kids need a stress-free childhood

A. F. Dawood

POLICIES: Grade One admission has become a very complicated problem and this problem was caused by the Ministry of Education owing to the lopsided policy formulated by the Ministry.

The Ministry of Education committed a big blunder by classifying some schools in the island as popular schools and creating scholarship examination for Grade Five pupils.

By these short-sighted policies of the arm-chair administrators, a feeling of discrimination and dissension is created in the minds of the parents and the children studying in the village schools that their schools are bad and the quality of education is poor, and the concomitant result is that every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to enter a popular school.

Why did the Ministry create this problem? Instead the Ministry could have levelled the quality of education in all the schools in the island without showing Cinderella treatment to the schools in the suburban and rural areas.

Unfortunately, some schools in villages are in a very pathetic situation; the Ministry has totally neglected some schools without the basic facilities such as library, laboratory, furniture and in some schools there are no teachers to teach, while pampering the prestigious schools in Colombo.

Due to this attitude by the Ministry, parents aspirating to admit their children to popular schools, teach their children to tell lies at the interview and thus they are breeding a generation of liars.

On the other hand money motivated principals exploit the situation and demand a colossal amount of money from parents, who are reluctantly constrained to oil the palm of the principals to seek a place for their son or daughter in a popular school. In other words the Ministry has, by its policies, succeeded in promoting a generation of liars and breeding a band of bribe biting principals.

The Ministry must also take cognizance of the fact that conducting scholarship examination for grade five pupils is not conducive for their “little minds” as it creates a psychological unrest in the young minds, human mind is not the same at all levels and that is why psychologists have classified children as early learners and late learners.

A pupil of average intelligence in grade five might become later a brilliant case in higher classes and similarly a very bright pupil in grade five is not necessarily a brilliant performer in higher education.

It is noteworthy to state here that a child prodigy of five years in Britain could compute compound interest of 4,444 pounds for 4,444 days at 4.5 per cent per annul in two minutes.

This is an exceptional case. Charles Darwin performed poorly in a school reputed for classical education, failed dismally in a medical course at Edinburgh University but later became the greatest naturalist after his enthusiasm and interest were diverted to scientific expeditions.

History has recorded that there were men who performed well when they became octogenarians. Cate began to learn Greek at 80, Leo Tolsoy wrote “I cannot be silent” at 82, Winston Churchill wrote “A History of the English Speaking People” at 82 and Somereset Maugham the “Points of View” at 84; the nonagenarians who were very active were Pablo Picasso who produced drawings and engravings at 90, George Bernard Shaw who had only five years of schooling wrote the play “Farfetched Fables” at 93 and Betrand Russel was active in international affairs at 94.

From this it is crystal clear that there are early and late performers, and therefore, scholarship examination for the kids is inopportune, absurd and ridiculous, as it is not the ideal yardstick to gauge the little kids’ intelligence.

While browsing through magazines, I have come across that some psychologists in USA and Britain have advocated against the practice of conducting competitive examinations for children in the age group of 8 to 12 years, as it would create among the pupils superiority and inferiority complexies, jealousy, hatred and disappointment, in addition to warping the tender minds with the burden of a competitive examination.

Above all children are involved in the rat race to tuition, cramming and memorising, thus missing their independence of a stress free playtime and thereby a carefree childhood is deprived of them and sacrificed at the altar of “popular schools”.

Therefore, it behoves upon the Ministry to do away with this repugnant and detrimental year five scholarship examination, if the young kids are to be given a stressfree childhood a vital precursor to mould a child’s personality as we had in the past a childhood, unrestrained, untrammelled and unstressed.

The Ministry has bogged down in the morass of this perennial problem of grade one admission which has metamorphosed to a three headed devil unfolding a threefold problem - a bewildering tangle to the ministry, a bandwagon of a bribe baited principals and innocent kids tutored on lies owing to faulty fallacious and fat-headed thinking of the arm-chair administrators.

If the ministry is determined and decisive to do away with the grade five scholarship examination and the popular schools system, and serve all the schools with the same spoon, the vexed problem of grade one admission can be eradicated. That is the only hunky-dory solution to the Grade One admission problem, a menacing monster that has raised its ugly head year in and year out.

Curriculum reforms 2007 to address issues in school education

Indira Lilamani Ginige

Solid foundation: Sri Lanka for long depended on an education system that emphasised retaining the known, learning the pre-determined, and constructing what is. Over-loaded curricula and knowledge-based examinations common in such a context compelled schoolchildren to answer model questions, memorise facts, and engage in mechanical and superficial learning.

Teaching in the classroom, also geared towards passing examinations, were dull and boring for both students and teachers. The mere intention of the schoolteacher or the tuition master was to cover the syllabus by making the children knowledgeable on the content given.

Traditional teacher roles of transmission and transaction being more than adequate for this purpose encouraged tuition classes to mushroom in every nook and corner of the island to supplement school education and ensure success at public examinations.

