HUNGRY AFTER A FREE LUNCH    

Janaka Perera highlights the abysmal failures of the local education system

We are in the 75th year of the implementation of free education in Sri Lanka. It was approved after much debate and formidable opposition by vested interests. However, the question today is this…

How far have we progressed in this area? Or have we deviated from the original objectives set in 1948?

Speaking in 2019 over a TV discussion held to commemorate the 50th death anniversary of the ‘father of free education’ Dr. C. W. W. Kannangara, print media scholar Prof. Rohana Luxman Piyadasa expressed regret that successive govern­ments failed to realise Kannangara’s aim of developing a national education system for the whole country.

So is free education truly ‘free’ today?

The tuition mania has made a mockery of it since most parents are compelled to send their children for such classes because they feel that what’s taught in schools is inadequate.

Five decades ago, parents used to hire a tutor occasionally to teach their children subjects they were weak in at school. Today, tuition is a major business across the island and schoolchildren are bred like racehorses.

The Department of Education has been addicted to a culture of conducting competitive examinations, and creating unrest among students and parents. Advisors to the government are not thinking laterally to change the system and should be held responsible for creating such a situation.

And the government should explore what strategies are being deployed overseas to educate children.

There’s no need to conduct expensive examinations islandwide for scholarships. Schools could conduct these exams as in Australia where its Department of Education provides exam papers and training for teachers to assess students, and then conducts examinations in the schools.

In poor rural areas, some parents don’t have money to even buy slippers for their children, let alone pay for tuition – and many kids are malnourished. Recently, the government introduced the ‘nearest school is the best school’ concept. However, this can never become a reality; not until all government schools have the same basic facilities.

There’s no point in talking about distributing laptops when many rural school buildings are dilapidated, and lack adequate toilet facilities, water supply and proper access roads.

Sri Lanka’s ‘free education system’ has not contributed to social equality through better opportunities for the poor and other downtrodden members of society. On the contrary, it thrives on inequality.

Besides, in leading schools – some of which are run with public funds – it is difficult for a child from a poor family to gain admission because past pupils jealously guard the school’s elite status. In private sector recruitment, a jobseeker who studied at a top school is preferred to a more qualified person from a regular institution.

Today’s schoolchildren suffer from stress due to parental pressure. They don’t have their midday meal till 2.30 p.m. or 3 o’clock, and this puts them at high risk of contracting noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes and heart conditions. They don’t have adequate time to play, read books or pursue hobbies.

In addition to the high rate of school dropouts, there’s also a growing phenomenon of suicide among the youth. And there’s a mismatch between job opportunities and available skills, and very low productivity as measured in terms of per capita income.

The carefree life that schoolchildren enjoyed decades ago doesn’t exist anymore. If Sri Lanka is to consider genuine educational reforms to prepare its children for the future, the focus should be on their health and wellbeing. Parental ambi­tions and competition should not be a factor in any reform process.

In Finland, children start school relatively late – at the age of seven. It’s a national principle that children need time and space to grow and develop. Finnish teaching takes advantage of the sensitive periods of development, and encourages children to think independently and be creative.

In their early childhood, children enjoy being nurtured and cared for by their parents. When they participate in pre-primary education, it prepares them for school and promotes self-esteem.

The main failure of our higher education system is the subculture of ‘ragging’ (a misnomer) that plagues our state universities. Several lives have been lost as a result. In the last two years, over 2,000 students are said to have left universities due to this brutal violence. Most of the culprits are members of politicised students’ unions.

Instead, the focus of true education should be a happy childhood leading to valuable and contented citizens of good character who live in dignity. In the words of the Greek philosopher Plutarch, “the mind is not a vessel that needs filling but wood that needs igniting.”

Founder and head of the Isha Foundation in India Sadhguru (a.k.a. Jaggi Vasudev) echoes a similar view. He asserts: “Intellect is mistaken for intelligence.”

The main failure of our higher education system is the subculture of ‘ragging’ (a misnomer) that plagues our state universities