Calls to transform our education must be heeded! - EDITORIAL

School education has changed dramatically over the years and it’s amazing to see old teachers and their old school teaching methods still being in use. The present principal of Royal College R.M.M Ratnayake in a recent interview with the Daily Mirror indicated that students born in the 21st Century should be taught by teachers born in the same ‘Century’. The message is clear; more young teachers should take to the profession of teaching. What this principal wants to imply is that education in Sri Lanka must be revolutionised and a transformation of the school curriculum is needed. 

This change alone wouldn’t suffice to take the much needed initiative and make students believe in the local O’ Level and A’ Level Examinations and remain in local or government schools to complete their 13 years in an academic institution. More and more students are immigrating and finding shorter and productive methods of inching their way towards laying the foundation for a degree programme; which will be completed abroad. A good number of students are not wasting time following the local syllabus because global studying methods remind everyone that education is on the fast track now.

Ratnayake also points out that students in most local schools are also following London A’ Levels while they study for the local O’ Levels. As a result when such students complete their O’ Levels they have also completed their London A’ Levels. This means schools in Sri Lanka- in the future- will see a drop in students wanting to pursue local A’ Levels. Now this is cause for concern! 

Local schools together with the Education Department must find ways of making the education ‘package’ presented in local schools competitive in comparison to what other private academic institutions are offering. One area where local schools must improve is on what they offer as course material for the study of the English language. Many students from rural schools join popular schools in Colombo. Strangely, these much affluent schools- situated in the business capital of the country-now acknowledge that they too are struggling in this area of education. 

If a student studying for local A’ Levels has time to pursue a degree programme concurrently elsewhere it indicates that the quantum of work done for a day at the local school is insufficient or not up to standard. There is a television advertisement carried these days confirming this. There is a group of students in the ad discussing their future plans for A’ Levels and one guy states he’ll start a degree programme while he pursues local A’ Levels. The capacity of local students to serve much on to their ‘plates’ in terms of work is well-known, but all efforts needn’t go entirely into education. Extra-curricular activities are essential to produce a well rounded student. Inside schools a child gets to think like a child and behave like one. But if this child is exposed to the adult world- vibrating with the rush for degrees-too soon he or she might lose a large slice of childhoods because he’ll be involved in a race against time. 

While all these private education academies grow at a rate in the close proximity of local schools some of our national schools are adamant that old school teaching methods must continue. These officials in local schools-especially the ones situated in rural areas- promote the thought that students must endure hardships while studying in less affluent academic institutes and nurture the dream of moving to Colombo to earn a better ticket to life. Teachers in rural schools like Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa sweat and spend much money to organise trips to Colombo and its suburbs and call them educational excursions. 

There was a time when schoolchildren from villages came all the way travelling over 160 km to places like ‘Ape Gama’ at Battaramulla just to be shown the activities of a farmer and his lifestyle; all depicted in life-sized cement statues inside a model village. The saddest part of this episode is that they buy tickets to be entitled for entry into this ‘village’. It’s high time we think of transforming how to educate our children!