities for tertiary, vocational, and university education to each and every child.

‘Education is development of character or moral powers of a person (child or adult) to be good and to do good to self, man, animal, and nature’. And this in ‘real-life’ situation is development of wisdom, morality, and concentration through wholesome education which begins with birth as a child.

A ‘revolutionary change’ in any ‘system’ is extremely difficult. Convincing ‘relevant authorities’ with their varying ‘interests’, ‘models’ and ‘views’ to accept ‘progressive and people friendly change’ is an onerous task. There will be ‘staunch’ resistance from powerful sectors with ‘vested interests’ that are against ‘Education’ and ‘Development’ reaching the ‘ordinary people’.

Yet for all, I made the following observations and ‘proposals’ with the belief that they will assist the NEC in formulating a ‘Novel System of Education’ where every child is provided with appropriate primary, secondary, tertiary and vocational education and university education conducive to the betterment of our future generation and the nation, in keeping with our wholesome ‘traditional values’ some of which still sustain our nation in spite of all the confusion and turmoil the country has been facing for over 500 years commencing 1505 AD.

Solution to the problem

The ‘ideal’ solution to the Problem is a National Policy on Education embracing A - Z of education commencing with ‘SCHOOL ADMISSIONS’ and culminating with tertiary, vocational and university education as stated earlier. Thus, any solution should be ‘development-based’ creating access and opportunities to ‘all children’ for the above levels of education as appropriate to achieve the National Targets for a sound economy within our resources.

Any solution should develop the ‘child’s’ mental hygiene (development of traditional values) for physical and psychological balance (the base for wholesome people cooperation and social harmony) and ecological and provide economical wisdom leading to parallel economic development and the preservation of the natural environment through a planned process of ‘learning to Know, learning to Do, learning to live together, and learning to be’, as highlighted by the UNESCO.

Benefits

* Abolition of the prevailing cumbrous ‘admission system’ will result in innumerable savings to the State and the People.

* Equal educational opportunities and facilities to all children.

* Primary-Secondary education within walking distance to all.

* Abolition of the Grade/Year 5 Scholarship Exam and the related ills to the children and society; the Senior Secondary and Tertiary Education and Vocational Education being provided within the DSD and within walking/cycling distance to all students.

* Tertiary Education to all as appropriate to the district and/or country increasing the efficiency of the work-force at all levels; thus raising the economic and social development within a few years.

* Elimination of competition to enter Higher/University Education.

* Higher education to all within the District eliminating student unrest.

* Consolidation of ‘People Participation’ within ‘School Zones’ and the resultant development of co-operation and harmony amongst people in all activities.

* Solidarity amongst religious leaders, teachers, village elders and the community in a ‘School Zone’ and extending this trend to Divisional, District and National Levels.

* A host of other direct and indirect benefits at all levels of society created by the ‘existing system’, haven for ‘fraud and mal-practices’.

Conclusions

1. The ‘National Education’ issue was discussed in the above paragraphs in summary with a possible ‘Novel System’ somewhat ‘Revolutionary’ through which almost all the disparities and irregularities inherent in the prevailing system could be eliminated.

The resultant savings can be mobilised for educational development and advancement - specially the ‘primary education at village level’ thus preventing the ‘confusion’ and ‘turmoil’ we are facing today.

2. A unique ‘technique - mobilising direct people-participation’ is introduced in the above solutions. This could be used in resolving almost all our ‘social problems’, if those concerned - politicians, legislators, professionals, administrators and the people possess the ‘will’ and ‘courage’ to resort to ‘pragmatic and revolutionary changes’ appropriate to our resources, culture and economy and make certain sacrifices for the betterment of our future generations.

3. A major obstacle will be the existing ‘Parent Teacher Associations and Old Boys/Girls Associations’ of the ‘Popular Schools’, now categorised as ‘National Schools’, who will fight for ‘historical identities’ etc., for the sustenance of the ‘brown-sahib culture’ - the bane to ‘National Development’ through people participation.

My proposals are to convert National Schools to either District Universities and Tertiary Institutions/Colleges functioning as ‘Affiliated University Colleges’ to be fully effective in 2011 if the ‘novel system’ is adopted in 2008.

Solution to this obstacle is to establish Primary Secondary Schools (Gr. 1-11) and Senior Secondary Schools (Gr. 12-13) carrying the existing popular names under the proposed ‘Zone Basis’, each Zone containing a PSS having all the facilities in the ‘so-called’ Popular Schools (adding up to around 30 all over the country) in close proximity to them where parents are resorting to ‘cut-throat’ competition to admit their children.

