RETURN TO ENGLISH

Sri Lanka needs to rethink its medium of instruction

BY Goolbai Gunasekara

Generations of Sri Lankans have been sacrificed to wrongly and foolishly applied educational systems. I do not think  C. W. W. Kannangara, giver of ‘the pearl of great prize’ – free education – could have anticipated the darkness into which his dream has faded.

He envisaged upliftment of the common people’s knowledge and did not foresee dangerously shortsighted ministers of education who would reduce such ambitions to nought.

Here’s an extract from his speech at Visakha Vidyalaya’s prize giving in 1937 at a time when my mother Deshabandu Clara Motwani was principal.

He said: “I congratulate Mrs. Motwani on her report. She has indicated to the government, which has little experience in that direction, how girls’ schools should be run. I will place her report in the hands of the Director of Education. She has provided a pattern for all girls’ schools to follow.”

Whether the British (who ruled Ceylon at the time) did anything about it isn’t clear; but it’s obvious national go­vernments after independence didn’t consult experts, who would’ve advocated a different system.

They realised the danger of polarising language streams and felt religion should be taught – but not as a compulsory exam subject. And they realised the supreme folly of relegating English to where it is today.

No provisions were made for modern teaching methods of English as a second language. It deteriorated and the chauvinists had a field day. If a referendum was held today, I wonder what language most Sri Lankans would choose to be educated in – English, Sinhala or Tamil?

Global survival is now foremost in citizens’ minds – both economically and educationally. Right now, the average Sri Lankan can’t begin to compete on the global stage. A few notable exceptions do not prove anything.

For years, I’ve waited for someone to suggest a return to the English medium – ever since I was personally attacked in three long articles by a cowardly, anonymous writer who called himself ‘A lecturer from Chilaw’ 35 years ago, who wrote: “Of course, Mrs. G is not a Sinhalese…”

I’m not a Tamil, Muslim or Burgher either; but I am a patriotic Sri Lankan – albeit not a chauvinistic one. At last, Kumar David has had the temerity to say publicly what many Sri Lankans believe desperately needs to be voiced: “Return to the English medium.”

In the last 74 years, English education in Sri Lanka has degenerated so abysmally that generations of youngsters have been condemned to enjoy no link to the world. English teaching in Sri Lanka has been dishearteningly inept while a series of poor policy decisions has brought education down to rudimentary levels.

Unless English comes into use officially, Sri Lankans are in a sad, bad way. Now, please do not say: “Look at the Scandinavians, Europeans and many others that do not use English as the medium of instruction – yet, manage very well…”

Of course, they do. They have excellent second language teaching methods and the technology to back them up. Their scripts are usually the same. There is a certain amount of mixing among such countries and they are usually affluent. Being wealthy, translation of all knowledge into their languages is possible – such as in Japan, for instance.

Nearly 50 countries use English officially. Many belonged to the former British Empire but didn’t return to their national languages the minute independence was achieved. They carried on with English.

Churning the mess in Sri Lanka was the extension of free education to the universities. Again, educationists vainly protested that such a scheme added to the quota system and would prove unsustainable. Even wealthy countries don’t offer free education, they said. A well-known politician at the time comforted my protesting mother and other educationists with the words: “Don’t worry, we have more money than we know what to do with.” Was he for real?

The United Arab Emirates recently unveiled an architectural marvel called the Mohammed bin Rashid Library, which was donated by the ruler of Dubai. It is handled by robots and serviced by monorails that carry books hither and thither. Let us weep when we recall that most Arabs were illiterate desert dwellers not so long ago.

What a reversal this is! My 19-year-old maid, who had studied only up to Grade 8, cannot read the time despite being quite bright. There is no paper in the country for books. We can’t afford the necessary equipment to allow students to compete in the computer world. Education is degenerating into a joke…

Sri Lanka has touched the depths of despair. Seventy-four years of freedom from British rule has been a downward plummet. Bumbling politicians continue to talk nonsense as we stumble blindly along. What a heartrending tragedy for a once near perfect island!