Open Letter To All Parents: For The Sake Of Quality Education
Prof. Nedra Karunaratne
Today this country is facing a dilemma over education at all levels. The universities have been closed for over three months due to the academic staff strike. Previously it was disfunctional for a month because the non-academic staff staged a strike. The students have been at home for more than four months. The clock is still ticking the hours away wasting the lives of thousands of young adults in their prime. Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Who is fiddling while the long established successful education system is showing signs of bursting into flames? What measures are needed for reforming the system to re-establish the once hallowed portals of learning? As a parent, how much do you know and what do you feel?
Primary education
It is known that the primary schools in most rural areas are running at bare minimum. The most affected are the rural poor who do not have the means of sending their children to schools with better facilities miles away from home. When the Grade V scholarship results were released, it was heartening to note that the first place was shared by a rural child from the hill country with a more privileged child from a prestigious school from down south. The hardships this rural child had borne to access a school from her home is unthinkable for those used to a comfortable city life attending city schools within their reach (2 miles or a few school van miles away!). That too, in order for this girl to attend the closest school and not a National school that many fight to get their children in. The proud parents of the child from the city school had the opportunity to get an audience with the president. What of the poor child from the village? This is a good example of the privileged having facilities and the means to attain their objectives, while the poor are left to wonder where their next meal is coming from.
In the process of writing this article, the sentiments expressed by Prof. Carmen Wickramagamage regarding scholarship examinations grabbed my attention. “A tale of two kids and future of free education in SL” in the island of 3rd October 2012 is a story relating the anguish of both parents and little children subjected to a useless process in the name of education. It narrates the two cases where support (pressure exerted in many cases) given by parents in the case of the child from the city and the natural ability of a persevering and enterprising child from the village had yielded the same result. The question here is why parents take such pleasure in advocating excellence at this young age. The inherent abilities and creativity are suppressed with no room for free thinking when examinations dominate the life of the child. The blame should partly go to the education ministry for making this a compulsory examination. It used to be optional and only for the purpose of selecting the bright from underprivileged areas for better educational facilities in the cities. In todays context where no child who fails in a class from year 1 to year 10 is kept back, why subject children to this unnecessary exercise depriving many of a happy and carefree childhood. This is the only period in our life time that we can really say we had no burdens to carry. But can the children of today anticipate happy childhood memories? Parents please do not deprive your children of their fundamental right to a hassle free acquisition of knowledge useful for their future life. The Grade V examination does nothing to enhance useful knowledge or inculcate character traits. On the contrary, all it does is to create a hostile environment between class mates and over ambitious parents.