Summary of recommendations

1. Creation of a School Zone System to achieve the following objectives:

a. Every Child can walk to his School (Primary - Secondary) in 20 minutes (1.6km);

b. Every Teacher can reach her/his School within 60 minutes;

c. Every School is provided with:

i. Its full ‘complement of teachers’ from within the Village/DS Division/District;

ii. A complete Library;

iii. A complete Science Laboratory and

iv. All necessary equipments and materials.

d. Every Child will benefit from ‘Educational Reforms’

2. Establishment of 7500 Primary Secondary Schools (PSS) - One for each School Zone.

3. Establishment of 1250 Senior Secondary Schools (SSS) - Five in each Divisional Secretariat Division (DSD) or One for every Six PSS

4. Establishment of 1000 Tertiary & Vocational Colleges or Affiliated University Colleges - Four in each DSD.

5. Establishment of 25 District Universities - One in each District

6. Convert the present Universities to National Universities and entrust all Post Graduate Studies, Specialization, Research and Continuous Professional Development & Updating in the respective Fields to cater the National Need and International Demand giving priority to the National Needs.

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Admission to Grade One should be made purely on merit

Savimon Urugodawatta

Education administrators, guided by politicians without vision, carried out a number of operations in the body of education from time to time, thereby bringing forth the predicament that education has come to today. Some of the ill-conceived reforms carried out can be enumerated as follows:

a) In the early 1950s, there were three compulsory subjects for the Senior Level Examination, namely, First Language (mother tongue), Second Language (English/Pali/Sanskrit/Tamil etc.) and Arithmetic or Mathematics.

Subsequently, these were reduced to two subjects, namely, the First Language and Arithmetic/Mathematics. Sinhalese Language and Literature (also Tamil Language and Literature) which were treated as two subjects were made in to one, making the students neither proficient in language nor in literature.

This has resulted in the decline of the Sinhala/Tamil language even among the University Professors and Lecturers, leave alone teachers.

b) With the coming into being of the Provincial Councils (which had only ruined the country and not even solved the problem for which they were established), the education became a devolved subject coming within the purview of the Provincial Councils.

However, successive governments established another set of schools called National Schools administered by the line Ministry, without establishing adequate machinery to administer them. Due to this remote control system, most of the National Schools (including most Central Schools) are being neglected and today some of them had become more and more uncontrollable just as the Universities.

c) There is no transfer system for Principals and teachers in both National schools and Provincial schools. Even if a Principal is found to be inefficient and corrupt, he cannot be replaced or transferred due to stringent procedures. If a Provincial schoolteacher wants a transfer to a national school, he has to go through 14 steps.

d) In the days gone by, there were Boards of Survey carried out annually in every school and Administration, Finance, Inventories, methods of teaching, results at Public Exams, Sports, Environment etc. were all checked by a competent team from the Education Department.

As far as I am aware, this vital aspect of education administration has been neglected. I am aware of a school where the Principal of the school has changed four times during a period of nearly 30 years, without Boards of Survey being held.

e) The Navodaya Scholarship system which replaced the 5th Standard Scholarship Examination introduced by C W W K, has created a system of so-called Popular Schools, thereby uprooting the village children from their cultural environment and exposing them to a cosmopolitan culture.

This was running counter to the Kannangara system which brought up children in their traditional environment. His vision was to develop decentralised centres of higher learning spread throughout the country. It is a well-known fact that most parents are only interested in their children only up to Grade 5 and thereafter, their destiny is left in the hands of the schoolteachers and Tuition Masters.

f) The tuition system, which has now become the canker in the whole education system, has come into being from the time the school curriculum and syllabuses were revised, leaving a gap between the O/L syllabus and A/L syllabus, bringing forth a set of Tuition Masters, who came in to fill in the gap, without which children could not follow A/L classes.

In our days, there was continuity in the syllabuses of all subjects, from 6th Standard up to University level. This tuition system has completely negated the main purpose and objective of Education, namely, moulding a child to be a good citizen of the country with the appropriate skills and vision.

g) International Schools - Education, which was considered a sacred subject from time immemorial, has now become a profitable venture as a result of the neglect of English in the normal Government schools.

These schools, registered under the Company Ordinance or as BOI Projects, bring up children in an atmosphere of an alien culture, imparting knowledge in subjects relevant to British Education system, much against the vision of Dr. C.W.W. Kannangara and against the existing Law of the Island pertaining to education.

h) The underlying vision of these International schools was well manifested when reading a news item that appeared in the Daily News of February 8, under the heading ‘53 Lankan teens for 2007 Future Leaders Summit’.

