Education - Not the monopoly of brightest

“What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul. The philosopher, the saint the hero, the wise and the good, very often lie hid and concealed in the ordinary, which a proper education might have disinterred and brought to light.”

Education then is not just a passage to employment or a livelihood as we have been accustomed to view but a means that adds luster to a person’s talents augmenting his capabilities, for the greater good of the society and human civilization. Thus the more a society gets its members to receive education the better it would be for that society and that dispels the notion that a particular society or a nation needs only so many to be educated for its well-being and sustenance. Every human is unique in his/her own way and hence waits to be discovered by education and therefore it is not just the brightest but every individual who needs education for his/ herself actualization.

University aspirant

In Sri Lankan society however, education has been viewed from a parochial standpoint for far too long and initially it was the privilege of the moneyed and the powerful and now after liberalization, it has come to be the privilege of the brightest. Before Swabasha was made the medium of education all what a University aspirant needed is three simple passes at the University entrance exam to enter the faculty of his choice. But after Swabasha, with more people entering the primary and secondary levels of education and with better understanding of the finer points of their subjects, competition has ensued to win a place in the seats of higher education. This is because the only University education available in this country is provided by the Government and the Government can only support so much and not all who aspire for higher education.

This creates a situation that compels the Government education system to have a competitive criterion for selection in to the Universities and in this, the marks obtained by candidates becomes the natural filter. Thus the Government, in such a competitive situation, may employ a nationally acceptable criterion to decide, who among the suitable gets entitled to receive subscribed education.

Government Universities

Having decided on that the focus then should be on those who have got left behind in the competition. Does the Government have the right to sit on judgment on those who are not lucky enough to enter the Universities and say that ‘Those who are not competitive enough to enter the Government Universities have no right for University education’? This position may appear the height of incongruity for a Government policy but this is exactly what has been happening in this country when the Government does not allow or recognize fee levying higher education institutes to operate in the name of ‘free education’ in this country.

The situation gets even more chronic when you consider the annual statistics of those who are accommodated in the Universities to those who are left out. Every year about 120,000 candidates pass the University entrance exam in this country but it is only about 20 percent of those who pass that are offered places in the Universities and that amounts to the majority or 80 percent of the eligible candidates being shut out of the higher education system. The irony is that these 100,000 University eligible candidates are not only shut out from the Universities but when the Government does not permit fee-levying facilities for them to obtain their University education they are being denied their basic right for education. The Government may have a policy of giving rice free to some people but could the Government have a policy of prohibiting the purchase of rice for the rest? Thus the Government has not only disowned its duty by those who have lost in the competition but have been practising a discriminatory policy by in denying them their basic right for education.

Student unrest

Now the situation becomes even more incomprehensible when you realize that Sri Lanka has history of student unrest in its Universities. These students have been the most privileged ones among those who have qualified to enter the Universities as they have secured a place in the Universities. Hence if all if somebody should experience unrest it should be the vast majority of those who got shut out who should protest and certainly not those who have managed to enter. But then, how come this ironical situation?

My son was not ‘bright’ enough to enter a University in this country and hence he is now studying in a foreign University. In order to place things in a comparative perspective I consulted him about the student unrest in Sri Lankan Universities as against that in the country he studies. He told me that he has lectures for five hours of the day and then he works for seven hours and as a result he has little time to study. Then he said that “The trouble with Sri Lankan University students is that they have been provided everything free and hence when things are provided free there is a tendency for the recipient to not appreciate what is provided!” We know that there is nothing called a ‘free lunch’ and if ever there was one, the recipient will feel pampered and start questioning whether that lunch really is wholesome.

Young people have plenty of energy and some countries get them to do military service before University while in most countries they are made to earn and pay for their University education. The other day the Higher Education Minister said that ‘There is no country in this world where they offer University education free as a right to its citizens except in Sri Lanka’. Therefore in Sri Lanka, we not only offer University education as a right to the brightest but we also allow them the right (through protests) to decided on the education of the others as well. Let the University students in this country first make a living and start paying for their education before they decide ‘what is good and not good’ for the country’s education.

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