This is not the way to go to school!

The school admission problem is fast becoming a can of worms involving many a circuitous issue. Is it a matter for the Judiciary? Does the Judiciary have the constitutional and technological competence to solve it? Where do we go if the judicial formula is not acceptable? How far do the suggested solutions satisfy the dictates of equality?

On and on, the debate goes basically involving the interests of the haves and the have-nots. As the solution desired by the stakeholders is subjective, there is no sign of arriving at a universally accepted formula for admissions. In the meantime the date for admissions is closing in on the authorities.

One solution appears to be to pull the rug from under the feet of the protagonists forthwith, by stopping admissions to the primary sections of the national schools and weaning out the sections themselves in due course. This would entail the provision of more facilities in the available primary schools and a corresponding increase in their accommodation.

If this is done, the vexed question of admissions to national schools will be a thing of the past. However it is important to ensure that no primary school bears the name of a national school even by implication. Admissions to national schools thereafter should be only on the results of the Fifth Standard Scholarship Exam.

The haves will no doubt rush their progeny to 'international schools' on the rebound but that inroad into the free education scheme is a scourge of globalization that is far too late in the day to rectify. Nevertheless there appears to be no cause for apprehension. At the portal of admission to adult life, products of free education should outshine the 'internationals', if they had been properly selected and adequately tutored to overcome the 'tuition menace'.

As the first central school product to enter the then Ceylon Civil Service, I competed with hundreds of contestants from 5 Star Public Schools.

By Somapala Gunadheera, Via e-mail.