The schools are there to lay a solid foundation for the children to be successful in any walk of life they select for their future. Undue attention paid by different stakeholder groups to high scores at public examinations has distorted this purpose and prevented the young of the nation from developing an integrated personality.

Most of the school leavers today are unable to think critically and creatively, work in groups, communicate with others or switch between leader and follower roles as the need arises.

Lack of initiative, orientation to change, entrepreneurship, responsibility, accountability, commitment and self-discipline coupled together with difficulties of managing day-to-day stress and emotions bring to light that they are not prepared to lead a good life.

To overcome the above problems, the last curriculum reform of 1999 focused attention on nine national goals and five basic competencies. New subjects such as life competencies and practical and technical skills were introduced in the curriculum along with a number of other initiatives such as school projects and school-based assessments.

Little attention paid to reduce the curriculum overload and to modernise the examination system, however, did not make learning meaningful or joyful to the children. Ignoring the root cause of the problem thus paved the way for the tuition classes to flourish, and education to be a headache to both students and parents.

To overcome many frustrations of the stakeholder groups and to spearhead national development, a fundamental change was evident in school education. The first curriculum reform of the new millennium now in implementation with focus on grade 6 of the junior secondary cycle and grade 10 of the senior secondary cycle, is planned to bring about this much needed change.

The new vision established for the reform seeks to develop a young person who is capable of revising the known, exploring the undetermined and constructing what might be. For this, the schoolchildren have to engage in experiential learning with opportunities to construct this own knowledge and meaning.

Exploration thus taking prominence in today’s classrooms will discourage short lasting knowledge acquired for the sake of knowledge. Instead the children will be encouraged to develop lifelong practices both from the subject content and the learning-teaching methodology adopted to impart the content.

The competency-based curricula now developed on a series of subject dependent competencies that are subdivided into two or more competency levels provides the main vehicle to realise the new curriculum vision, The content, at the heart of each competency level, confined to a few relevant topics and sub topics will certainly contribute to a reduction in the curriculum load.

The new transformation role of the teacher characterised by student-centred and activity-oriented approaches will call teachers all over the country to plan their own activities. Each activity will first engage the students for learning and then gradually move them to explore a related aspect.

Under the new methodology proposed for learning and teaching, the students also will have ample opportunity to explain their exploration findings, elaborate what they have found, and evaluate their own learning performance as well as that of others.

The teachers getting free when the children explore will have the time to observe them closely to identify their strengths, weaknesses, abilities and inabilities. They will be encouraged to provide feedback to those who are with problems and difficulties, and feed forward to those with strengths and abilities.

Assessment thus gaining prominence in the classroom will enable the teachers to push their students at least to the minimum proficiency level. This is the stage where the students begin to see the light and find themselves capable of attaining the competency level even in the absence of a teacher.

For the success of the new reform two other agencies will have to work in close co-operation with the curriculum developers of the National Institute of Education (NIE). These are the Education Publications Department (EPD) and the Sri Lanka Department of Examinations of the Ministry of Education (MoE).

The textbooks developed by the EPD under the multiple book option (MBO) will have to take a different turn to eradicate the harmful effects of the textbook learning-teaching culture now prevalent in our classrooms.

The massive teacher education network available to our country also has to take immediate action to reorient our teachers towards correct approaches to learning and teaching.

In view of this, the curriculum developers of the NIE have already taken steps to replace their Teachers’ Guide with a better-structured Teachers’ Instructional Manual (TIM).

This manual compiled in three parts, provides a lot of support to the teacher to establish goals, delineate content, and identify suitable methods not only for learning and teaching but for assessment and evaluation as well.

For the success of the new approaches introduced, the examination system of Sri Lanka also has to take a new direction. Authentic evaluations that carry questions on real life situations will have to replace the knowledge-based examinations of the past.

The new type of questions will compel students sitting the examinations to demonstrate their preparedness to take up challenges of the future. With stakeholders of education beginning to realise the importance of the changes proposed, the teachers will have no difficulty in using the TIMs to make learning joyful to their students.

The jug and the mug method and the question and answer method popular today among schoolteachers as well as tuition masters in taking down knowledge to their students will have to stop in the near future.

Teacher-talk either in lecture or questioning mode will have to be minimal in the classroom to allow more time for the students to explore, explain and elaborate. Exploration will enable students to develop a variety of thinking skills which in turn will make them proficient in decision making, problem solving and conflict management.

Working in groups will help children to develop a whole lot of social and personal skills, which will make them successful in a complex, dynamic society. More than all, the new curriculum reform will force all types of educational organisations to exert a concerted effort to change their longstanding unhealthy practices for their own survival and for the betterment of the future generation.

The writer is attached to National Institute of Education.

Key issues for admission: equity, quality, efficiency and effectiveness

D. H. Sathischandra

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION: The issue of Grade one admissions is closely linked to the issue of private tuition, the subject of the previous debate. The root causes of the two issues are more or less the same. The issue of Grade one admissions, however, is more complex.

All countries pursue the goal of universal education, that is, to provide access to education for all children of school going age. The State has, therefore, to find schools for all children. If parents are willing to admit their children to schools in their respective residential areas or to other schools assigned by the State, the problem of Grade one admission would be solved to a greater extent.

