Developing English language usage in school education - Part V:

Bilingual education in school system

Continued from December 28

G. H. ASOKA

The model currently initiated in Sri Lankan school system by the Education Ministry through circulars address several strong aspects to achieve balanced bilingualism without devalourization of Sinhala/Tamil. Addressing child rights and strengthening the national policy on languages, primary education has been made compulsory in Sinhala/Tamil in Government schools.

Information Technology

From Grade six, bilingual education is available introducing several subjects of the curriculum (Science, Mathematics, Health and Physical Education, Geography, Information Technology and Life Competencies and Civic Education) to be learnt in English.

Future generation should be empowered with language skills. Picture by Saman Sri Wedage

This is socially, politically, culturally and economically sound for learners to maintain their national identity and develop their first languages. Any number of subjects out of the prescribed can be learnt in English and all the other subjects in the curriculum are expected to be learnt in Sinhala/Tamil in Government schools.

Out of the recent educational policies in Sri Lanka on general education, bilingualism and practices of bilingual education have been mentioned in the policy proposal of the National Education Commission, published in 2003.

It reads “Bilingualism should be promoted by using English as the medium of instruction in selected subjects such as Mathematics, Science, Technology including Computer literacy, Social Science in secondary grades, year by year from Grade six, depending on the availability of teachers. It is expected that students will reach an acceptable level of proficiency in English at the end of junior secondary education without jettisoning Sinhala and Tamil which will continue to be the medium of instruction in selected subjects.”

This policy statement of the National Education Commission needs modifications highlighting the type of bilingualism and the model through which the desirable targets are to be achieved through bilingual education.

Further it is necessary to consider whether achievement of language competency alone should be the target because bilingual learners are expected to learn the target input in line with their subjects in the curriculum while promoting their L2. The report needs to delete the contradictory ideas, too. It is expected that the Educational Act which is currently in progress in its development will look into these aspects.

The Bilingual Education Unit of the Education Ministry and the Unit of Language Coordination, NIE support the system of education to implement bilingual education in the school system. The first attempt of the latter was the islandwide Needs Survey-2007 on bilingual education.

The findings of the Needs Survey conducted by the Language Coordination Unit, NIE imply that the actual voice of BE program implemented in Sri Lanka can be appreciated in terms of learners’ positive experience and the stakeholders’ positive attitudes towards it.

Learners’ progress

The latter depends mainly on the observations of learners’ progress in the use of English in Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) by that time. The program has motivated bilingual learners to learn English and learn in English. This is a Learner-awakening program to use and learn English for instrumental purposes despite all the worries and queries. Therefore, the bilingual education program in Sri Lanka is a learner-pleasing program with a lot of challenges for all the stakeholders.

The program has created positive attitudes among all the stakeholders. It has also been proved that the program is future-oriented and a positively experienced project only by learners. It is gender-sensitive because it has attracted more females than males and it is a rural-community- attracted program.

The proposed suggestions and recommendations of this Needs Survey address five areas: policy development, administrative aspects, teacher empowerment, learner empowerment through teacher empowerment and the need for learning and teaching materials paying special attention on the supplementary.

The NIE has commenced its teacher and learner empowerment programs under two sets of national objectives.

Bilingual teachers

The latter is addressed through the former. In 2008, first Teacher Development Manual-1 on Bilingual Education was introduced and the second has been developed with three components in 2009 to implement action research as a way of promoting bilingual teachers’ professionalism from 2010 onwards. Meanwhile supplementary packages based on self-directed learning are developed as both teacher and learner supportive materials.

The three year master plan developed by the Ministry reads the target activities of the Ministry and NIE as a collaborative and collective effort for promoting bilingual education with the support extended by the World Bank. Research conducted expect practical suggestions under realistic findings as a base for development of the target discipline. In future, the NIE wants to support the Government assisted private schools, too for implementing bilingual education (wherever it is preferred to monolingual education in English) in collaboration with the Ministry. Meanwhile the Ministry has implemented a piloting program to make monolingual teachers bilingual teachers.

Positive attitudes

The bilingual education program has already been experienced with learner interest, self-directed learning and positive attitudes of the majority of the stakeholders in Sri Lanka. Thus implementation of this program in line with a proper model and a suitable policy for the country followed by research, a sound teacher empowerment program, a sound awareness program, effective learner facilitation and comprehensive material will provide versatile benefits for the country’s development in every facet. To implement this program successfully in the country, the NIE seeks support, attention and constructive ideas based on constructive criticism from everybody at local and international level.

Concluded

The writer is Chief Project Officer and Head of the Cell of Language Coordination, Project Leader of Bilingual Education, Faculty of Languages, Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Education, Maharagama