According to this news release, out of the 53 students selected to represent Sri Lanka at this Future Leaders Summit to be held in Washington D.C., 50 were from International schools and only three from National schools (one from Nalanda and two from Royal).

Kannangara’s Vision

It was a visionary like Dr. C.W.W. Kannangara, whom we call the Father of Free Education, who foresaw the problems the country would face after independence and prepared the groundwork to place the country on a sound footing. A few of the important reforms he carried out can be categorised as follows:

1. Free education for all, irrespective of caste, creed and wealth (and also age) so that children of all classes could gain knowledge in the school and develop their brotherhood to become useful citizens of the country.

2. His education system evolved from the Rural Schools he experimented from Handessa in the 1930s and which were considered as a useful experiment in education in the whole of Asia.

3. He established 54 Central Schools covering all the electorates of the time and equipped them with good and efficient Principals and teachers, hostels for scholars, laboratories, workshops, playgrounds, etc., which were then confined to the Christian Missionary Schools and a few Buddhist denominational schools.

4. He handpicked efficient and straightforward teachers to man these schools and gave them every encouragement to develop them, keeping a close eye on them. It was unfortunate that subsequently, such good Principals were promoted to be Directors of Education without grooming successors to take over. Such good and efficient Principals should have been kept in the schools, giving them the necessary perks in the school itself.

5. Kannangara brought the estate schools to the main stream of education and looked after the estate children as well, which fact won him the votes of the estate workers at Mathugama in 1947, whereas, in other electorates they voted against the UNP.

6. He introduced science, agriculture, woodwork, pottery, leatherwork, music and dancing, book binding, etc., into the school curriculum so that children, after leaving school, could be gainfully engaged in lucrative vocations.

7. He established Resident Training Colleges to train the required teachers for the various subjects up to Senior level. These are non existent today.

8. He streamlined the assisted schools belonging to different denominations by paying the teachers’ salaries direct to the teachers, thereby doing away with mishandling of government funds by school managers.

9. He planned to establish Practical Schools for those who failed to go for higher studies and 8th standard selective test was planned for this purpose. The succeeding Ministers did not pay any heed to this matter.

10. He introduced the medium of the mother tongue so that children could easily develop their thinking faculties, at the same time paying due attention to the teaching of English and Sinahla/Tamil.

11. Thus, he laid the foundation for a classless and creedless society, which was the aspiration of the progressives of the time.

School Admissions

Now, coming to the topic of the day, School admissions, we should reconsider how CWWK evolved his decentralised system of education based on the then electorates, establishing at least one Central School for each electorate and developing feeder schools in the area to impart Primary Education, within easy reach of parents and village temples, thereby enabling social interaction and development of ethics.

At the same time, he established well-planned Training Colleges to train teachers for Primary education, science education, handicrafts, sports, English, aesthetics etc.

These trained teachers and graduates from Ceylon University, Indian Universities and British Universities were engaged in the Central Schools to provide a well-planned system of secondary education, leading to University level, free of charge.

The curricula and syllabi were so prepared to enable a continuing flow of knowledge, without leaving any gaps to filled by Tuition Masters as happens today.

Suggestions

(a) What we have to do today is to prepare a school map and locate and develop good Primary and Secondary schools based on the present administrative divisions and direct children to the closest standard school, irrespective of status of the child’s parents.

Children from these schools can be selected for higher education through a selective test and direct them to Central or Navodya or National schools in the area based on their performance.

This selective test should concentrate on the intelligence and general knowledge of the child, about his environment and society, and not on a spoon-feeding system as happens today, where the child is groomed for the 5th standard selective test from Grade 1 onwards.

(b) To accommodate the parents who aspire to admit their children to the so-called Popular schools, about 5 % of those who score highest marks at the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination in various Districts could be given places in such schools according to their wishes.

Meanwhile, the Central, Navodya and National Schools should be developed division - wise, and adequate resources given to them to develop themselves on par with the so - called popular schools.

This should ultimately lead to a proper decentralization of Education as envisaged by the 13th Amendment, with the line Ministry only having the function of supervision to see that the moneys allocated are utilized to the optimum, thus avoiding wastage. Parents and Past Pupils should have a greater role to play in the development of the school.

Admission to Grade one should be made purely on merit and not on the standing or status of the parent. The one mile rule should be strictly adhered to.