When a child is born in Sri Lanka, the first thing parents do is start dreaming about who my child will be when he/she has grown up. Most of the time what parents think is, I hope my child would be a Doctor or an Engineer. The Sri Lankan education system is also obviously constructed by one such a person who dreamed about making kids Doctors or Engineers. Why I am saying this is because of the way that the prevailing system directs students and make them the victims of the system.
According to what I read about SL(Sri Lanka) education system, it has a history of approximately 2300 years. But the major reformation of the system came up with the establishment of Royal College, Colombo following the recommendations by the Colebrook Commission. After the establishment of Royal College-Colombo some more boy-schools were founded, St.Thomas College-Mount Lavina and Trinity College-Kandy are some of these. In 1931 Dr.C.W.W.Kannangara took initiatives for free education in SL and in 1942 the dream of free education became a reality, providing a great opportunity for everyone to receive their education without spending money.
In any country, the quality and the focus of the Education System play a major role in its development process or more generally speaking, the future. If the education system can hunt for the hidden talents of an individual and capitalize on them in order to make his career a sparkling one, then that I see is a successful education system. Nevertheless, most of the time that attribute is not seen in our (SL) prevailing system. This leads to heaps of problems such as unemployment, unbalance in wealth distribution and social status differences. Moreover, we can see the education system as a major factor which governs the mentality of the society.
First, let us take a look at the education a student gain up to ordinary level (11 years of education). From year 1 to year 5 the education system is mainly focused on teaching the basics of reading, writing and mathematics. Hence, after the first 5 years, the majority of students can read and write fluently. Therefore we can come to a conclusion that the literacy index of SL which was at 93%(highest in Asia) in 2003 is a sole outcome of a successful preliminary education(first 5 years) system. After that, the education system focuses on complex concepts and tries to go in depth in almost in all he subjects. Here, the question arises... Do all the students need to go in depth in all the subjects? Is this their will? The system always fails to answer such questions.
A student who wishes to become a painter, singer, dancer or a football player should learn about matrices, polynomials and graphs. I see no logic behind it. What I feel is that it is a waste of time. If there is an approach for them to specialize on the field they like to focus on, that would do much help to their future. In that case, it would be much useful if they can focus on simple mathematics and work more on what they like to do. Someone who is willing to become an Engineer or a Doctor can go in depth in mathematics and science. We all know that some people don't have enough intellect to solve complex mathematical problems which is not their fault but the way that their brains work. For a student who doesn’t have that intellectual capacity, teaching complex concepts is a mean of mental torture.
People might argue that this specialization program starts only after ordinary levels and that is what advance level is all about. But I disagree with that concept since, 11 years is too much time for basic education. Instead the system should focus on developing a career path to the fellow students. After 11 years of so called structured education if someone is still trying to figure out or still have no idea whatsoever on what to do for a living, that system is obviously a failure. Therefore rather than torturing students with complex mathematical or scientific concepts for a long period such as 6 years, if they've been taught on a specific career, they could have become successful individuals who can earn their living.
The mindset of students is framed insanely so that they don’t even realize the ultimate destination of the education that they have been subjected to. Nevertheless, students go to school and majority spend time there hanging around with friends without adding value to their lives. (I am not denying the fact that even hanging out with friends adds value to life; I’m primarily concerned on the ultimate goal of the prevailing education system.) Sri Lankan students never give any thought on how to earn some money or how to start a business while they are in schools. Due to this ideology SL always has a scarcity of a dynamic work force. We are wasting valuable energy of our young adults and relying more on matured personals. That I see is one of the major reasons for fewer innovations in SL.
To be continued…
Thanks for reading,
Best regards,
Pradeepa…
