What do we teach our children in school?

I belong to the group who went to the then lower kindergarten in 1955. I still remember my first day in school; it was quite interesting. I sang, I danced and played in the garden outside the classroom.

I was happy to be in that class because there were so many playmates while I had none at home. I don’t think my parents had to drag me to school after the first day. I loved going there every day.

In later years too, this was the case except on days when I hadn’t been able to do my home work. Even after I went to another school at grade 6, I loved going to school. The school was a unique place then.

Was education ‘good’ at that time? I certainly think it was. There were many things to do, and at the end of the day, I had learned a lot. Turning back, I see that what I am today is due to what I learned. One thing is sure. Not only did we learn history and geography of our country, we also were taught many other things that enriched our life.

Every subject taught had an expected outcome in addition to the subject knowledge it envisaged. Whatever subject we learned, there was discipline instilled in the learning process.

“Are today’s children learning what they should be, to become useful citizens and good human beings?” Many believe that the present education system will not be able to mould our younger generations to become productive human beings because the system has been tinkered with so much that it may have lost the principal objectives of education.

It is both scary and sad to observe that education will not deliver what it should. Our nation’s future depends solely on the quality of the education system and the products that come out of it. If we do not take this seriously now, it may be too late for us to remedy it later.

Education system

Education system has undergone periodic changes mooted by various individuals who had all sorts of motives. There were a series of reforms to the education system in the early seventies which saw the G.C.E Ordinary Level changing to National Certificate of General Education (NCGE).

Subjects children had to offer were also changed and a few years later, with the change of Government, back came the G.C.E ‘O’ Level, once again. Obviously, there has been something wrong in the thinking process who engineered reforms.

In the late nineties too, there were education reforms once again subjecting children and parents to another bout of uncertainty. Medium of instruction was a hot topic, and subjects to be taught were another area for debate.

During the last 10 years, since reforms took place, I don’t know whether someone (it’s the job of the ministry of education) seriously looked at the outcomes of the reforms. Also, I am not sure whether some reforms are being continued. I am not making a judgement, but all I want to say is that we have done reforms for the sake of doing something than doing the right thing.

An education system is not just teaching a group of subjects but a combination of many other things such as schools, teachers, principals, books and learning materials, administrators, alumni, etc., etc. But, I just want to reflect on some of the subjects that we learned and what effect it had on us in later years as we matured and became adults.

In the lower and upper kindergartens, the range of subjects that were taught included Religion, Reading, Recitation & Speech of the mother tongue, Number, Writing, Health Talks, Art, Handwork, General Knowledge, Singing, and Drill & Games. You would see that these subjects laid the foundation strongly for the development of the child and for learning other subjects later on. Certainly, it did to my generation equipping us to face life successfully.

Let us look at these subjects, and how they have been able to influence our success. Take Reading, Recitation and Speech. A strong foundation is so vital in these areas for anyone to become successful in life. We as adults have to speak coherently and with an impact. Take Writing. We were put through rigorous exercises to write correctly and legibly.

A neat hand was always encouraged through competitions and the use of Royal Crown Copy book and the Gunasena Sinhala Copy writing book.

Today, children do not worry much about their hand writing and as a result, in examinations their answer scripts cannot be read resulting in poor marks. Also, in job situations, it is extremely difficult if one’s hand writing is not legible.

Subjects like Number (Arithmetic) are without doubt important but even subjects like Health Talks, Art, Handwork, General Knowledge, Singing and Drill & Games had a great impact on our life. Even as a 5 year old child, I had to have a sense of understanding about the environment, our society, traditions, what happened around me etc. That is the General Knowledge I was tested on. Consequently, learning about the world and its affairs, men and matters, history and geography of our country and the world was quite natural and the reading and listening habit developed because we had to have an inquiring mind.

Singing

We had to sing in class and even dance at times. Along with Art and Handwork, Singing obviously creates the aesthetic sense in a person and provides the wherewithal to enjoy life and be creative. Undoubtedly, Drill and Games laid the foundation for our physical fitness and also inculcated a great sense of discipline that provided the basis for a healthy and disciplined life in later years. We sadly lack this today, and as a result, we are becoming a sick nation.

