ON THE FAST TRACK AGAIN

It’s possible the English medium may be reintroduced at last

BY Goolbai Gunasekara

I could hardly believe my eyes a few weeks ago when I opened one of the morning newspapers. The Minister of Education had actually announced the restarting of the English language medium of education.

Once the euphoric feeling had died down however, I realised that there was no official confirmation of this uplifting piece of news. So I called a friend in the know and heard that the minister was indeed keen on such a move. Having been increasingly frustrated for the last 70 years, we were suddenly giddy with relief.

Since that thrilling day however, there has been no further mention of the eagerly awaited news… Are we or are we not making the long needed switch over from the virtual dance of death we have been doing with our education to a saner stance?

Now, the situation is maddeningly worse. The few persons who are familiar with and able to operate in English have left for greener pastures. And the present appalling state of our island doesn’t lend itself to new ventures – it is almost impossible to imagine a complete upward thrust in education after so many years of folly.

Let’s discuss some of the problems that the government may have to face if it does take the first step towards a good and unifying single language, all island education.

The first will be that of finding good teachers. Obviously, the whole country can’t make the changeover at once. The rot runs far too deep. What will happen in the villages where English is barely spoken and there are no teachers available? So it has to be a staggered switch over.

Will this be popular with the average citizen who yearns for a better education and finds that it is not logistically possible for the state to provide it to the whole country at the same time?

Second, there is the issue of textbooks. To keep up with the world, many of our present textbooks will have to be thrown out or totally revamped. Of course, we can’t afford this with bankruptcy hovering like a miasma over our heads.

Naturally, I have a suggestion. Having come to the point of actually articulating the thought of establishing an English medium, the Department of Education must not drop the whole plan but should instead begin establishing the said language stream in a small way wherever it may be affordable.

Let’s not forget that there are dozens of so-called international schools, which are really local English medium schools following the government syllabus in English. They are privately run and have educators who can teach in English. With some training, they may prove to be a good ‘startup bunch’ for the English medium plans of the government.

There’s no doubt that the initial attempts aren’t going to be great but there will be an improvement more quickly than we imagine because of the eagerness to learn English. I am surprised that the government has continuously ignored the yearning for English, as well as the desperation of smart outstation youngsters who didn’t have access to the language and couldn’t afford tuition classes.

Sinhalese chauvinists have had the upper hand, and the deep divide between the races of Sri Lanka has grown each year.

Right on cue, the aragalaya captured the public consciousness; and suddenly, there was a feeling of unity among all the races and religions in Sri Lanka. Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and Hindus protested together for weeks at a time.

Even better, the priests of every denomination joined each other in public. It was a great moment in our land’s tragic record of divisiveness and it will long be remembered as such in the future too.

To return to the topic we are discussing… let’s talk about the advantages of a return to the English medium – although I hardly need to enumerate these.

It will bring unity to the people of our island and give them the ability to be employed more easily by big business. Good technological jobs are available right here, and young men and women will be able to work for foreign enterprises if their English is good.

Knowledge is freely available to those who can read in the language and the use of computers in English takes students far beyond the restrictions of the moment – simply because Sinhala is spoken only by a few million people in the world.

Since Tamil and Arabic are world languages, Tamils and Muslims aren’t dis­advantaged – unlike the Sinhalese who have been losing out for a long time.

We still hope for a quick decision in favour of bringing back the English medium of education.

Of course, let Sri Lankans study their own languages; but give them a chance to compete with the world as they did in the days of yore. Let’s do something worthwhile even at this dismal, doleful and totally dejected moment in our history!