English medium education and the hurdles ahead

Education Minister Susil Premajayantha stated during an event at the Colombo University on March 20, that the Ministry has decided to teach “spoken English” from grade 1 in all national schools from March 30.

Earlier in September, last year the Minister said during an event under the theme “English is simple” that his ministry was planning to introduce English medium in all schools from grade 1 from this year (2023), as a part of envisaged education reforms. The change in the plan from “all  schools” to “national schools” and “English medium” to “spoken English” is yet to be explained.

However, even the latest announcement is commendable as many parents across the country are spending colossal amount of money to teach English to their children. Some parents have enrolled their children in some so-called international schools purely for want of English knowledge. Yet, children in many such international schools and private schools only use English during for their academic activities while the day-to-day conversations have been allowed in Sinhala or Tamil. 

In this digital era, it is utterly futile for one to explain the importance of English. Former Secretary to Education Ministry Dr. Tara de Mel in a newspaper article two years ago recalled a survey that was conducted during 1998-99 by the Education Ministry under President Chandrika Kumaratunga, to prove the then Cabinet the high demand of English among parents. This had been done by administering a simple questionnaire to parents of students attending about 100 schools in about ten districts. They were asked if they were favourable if the option to study selected subjects in the English medium was offered to their children. The large majority said ‘Yes’. And when asked for reasons they gave the following: Ability to face interviews confidently, converse with those in higher socio-economic brackets, to apply for overseas placements and to secure a ‘good job’ when leaving school.

British Study Centres, a leading international education group provides education and training to people around the world since 1930, cites in its website very interesting ten reasons to learn English. 1) English is a global language commonly spoken in the world, 2) English is the language of science, aviation, computers, diplomacy and tourism.

Knowing English increases your chances of getting a good job anywhere in the world, 3) English is the official language of 53 countries and is used as a lingua franca (a mutually known language) by people from all around the world, 4) Many scientific papers are written in English, 5) English is the language of the media industry, 6) English is the language of the Internet with more than half the content on the internet written in English, while the world’s largest tech companies are based in English- speaking countries. 7) Travelling is lot easier with a good knowledge of English, 8) English is considered to be one of the most important business languages, 9) There are thousands of schools and universities around the world that offer programmes in English and 10) English will allow you to access multiple cultures through films, music and literature from hundreds of countries.

However, Dr. de Mel says that there is considerable opposition among an influential section of the society in Sri Lanka to English education being given to all.  One main criticism leveled against English medium education, she recalls was that children should learn in the mother tongue during their formative years. That is not an argument accepted by all.  The other objection raised was that the Constitution prohibited the use of English as a medium of instruction.

What the Constitution actually says in Article 21. (1): ‘A person shall be entitled to be educated through the medium of either of the National Languages’. “Entitled” does not mean it is a must. Dr. de Mel says in her article that nobody advocated making English medium education mandatory while jettisoning the national languages. 

The famous argument on why this proposal wouldn’t work was the issue of ‘lack of teachers’ proficient to teach English, the former Secretary to Education Ministry recollects and points out that there are excellent institutions in Sri Lanka to train teachers. “The four National Colleges of Education dedicated for English education from which about 600 English teachers pass out annually, the 30 Regional English Support Centres (RESC) distributed across every district, University English Language Teaching Units (ELTU) affiliated to Departments of English in Universities, and of course the premier institution mandated to train teachers, the National Institute of Education (NIE).”Dr. de Mel recalls apart from about five Ministers of Kumaratunga government the rest were either skeptical, critical or totally against the idea. “Interestingly, but not unexpectedly, some of the Ministers who opposed the idea, already had their children attending private or international schools which were teaching in English.”

In her article which was written in 2021, she says “The current government which promised to renew English teaching and also English medium education, has again shelved its plans. Once again, the same anti-English education lobby of two decades ago has won the battle. It’s interesting how the same wheel turns, 20 years later.” This would alert Minister Premajayantha on the imminent huddles on his way.