As we progressed to higher classes, some subjects were added and others became larger in scope. Geography and History were taught in the primary schools, and that enhanced our knowledge of the world we live in and who we are. Without knowing our history, can we go forward as a nation? Without any foresight, some reformists did away with these subjects and brought in Social Studies that never did justice to the vast reservoir of knowledge that children should acquire in History and Geography. Today’s children even with the Television bringing them vast reservoirs of knowledge hardly know the history and geography of our own country and the world. In the primary school I went to, English was taught from Grade 2. It included absolute basics such as the alphabet and simple words. By the time I was in Grade 5, I couldn’t speak English but knew many words. I certainly could read simple story books. During the English period, the teacher spoke to us in English and that why we were exposed to spoken English. I remember in Grade 5, I had to make a short speech in English. It was dreadful at the beginning, but enjoyed later as confidence grew.

Getting promoted to Grade 6 or Form I in the secondary school was another experience all together. There were many new subjects in store and most of us just turned 10+ or 11 years were very enthusiastic to learn new things. We had Sinhalese Language and Composition, Reading and Writing. Writing included dictation, and I am sad that today we do not harp on this very vital aspect of the language. I believe it improved our listening skills tremendously, and it is there that we learned to listen attentively and empathically. It was the same for English also with Language and Composition, Reading and Writing. English dictation was tough but taught us many things.

Learning Algebra and Geometry in addition to Arithmetic was a novel experience. With waves of reforms, this was later reduced to one subject called Mathematics leaving children half baked, neither here nor there. There are specific advantages in learning Algebra and Geometry at that age because later many other subjects would need a basic knowledge of these two fundamental subjects. Civics was another subject that taught us our responsibilities as citizens and imparted basic knowledge of Government, elections and how Governments function etc. The civic consciousness we value so much accrued to us from this very valuable subject, which once again was abandoned to make way for another combination of subjects called Social Studies. Geography and History were the most notable casualties in our so called education reforms.

General Science

Another new subject introduced to us at Grade 6 was General Science. Going to the junior laboratory for the first time in my life was an unforgettable experience. The strict rules that had to be followed in the lab moulded us for higher level responsibilities. Microscopes and other scientific equipment all provided great impressions that last even to date. Cleanliness and the orderliness of the labs were object lessons that provided great learning. Some of us also had the privilege to learn Pali in Grade 6 and that helped us enormously to improve our Sinhalese as well as understand stanzas and other recitals in Buddhism. It was very unfortunate that these subjects were dropped without due consideration. Latin was another subject offered in some schools from Form III (Grade 8) and many are those who vouch that not only their English improved on account of learning Latin but that Latin helped those pursuing higher studies in Law or Science.

There were many other subjects schools taught to the children. All these had a profound effect on the lives of the students, and most subjects were very useful in later years. At times, the subject knowledge may not be useful in life, but the discipline that one acquires through the mastery of a particular subject is invaluable. Singing and dancing may not be useful in a normal job situation, but the ability to appreciate music and dance is undoubtedly crucial for one’s well being in life.

Judging by all this, it is then important for us to go to our ‘drawing boards’ or the ‘reforms tables’ to take a serious look at the subjects we offer in our schools. I am not a curriculum specialist nor am I an educationist. But, as an ordinary citizen I can tell you that there needs to be a concerted effort to look at education and what it does to our younger generations. We have to agree on a formula for our students. What do we want them to be? What does the country expect of them? Are the children aware of their citizen responsibilities, and do they have the skills to get along in life? Have we provided them with basic understanding of many areas for the well being of our country and the nation? Given the current advances in Science and Technology and IT, are our children prepared by our education system to face those challenges and conquer the world?

Many are the questions we can pose to the education authorities but that will not solve our problems. We need to take stock of what we are doing and what we need to do. The gap has to be filled.

Discipline

We have talked much about subject knowledge but there remains one area that needs to be discussed at length. That is the values that education inculcates in us. There is no argument that today’s education system has no answer to the erosion of values in our children. We complain that there is erosion in the societal values, but that erosion in my humble opinion starts at the school. Over a period of time, discipline in schools has plummeted and that has had an adverse effect with indiscipline pervading the entire social fabric. There was no particular subject called ‘values’ or ‘discipline’ but through every subject taught, every activity children engaged in and through the normal way of life in a school values and discipline were inculcated into every student.

Undoubtedly, it is time for us to take a serious look at the subjects that are taught in our schools. The National Education Commission, the National Institute of Education and the Ministry of Education must come together in one concerted effort to propose a set of subjects to be taught in our schools. All curriculum reforms implemented so far need to be analysed and plusses and minuses carefully considered. It is then possible to come up with a group of subjects that will inculcate in our children the values of our culture, traditions and Sri Lankan way of life, civic consciousness that is sadly lacking in our society today, knowledge, skills and attitudes that are required to become successful in life, patriotism that will protect our motherland, the ability and willingness to be creative, and above all, the discipline that is so much required to re-build our nation and country.