Sunday Times 2
Education: Politicos, keep off the grass
Politics without principles,
Education without character,
Science without humanity,
Commerce without morality—
Are not only useless but positively dangerous
- Sathya Sai Baba
Politics and education make a dangerous mix in Sri Lanka where it is said 94 of the 225 MPs are without the GCE O/L qualification. With the ‘People’s Representatives’ exercising the ‘sovereign power’ of the people and many of them being under the delusion that they are ‘pundits’ on education, the thousands of students in schools and universities — whose only hope for the future is their education — are facing grave risks.
Politicians, invited or not, are a part of school ceremonies where helpless principals and teachers have to grin and bear, while they strut about and pontificate. Children, many in their tender ages, are made to stand for hours in the blazing sun until sycophantic praises for politicians delivered by hapless principals and inanities are uttered by the political pundits.
Good news
This form of educational torture has been going on in schools since living memory. Last week, we read of a serious attempt being made to end it all. The National Education Commission (NEC), in an attempt to de-politicise the development of national education system, has recommended the prohibition of participation of elected representatives in school functions and ceremonies of any kind as a named guest.
Among the other recommendations of the NEC headed by Prof. Lakshman Jayatilleke is the prohibition of the naming of a school or any part of it after any person and to put an end to the use of school activities and functions in any venue for sales promotion and propaganda.
These are indeed salutary recommendations, but we hope that these recommendations, among others presented to President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, will not end up gathering dust in some archives, like very many commission reports.
People take to politics not only for material gains but also for ‘recognition’ which the Greek philosopher Plato identified as the ‘thymus’. This desire for recognition has continued down the ages and is evident in politicians of our day; for instance, the desire to berate principals, teachers and even little children with their inane thoughts at school ceremonies and elsewhere. The desire for recognition transforms itself into acute forms of narcissism, with harbours, airports, sports stadia, conference halls, schools built at the expense of the state being named after politicians.
This has deep implications in Sri Lankan politics, particularly when schools and their buildings are named after politicians who have not contributed in deed or funds of their own. It can create factions in schools, among parents who will influence students and ultimately it’s the students who are victimised.
British philosopher Bertrand Russell, writing on education, noted that political ideologies influence greatly the aims of education and concluded that the ultimate aim of education should be the welfare of students and not any other purpose. But the aim of the Sri Lankan politician is not the same as that of the British philosopher.
Politicians in textbooks
Another issue of the mix-up of politics and education surfaced last week with Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam appearing before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry to investigate corruption of the current administration.
According to a news report, former Educational Publications Acting Commissioner General I.M.K.B. Ilangasinghe told the Commission that Minister Kariyawasam had insisted upon him to include his photograph when printing school textbooks, considering the minister’s future wellbeing and existence. He told the commission that the minister had privately spoken to him about including a colour photograph of him in school textbooks.
Kariyawasam had rebuffed the statement of Ilangasinghe and said that Ilangasinghe had assured him by showing previous education ministers’ colour photos that had been included in textbooks. He said the only thing he had asked Ilangasinghe was whether it would cost more and he had been assured that there would be no extra cost and if there was a precedent he thought there would be no problem.
This columnist will refrain from commenting on this issue before the presidential commission but take up the broader issue of having politicians photographs or writing used in school books or any book publication at state expense as it happened during earlier regimes.
The fundamental question is: Of what benefit are photographs or writing of politicians in textbooks and other books printed at state expense to students?
May be it will be a source of inspiration for the student with similar political views of the politician or is a plain and simple admirer of the politico concerned. But what of those who do not hold similar views, who are not admirers or are political opponents?
Politicians in power have used state resources to their advantage, depending on their ideology. In the former Soviet Union and the pro-Soviet Bloc of socialist countries, pictures of their leaders were ubiquitous in newspapers, walls and public places. But in school textbooks? We confess our ignorance but it boggles our imagination to visualise the picture of Josef Stalin in a textbook carrying Euclid’s theorems.
Old stagers will recall textbooks they used (bought by their parents) by British authors and printed in Britain which certainly did not carry anything political — pictorial or in writing. Not even of the king and later the queen.
But all things are subject to change including textbooks and politics.
But as Bertrand Russell has pointed out, the aim of education differs with the ages. The aim of education of Sparta differed from that of Athens; the aim of education in Catholicism differed from Protestantism; the aim of Japanese education differed from the American edication and even individuals differ in formulating the aim of education. Political ideologies influence greatly the aims of education but the welfare of students should be the ultimate aim.