The Right to Higher Education
There has been much concern expressed in Parliament recently about
the Right to Education, including through an Adjournment Motion dealing
with university admissions. Opposition Members of Parliament have gone
so far as to highlight the need for reforms on the lines suggested by
the Minister of Higher Education when he initiated legislation to
encourage and monitor alternative methods of provision, though sadly one
cannot be sure that their leadership will back such measures.
Dr. C. W. W. Kannangara |
Experience has shown that political expediency often trumps principle
when such issues come to a vote, and I fear that those who have been
forthright in their appeals for reform will succumb to pressure if there
is a bandwagon to join.
With regard to education, we are still stuck in a mindset that
confuses the Right to Education with a state monopoly. The fact that
government must provide education to those who will otherwise be
deprived of it for financial reasons is sacrosanct, and we in Sri Lanka
must be proud that we have instituted this at all levels.
Less idealistic countries confine this to primary level, which is all
that UN Conventions demand - though even this is not universal. Most
countries manage also to provide secondary education free as their needs
dictate, though sadly even those countries that pioneered free tertiary
education have in some cases made adjustments that entail charges, of
various magnitudes. One way of removing the injustice of this, in the
Rawlsian sense of justice requiring level playing fields, is to provide
loans to cover charges, repayable only when university education has led
to a higher level job.
Academic and technological skills
Sri Lanka has not come to that, which must be welcomed and cherished.
But a corollary of this generosity is that the number of those receiving
free tertiary education is limited. This is accompanied by a mindset
that still distinguishes between academic and technological skills, and
denies degree status to the latter. This contributes to failure to
include in technological education the range of soft skills that will
facilitate higher level employment and encourage the entrepreneurship
and initiative that promote productivity. Interestingly, a continuing
example of this mindset, that denies to teaching the status it deserves,
was apparent in a recent discussion where traditional educationists
demanded academic competence from teachers before they could be
permitted a degree, whereas we should also be taking seriously the
alternative of action research as the required top up to convert
certification of pedagogical skills into a degree in education.
Education, the right of every child. File photo |
Given continuing teacher shortages, given shortages of applicants for
high level jobs, given the need to upgrade worker skills for possible
foreign employment too, it is clear that we need to diversify the
provision of tertiary education. While certainly some of our
universities have managed successfully the internal changes needed to
produce graduates with thinking and problem solving and decision making
skills, instead of those only knowledgeable about particular restricted
fields (and that too in a very limited fashion, given the worrying level
of several General Degree programmes), the difficulties employers at
more demanding levels have indicates that there is much more to do.
Kannangara reforms
It is therefore a developmental imperative that we encourage more
institutions to provide the required education, and in different ways so
as to encourage a range of skills and competencies. But I believe it is
also a moral imperative, in terms of the Right to Education that is the
most important of Rights in ensuring distributive justice. Social
mobility has throughout the world developed through educational reform
that expanded opportunities, and Sri Lanka was no exception, as the
achievements of the Kannangara reforms showed. But, sadly, we have
forgotten that Kannangara, whilst ensuring that those who would
otherwise be deprived had institutions that allowed them to develop
their talents, continued to allow alternative systems to flourish. This
both relieved the system he had instituted of financial pressures and
encouraged experimentation, whilst promoting excellences that afterwards
could feed into his institutions too.
That such opportunities have been shut down is surely also a
violation of Rights, and I suspect that an enlightened Supreme Court,
which has shown itself aware of the negative effects of excessive
statism, will rule in favour of choice if a challenge to the status quo
were brought.
Certainly there can be no justification for the current sharp
dichotomy between those dependent on a restricted state and those able
to take advantage of international opportunities at the cost of funds
that could otherwise benefit the country at large. Given the concern
recently expressed with regard to education in terms of Rights, I hope
that logic will prevail, and the Right to obtain Education at all
levels, without continuing dependence on the state, will be claimed and
granted. |