Problems in education

It is well known that education is a sphere where there have been problems for a long time. From Grade One admissions to University entrance there are problems. Nor do problems disappear in the tertiary sector. Therefore, it is imperative that they be addressed seriously and solved to the benefit of the children.

Unfortunately politicians and Governments have been in the habit of making education a playing field and a domain of political influence. They have been experimenting instead of guiding policy.

The latest experiment is an elite school at Homagama. The question arises why locate it at Homagama and not in a more remote area where educational facilities are far worse? It has been the custom of politicians to favour certain areas and schools of their choice with a view of increasing their vote base. If this policy is allowed to continue it would become necessary to appoint ministers in charge of education in turn so that they would represent all electorates in the country. By the time all areas get favoured treatment several generations of students would have passed through school gates and new anomalies would have been created.

It is necessary to look at problems in the education sector not from the angle of the politician but from the angle and interests of the students and the country.

The truth is there exist glaring anomalies in the distribution of physical and human resources among the schools in the country with those from the rural backwaters eternally getting stepmotherly treatment. While city schools have excess tutorial staff, rural schools have many vacancies in their staffs. While elite schools have wealthy parents and old pupils to augment school facilities, the parents and old pupils of rural schools are themselves poor.

The teacher-pupil ratio is far below the norm in the hinterland as against the elite schools in the city where it is even well above the norm. The neglect of many rural schools have led to closure of many promising rural schools affecting the educational prospects of many a poor child.

There is anarchy in the administrative set up. While the administrators have usurped the functions of the administrators such as holding term tests and setting test papers they have withdrawn from their duty of monitoring teaching and other functions of the schools. Schools have been graded in numerous ways with half a dozen types. For example there are Isuru schools, Navodya schools, National schools with no clear understanding how they differ from one another. There is also another category called model schools, especially in the primary sector.

The results of public examinations are a good indicator of the success of education. Too many students have failed in the mother tongue and in the second language (English) besides Mathematics and Science. This is not an all too pleasing result. The remedy sought is to make the examination papers easier so that a higher number would pass. It is compromising on quality. There are also suggestions to do away with the compulsory pass in Mathematics. It is a sad regression if the country goes back to the standards in colonial times where Arithmetic replaced Mathematics as a subject in the Senior School certificate level. The standards set by the colonizers for native children were well below those they set for their own children in the metropolis at that time. To revert to those obsolete standards in this age of space travel and digital technology is a big joke.

What makes matters worse is that governments have allowed a parallel education system - the so-called international schools - to flourish without any monitoring and regulation. Actually they are out of the ambit of the education authorities, as they are business concerns that have emerged with the blessings of the BOI.

What is required is a national policy on education which would be student-centred. Political interference in education has to be ended. There should be a democratic dialogue on the content, methodology and means of education among all stakeholders instead of imposing policies from above or importing them from other lands with the blessings of the World Bank.

It is also not only a question of improving the curricula and setting higher standards. Ensuring equal opportunities and equity in resource sharing is also vitally important. One has also to guard against the re-emergence of a class biased education structure in a haste to deliver the goods in order to catch up for lost time.