News
Ability cannot be judged by exams: Former Principal Ladies’ College
View(s):Addressing the gathering at the Annual Prize Giving of S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia held on Friday (18), Nirmali Wickremesinghe former Principal of Ladies’ College and Member of the Board of Governors of S. Thomas’ College said, “Examinations is a poor way of judging a person’s ability. Through it one fails to identify the ‘magic’ in the individual.
“All children have a ‘magic’ within them that needs to be discovered as it is of great importance.
L to R:Dr. Wickremesinghe, College Warden Prof. Indra de Soyasa and Mrs. Wickremesinghe. Pic by Athula Devapriya
“Education is magic. You got to wave those wands and create a place where it is so exciting that when you get up in the morning you feel good to go to school because there is so much more exciting things in this institution,” she said adding that there was no way examinations could give that to students.
As the father of free education in the country C. W. W. Kannangara said, she reminisced, “Life does not begin and end with exams. ‘Heart and hands’ she said play a vital role in education.
“The heart is the most important. There is no magic in creating an unhappy environment for yourself. Because if you are in the rollercoaster that you should come first, you should get all the prizes and beat another you are not going to be a happy person. You are also going to make others unhappy,” she said stressing on the importance of the ‘heart’.
She added we are engulfed in an examination oriented system that causes a tendency to forget accessing.
“Do not ever feel that you have not made it, if you are capable of understanding something in an alternative method, through drama, drawing or music. It is important that our education system recognises these things and give students the feeling that they are individuals. That the world does not depend anymore on the logical, mathematical and verbal linguistics.” She added that more than IQ, the world looks for EQ (emotional quotient) and SQ (spiritual quotient) and Musical intelligence.
“The whole world is open to you now students,” she explained.
Warden of the College Prof. Indra de Soysa drew attention to the various achievements of students during the past year.
“One of our key tasks in the future is to move away from rote learning and build appreciation for subject; promote independent thinking and independent learning. Boys must find the subjects they study interesting and fun,” he said adding that the school had initiated several programmes to ensure better performances academically.
“Among the steps we have taken are instituting remedial classes aimed at getting the bottom of the class up to speed which is based on the premise that no boy should be left behind and secondly, supplement the state curriculum with auxiliary activity that would build programmes to gain appreciation for the subject.”
S.J. Dias bagged the prize for Best All Round Student who had qualified to enter university in Sri Lanka and the Victoria Gold Medal for The Best All Round Student.
R. Thushanthan was rewarded for his academic achievements during the year and Y. R. Jayasuriya was awarded the prize for ‘early promises of exhibiting human excellence and virtue in adult life’.
Dr. Narmmasena Wickremesinghe, husband of Nirmali Wickremesinghe was also present at the event.