The key issues in education are related to equity, quality, efficiency and effectiveness. The parents are becoming increasingly concerned about these issues, particularly the quality and effectiveness of education.

This concern has been exacerbated by the highly competitive nature of our school education system culminating in the GCE Advanced Level examination, the results of which determine entry to State universities.

The increased concern and interest in Grade one admissions had led the governments in power to introduce various admission schemes in the past to address these concerns in an equitable, fair way. But the concerns and disillusionment among parents remain in a acute form causing public controversy year in and year out.

Aspirations, dreams, and perceptions of parents, reality, policies, rules and regulations introduced from time to time have combined to make Grade one admissions a complex issue.

Untangling the tangled thread spool is a daunting task, for it is difficult to decide where to begin, how to sequence it and on what scheme to replace the existing one. Human ingenuity can find an acceptable solution provided the direction in which change should occur, is correctly determined.

The direction of change has to be based on some core ideology and values. In a democracy there are valued concepts of equality of opportunity, equality of citizenship and justice.

These objectives cannot be achieved in full in reality. There is a wide disparity between regions and between schools with regard to the availability of infrastructure facilities and qualified, well trained and competent teachers.

In fact these goals seem to recede even when there is growth and progress. This is the reality in the new international economic order.

All we could do is to improve the situation by finding a solution which is in alignment with those objectives as far as possible.

The present scheme of admission has both desirable and undesirable features, judged on the basis of the above criteria. The system is based on a system of quotas. Majority of the admissions to Grade one is based on the residential qualification which is fair and equitable.

Unfortunately, various abuses have crept into the process of proving eligibility. The scheme also has quotas for various other categories of parents including past pupils, which in effect confers a privileged position to them.

Such practices do not conform to the concepts of fairness and equity. The privileged groups have justified their case on other grounds. The School Development Boards have become integral part of the schools. These boards have become resource providers.

The past pupils involvement in their school was facilitated by the educational reforms of 1981 which provided for the unitary school system which authorised certain schools to obtain funds for infrastructure development of the school from past pupils and other sources.

The past pupils have contributed lavishly to the school development fund and they also claim that they are deeply committed to developing their own school as a prestigious seat of learning.

The details of the proposed new scheme of admission for 2008 are now available. The residential basis of the existing scheme which is the most fair and equitable component, has been done away with. Admission under the new scheme will be on the basis of three criteria; evaluation of the child, brother or sister already in school, and parental education.

The criteria of evaluation of the child and parental education could lead to controversy. The evaluation of a child of this age on the basis of intelligence and attitude is questionable.

IQ tests and achievement tests are possible. But both types of tests measure aspects of a child’s performance and not competence. They are generally used for other purposes such as diagnosing retarded children, justifying educational practices to the public, and developing curriculum.

If the proposed child evaluation is confined to the interview it would be a subjective one. IQ is influenced by heredity and environment. It is a consistent finding in IQ studies that children from poor families have lower average IQs than the children from middle class families.

Children come from different backgrounds. Some children have the advantage of nursery education, better family environment and better play and learning material. Developing attitudes is a function of education.

It should not be a criteria for admission. Parental education criteria is another problem area. There are educated people in diverse fields of society. Controversies can arise when giving marks on that basis.

The new scheme is heavily in favour of the rich and the educated. Such a scheme is not in alignment with the concept of education for all. Whatever the admission scheme, subjectivity, different interpretations and manipulations can lead to abuses. This is where the honesty and integrity of all the stakeholders in the admission scheme and necessary checks and balances in the admission process, count.

Grade One Admissions - Is there a solution?

The Education Ministry’s preparations to admit children to schools for the year 2008 has faced a dilemma with the new draft National Policy for School Admission and Management of Schools coming under fire from many quarters.

While the Government has pledged to come up with a fresh school admissions policy fair by all, it is likely that the previous policy based on the ‘one mile rule’ will be adopted with necessary modifications to admit children to Grade One next year.

Yet, while pointing out the drawbacks of the new circular, like the allocation of marks for parental considerations which is discriminatory itself, and practical problems with regard to testing the IQ of a six-year-old child, it must be reiterated that the lasting solution to this problem lies only in a comprehensive program to ensure the equitable distribution of resources among all schools in the country.

To achieve this end, it is imperative that the present system of categorising schools to Maha Vidyalayas, A or B grade schools etc., is done away with, so that there will be no discrimination or disparity between the so-called ‘popular’ schools and the ‘under-privileged’ schools in term of facilities or human resources.

In this respect, one has to keep in mind that the phenomenon of ‘under-privileged’ schools is not confined to rural areas, but is common even to the Capital where 66,000 of the population live in under-served settlements.

Write to us on the above issues as we take up the issue of Grade One school admissions on Daily News Debate this month. Send in your views (750-1,000 words) to ‘Daily News Debate’, Daily News, Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited, PO Box 1217, Colombo, or via e-mail to [email protected] before August 25, 2007.