Grade One Admission: Is there a solution?

The issue of Grade One School Admissions has come to the forefront of public debate like never before with the various solutions offered to the long-standing problem failing to receive common acceptance.

While the National Policy for School Admission and Management of Schools which was expected to lay the matter to rest came under fire from the public and intellectuals, the subsequent circular has earned the wrath of old pupils, with the latter filing legal action against the Education Ministry.

Whatever the diverging views expressed on the issue are, the controversy and the legal action involved are likely to result in a delay in the admitting children to schools for the year 2008 which must be completed within the next three month.

In the backdrop of these events, Education Minister Susil Premajayanth told Parliament last week that necessary amendments will be made to the latest circular to facilitate the intake of children to Grade One on the stipulated time.

It has also been decided to formulate a fresh policy on admitting children to Grade One and get it passed in Parliament in the form of an Act.

Yet, it is doubtful whether a lasting solution to the problem could be achieved until the disparities and inequalities in our education system are properly addressed.

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 (in 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 September 5, 2007.

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Admission should be made purely on merit

Savimon Urugodawatta

REFORMS: 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 into 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 school teacher 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 and environment 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 school teachers and Tuition Masters.

We should reconsider in school admissions 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 and Aesthetics.

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 for a solution

(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 per cent 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 decentralisation 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 utilised 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.

The writer is Executive Committee Member, Central Colleges Past Pupils’ Association of Sri Lanka.

Prevailing school system needs a change to suit the requirements

Ariya Subasingha

SUGGESTION: 1) In response to the news item which appeared in the Ceylon Daily News regarding admission to grade 1, I wish to make the following contribution based on the experience I have gained over a period of more than 50 years in the field of education as a teacher, a curriculum developer, a teacher educator and an educational administrator and planner.

2) Before considering admissions to schools I wish to make some observations on the school system. The current classification has become very complex as various schools have been identified for special considerations to justify requirements for foreign and local funding and other reasons.

a) All state schools are truly national schools and there should not be some schools specially recognised as National Schools. If this continues the other schools have to be considered as non national schools.

However, for special reasons such as maximum utilisation of limited resources for very specific areas of study a few schools could be developed to meet special situations.

Then these schools can be labeled as all island schools and kept open to all students irrespective of their residence. These should be for students who have completed the General Certificate of Education (Ordinary Level) examination. Selection to these should be based on specific criteria.

b) Schools coming under the formal system of education to be classified as follows:

i) Primary Schools for Grades 1 to 5 ii) Junior Secondary Schools for Grades 6 to 11 providing facilities for students to sit the General Certificate of Education (Ordinary Level) examination.

iii) Senior Secondary Schools for Grades 6 to 13 providing facilities for students to sit the General Certificate of Education (Ordinary Level and Advanced Level) examinations.

c) The primary section of schools conducting classes from Grades 1 to 11 or 13 must be gradually closed down and new primary schools must be established to accommodate the children. These primary schools should not be allowed to expand to Grade 6 and above.

d) All schools should be provided with basic facilities to maintain a desirable quality education programme.

e) All schools must be administered by the Provincial Councils with direction and guidance from the line ministry responsible for education.

3) Admission of students to Grade 1

a) I am making the following suggestions based on the policy of providing equal opportunities for all children who have reached the minimum age for admission to Grade 1.

b) According to the above policy the eligibility of a child should not be based on any condition which is not applicable to every child.

c) It must be emphasized that the birth of a child to a particular family cannot be pre determined. Hence every birth must be recognized as a random occurrence and the child in no way is responsible for being born to a particular family.

d) If we consider some of the criteria given for consideration under the present regulations we can identify a few which go against the child’s right to equal opportunities..

i) Giving marks for elder brothers / sisters attending the school for which admission is sought.

If the child seeking admission is the eldest or only child this child will be handicapped and hence will lose that mark for no fault of the child.

ii) Giving marks for parents who are past students.

During the past two three decades migration from rural to urban areas has been on the increase.

Hence a large number of parents wishing to get their children admitted to popular schools in the towns may not have attended these schools. Children whose parents have not attended the schools concerned will be deprived of all the marks given under this.

e) Hence a scheme must be designed to eliminate such conditions. Any scheme where special considerations are given will lead to malpractices due to subjective judgments made by some members of selection teams.

f) The only way to avoid malpractices is to use the computer to identify students randomly as done in lotteries and other draws. The following procedure with suitable modifications may be considered.

g) All children living in the specified area should be considered equal irrespective of the distance between the residence and the school for which admission is sought.

h) Only one application has to be submitted. The applicant may be allowed to apply for more than one school in order of his/her preference.

i) All applications must be sent to a school admission unit specially set up for this purpose in the Provincial Ministry of Education. This unit can be divided into several sub-units each representing a specified area or local government authority.

j) Each applicant must be assigned an index number. Computer entries must be done using the index numbers and not the names.

k) Any special facility such as the religious quota given to assisted schools at the time of taking over to the government has to be maintained until a policy decision is taken to withdraw such facility.

l) A computer programme can be prepared to rank the applications strictly on a random basis for each school and list prepared accordingly. The number to be included in the list should be 125% of the number of vacancies available in each school.

This will enable additional selections to be made later if some students within the first 100% do not accept admissions.

m) 2% - 5% of the vacancies may be given to Teachers of schools willing to admit their children to schools they teach in.

n) 2% - 5% of the vacancies may be made available to children of personnel of armed services and police service serving in terrorist areas. This must be based on the priority lists submitted by the Defence Ministry.

4) Admission of students to Grade 6

a) All admissions must be based on the results of the Grade 5 scholarship examination except in the case of students coming from the same school till such time the primary classes are dried up.

b) The current procedure may be followed with amendments as needed.

c) 2% - 5% of the vacancies may be given to Teachers of schools willing to admit their children to schools they teach in.

d) 2% - 5% of the vacancies may be made available to children of personnel of armed services and police service including serving in war areas. This must be based on the priority lists submitted by the Defence Ministry.

5) Admission of students to Grade 12.

a) All admissions must be based on the results of the General Certificate of Education Examination except in the case of students coming from the same school.

b) The current procedure may be followed with amendments as needed.

Vocational Education and University Education

Jaya Radampola

PROPOSALS: Some time back the National Education Commission (NEC) invited for ‘proposals’ for a National Policy on ‘Tertiary and Vocational Education and University Education’.

Views and submissions were invited from the public, mainly on the following topics: and listed 24 topics beginning with ‘Admission to higher educational institutions’ and ending with ‘Linkage between higher education institution; local and foreign’ thus, constraining ‘Proposals on a national policy’ by the 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 (including Post-Graduate research studies) since it was a sort of ‘Dependant Origination’ each ‘Topic’ depending on the other(s). “When this is, that comes to be. With the arising of this, that arises. When this is not, that does not come to be. With the cessation of this, that ceases.”

This conditionality is ‘universal’ to all ‘things’ conditioned by causes and justify its application to our problem under review. Accordingly each ‘Topic’ of the 24 NEC issues depends on the other(s) and the basic cause - Pre-primary education, pre-school 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 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 (including post graduate research studies) as stated earlier.

Thus, any solution should be development-based creating access and opportunities to all children for primary, secondary, tertiary, vocational and university 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.

The writer has been an educator, tertiary and vocational and university, State Sector Land Survey and Land Management Manager and Town and Country Planner, and Consultant Town and Country Planner.