The Island, 17/06/2011, by Neil Perera
G. P. Jayatileka (G.P.J) in an article titled "Language and Comradeship " which appeared in The Island of 15th June. has made a few suggestions while referring to an article titled ‘ Racial Integration’ written by me,and which appeared in the Island recently. Referring to Education in the Schools, he says inter alia " What if we made Sinhala/Tamil the medium of instruction in all Schools from grade1 to grade five. English will be the compulsory second language and allocated a period of one hour duration daily. From grade six onwards the language of instruction will be English islandwide, and Sinhala/Tamil continue as the second as the second language.- - - Competence in English which is fast becoming a world language should be encouraged etc. etc." As the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of a Private school registered with the government,for over 15 years, I wish to make a few comments on the state of English education in tjhe Schools.
While I am in full agreement with G.P.J that English education among all communities will have a positive influence on racial integration, there are many factors that impede any progress in this direction. The foremost impediment is the mindset of the Educational authorities towards English education at present. The other impediment is the non-availability of an adequte number of competent English teachers, for which the Educational authorities over the last few decades should be held responsible. The following narration, giving my personal experience in this regard, will perhaps reveal in a nutshell, the status quo with regard to teaching of English both in the state schools as well as in registered Private Schools.
St John’s Girls School, Panadura was founded over 125 years ago, along with St John’s College and St John’s Boys School, by the well known educationist of yesteryear, Cyril Jansz. St John’s College was taken over by the State in the 1960’s, but St John’s Girls’ school continued to function as a fee levying Private School. This School is managed by Board of Trustees( B.O.T) comprising a Chairman and three other members one of whom is the Principal of the School ( ex- officio). All the members of the Board, other than the Principal, who are past pupils of St John’s College, serve in a honory capacity. Currently, St John’s Girls School has a student population of over 1800 and caters to students from Pre-school up to G. C. E. Ordinary Level. With a view to enhance the knowledge of the students in the English language, the B.O.T decided to increase the number of periods of English for all classes from Grade1. It was here that we came across the biggest stumbling block. As we were a registered Private School, and although we were paying our Staff salaries, the Education Dept. rules compels us to comply with the time table that is followed by all State schools. The number of periods of 40 minutes each for English permitted per week is five. Trying to find a way out of this impasse, over five years ago, I contacted the then Secretary Ministry of Education Dr. Tara de Mel to obtain an appointment. Although I had not known her before, she promptly requested me to meet her along with the Principal, after contacting her again regarding a suitable date. This was not to be, as soon afterwards a new government came in, and she was out of office. Thereafter, I tried on several occasions to obtain an appointment with several senior Ministry officials and several senior Education Department officials. The only official I was able to contact was a Deputy Director who was handling Private School matters. When I explained our problem, he very bluntly told me that there was no way we could change the time table, if we were a registered School, and that we must comply with the time table set by the Education Department for State Schools. The almost haughty attitude of this official, I thought, may be characteristic of the general attitude of other officials of the Education Department, and I did not contact any other official again. Not to be outdone by the most unhelpful attitude of this official, we devised a scheme with the consent of the teachers and students, to have additional English classes after school hours. The Teachers were to be paid an extra allowance by the School, but no charge was to be made from the students. This scheme proved to be so successful that this exercise spread to other subjects as well. Notwithstanding the negative attitude of the aforementioned official our School has achieved the best results out of 47 Schools in the relevant educational division, not only in English but also in the recent G.C.E. O Level Examination and the Year five Scholarship examination. 100 percent of our students qualified for the A. Level Examinations and 103 students were successful in the year fiveScholarship Exam. Sadly the National School which was taken over by the state in the 1960’s and of which I was a student over 65 years ago, had only 13 passes in the year five Scholarship Exam and this in spite of the Principal of this School making a tremendous effort to uplift the standard of Education in this School. The G.C.E O level results were no better. The reasons for this sad situation are many, and the same situation prevails in most state Schools in the country. The excellent results shown in the so-called prestigious state schools are largely due to private tuition. But, that is another story. Finally I would appeal to the Minister of Education, to device a National Educational policy with the assistance of all stakeholders including all political parties, so that the future of our children will not be ruined as result of the prevailing numerous shortcomings in the current education system.
