Educational Reforms: Urgent National Need
By Oliver A. Ileperuma –October 16, 2015
Prof. Oliver A. Ileperuma
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance”- Robert Orben
Dr. Ranga Kalansooriya’s letter on the incompetent education system in our country should be an eye-opener to those in the education administration. The entire system is corrupt to the core and it is worthwhile to examine the reasons for this deterioration. The colonial educational system which we inherited from the British has not been reformed to suit our own needs and has not changed according to the global changes in education. Instead of completely overhauling this system we have simply tinkered with it in an ad hoc manner at different times during the post-colonial period.
Part of the blame for the sorry state of affairs should go to the so called educationists who have been at the helm of matters in the past. One particular instance is the removal of the practical examinations from the GCE (A.L.) science stream by a former secretary who had a Ph.D. in education. As a result, we are producing school leavers in sciences who cannot even fix a wire to a plug base. Our education from the kindergarden to A.L. is teacher centred and there is no role for active student learning. Teachers hate been questioned in class by students because of their own sheer incompetency and exceptional students are not identified and excellence not promoted. Selection of students as school prefects and for other extracurricular activities is not based on merit but by favouratism. Children of parents who reward the teachers with gifts are selected over others. Students do not even attend classes regularly when they come to A.L. and they get all their education at tuition classes. May be the government can consider abolishing A.L. classes from such schools if this trend continues. Also, tuition classes should be banned during school hours and 80% attendance should be made mandatory for giving admission to sit the examination. Attending tuition classes during school hours leads to other sociological problems such as these students loitering in parks and other nefarious activities.
Societies are shifting to knowledge based systems in the globalised economies and there is an urgent need to restructure our educational system to suit this trend. India has successfully achieved these goals through its higher education system which has risen to this challenge and the main driving force behind India’s recent economic boom can be attributed to the system which provides relevant trained manpower such as engineers and scientists. We are far behind getting bogged down mainly due to shutting the doors behind a lot of educated youths who qualify to enter a university. Furthermore, our archaic and rigid school education is responsible for not producing marketable graduates. Read More