How to overcome the issues in Sri lankan education sector?

William Beattie who was a well-known Politician/Minister in Northern Ireland once said.

“The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think - rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men.” 

This quotation expresses the true objective of education in much simpler manner. If the final output of a system of education is a dull, unproductive, ROBOT like person who can’t do a single thing independently, there is no need for such kind of a system. Instead the education system must provide people who are resourceful in every possible manner, people who know what to do in a problematic situation and people who have creative ideas that can change the course of the world.

As Sri Lankans, though we have a 90 plus literacy rate(which is quite good figure for a developing nation) and we always try to boast about ourselves comparing it with other under developed countries, the statistics consistently shows some kind of a vast disaster is present in our education system. Every year an average percentage of 50% students out of the total number of students who sit for GCE O/L examination fail to fulfill the minimum qualification for Advanced level studies and out of the total number of students who sit for the GCE A/L examination, approximate percentage of 15-20% gain entrance to university education which is a significantly poor figure. This is not because all the others fail this examination, but the state universities are not capable of accommodating the total amount of students who fulfill the basic requirement for university entrance which is much larger percentage compared to that 15-20%. So what will happen to the 50% who fail to go for AL education?  Are they a set of blacklisted people who lack the ability to pass an ordinary examination? And what are the alternatives available for the people who miss higher education not because of their own fault? Those are some burning issues we are facing as a nation for few decades.

According to my opinion our education must be reformed from its very beginning which is the primary education. The most important step in our primary education is the grade five scholarship examination, according to me it is the reason for most of the problems present in the latter stages of the education. Most of the students try to do well in this to go to well recognized, urban school which has more facilities, but that will be good for those who do well  but not for the students who fall behind and do not get a chance to go for a better school. Unfortunately the students who fail to pass the O/L examination are from this set because most of the rural schools have good primary sections but not good junior secondary sections or A/L sections. Most of the schools lack the facilities such as Laboratories, libraries, buildings and also face a severe deficit of qualified A/L O/L teachers. So obviously the students find it difficult do well in the O/L examination and decide to end their school life as soon as possible. (I have personally witnessed this. Most of my childhood friends ended up in Army or Navy and I who passed the grade V exam am here composing this article). I think this method must be change immediately; the grade five scholarship examination must be eliminated from the system because it creates a huge gap between rural under developed schools and popular schools in the town and also puts a large amount of stress to the young heads in very small age. Instead every school must be gradually developed to equal state in such a way that any school has no superior facilities than any other. Every school must be provided with laboratory, library, sporting ,teaching facilities and other required facilities. Good teachers must be circulated among different schools periodically because some good teachers used to stay at same school for a long time. Then there won’t be a special rush to go for popular schools and also the popularity of rural schools will also be increased because the bright students will remain there. In order to increase the pass rates students’ performance should be well monitored by carrying out assignments; term tests etc. and they must be motivated to do well in exams by explaining them the benefits arise from good education. This can be achieved by a good counseling/carrier guidance programs.

The most controversial stage in our education system is the university education because significantly low number of students becomes eligible for higher education in Sri Lanka. Obviously the state university facilities are not enough, but is that the only excuse? What are the possible alternatives for those students who do not get the chance? It’s true that government carry out some programs such as technical colleges, vocational training centers, colleges of education etc  to help these students to find out their carriers, Students with enough monetary power might go for private educational institutes or even foreign universities. But what about the rest? According to my opinion privatization of higher education is the only efficient and timely solution for this issue. Then the next immediate question will be “What will happen to the free education then?”. But what will happen to it if the current course is continued for long because we are witnessing the violation of free education in front of our eyes. It’s not a secret that private educational institutes are already operating in the island who charge a huge amount of course fee that an average citizen can’t bear. Another thing is that If education is free it must not be limited to people who are bright enough, everyone who is willing to study must have access to higher education even he or she is from a rich family or poor family. The only solution for both of these issues is promoting the private universities/educational institutes in parallel with the development of state universities. Because privatization makes an entity more efficient, profitable and productive. For the ones with monetary power this system is ok, but how to give chance to poor students who are willing to go for higher education? For this scholarship schemes can be introduced. Students who are good at something (science, maths, dancing, singing etc) can be offered with those scholarships to study at well recognized private universities. The state university facilities must also be upgraded to match those private universities and local, foreign students should be attracted to study at them. The standard of education of private/state universities must be well monitored. Although anyone can study at a private university certain criterion must be used to access the eligibility of a student for a given degree program. Otherwise there will be a lot of unskilled graduates all over the place. This is a system carried out by most the countries in the world because only state universities alone cannot fulfill the huge demand for higher education. There must be an alternative and with no doubts it will be the private universities. Another advantage will be that a lot money which is driven abroad for the students who are at foreign universities will remain in the island and it will be good for our economy as well.