Priority to develop rural schools on the fast-track

English, IT and a hot meal

By Feizal Samath

A World Bank team is due this month and the government hopes to present them a proposal for funding purposes, to help strengthen the teaching of English, mainly conversational English.

"By the end of the year, Education Minister Susil Premjayanth will present a total package for Cabinet approval so that we have the English medium in stages in the next two years covering the entire system," noted Education Ministry Secretary, Dr. Tara de Mel.

Currently English as the medium of instruction is confined to 'A' level science classes in around 500 schools. Next year it will be expanded to cover 2,000 arts and commerce schools.

But it is a stormy path for education authorities as opposition is growing over the plan to introduce English as a medium of instruction in schools. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the opposition United National Party (UNP) have asked for a Parliamentary debate to look at the issues involved in the decision, which means students can be taught in English, in addition to Sinhala and Tamil, for the first time in several decades.

Dr. de Mel however points out, in an interview with The Sunday Times, that the need for English not only came after an indepth study of the situation but also from students who feel they are deprived of this facility.

A survey of 'A' level students last November, found that nearly 25 percent of the participants wanted to study in English if there was an opportunity. The survey raised another issue - why is it that only the 40,000-odd students in international schools and a few private ones have access to English while the others don't have this opportunity?

"There are many Sri Lankan children in private schools who are sitting the local GCE 'O'level and 'A'level examinations in the English medium. But children in government schools are not able to do this," said the Education Secretary, discussing among other issues the new education reforms, the introduction of a hot meal for poor students and plans to introduce more foreign languages in the classroom.

This year education authorities, in addition to strengthening English language teaching and bringing in Information Technology as a subject, want to introduce the teaching of foreign languages like French, Japanese and German in schools. This is mainly aimed at employability in the burgeoning hotel trade for instance where the knowledge of foreign languages is an advantage.

The Ministry this month began a scheme where a hot cooked meal is provided by a Samurdhi beneficiary to "the poorest of the poor" students in 120 schools across the island. The programme is in line with school feeding programmes in many Asian countries.

The Samurdhi beneficiary in and around the selected schools will prepare the meals and give them to Grade One children, with funds provided by the Ministry of Plan Implementation.

Dr. de Mel agrees that there is a gulf between facilities in urban and rural schools but notes that the government is taking care of this disparity under a long-term plan. 

"Our priority is to develop rural schools on the fast-track and a divisional schools programme was started with this in mind in 1998, where the idea was to create one model school in every divisional secretariat division. We are looking at a total package - infrastructure, human resources, IT etc."

The government put in a lot of money for infrastructure development in 341 schools earmarked for this purpose where money was invested in physical infrastructure like buildings, labs, libraries. "We then took 134 out of these - 10 to 12 per province - and put them on the fast-track development plan where we topped up the physical infrastructure with human resources," she added.

All those schools have their complement of teachers, a fully fledged library and a resource centre with IT etc. Private sector companies chipped in - helping with human resource development, training the principals and teachers in leadership, organisational skills and management.

Fast-track development of these 134 schools will be completed by next month after which the fast-track development programme will cover the balance 207 schools in a development phase that will start in August and end in December the same year. Next year, the Education Ministry plans to target another 300 schools for similar development, she said.

"Our main aim is to ensure that rural schools gradually reach the standards of bigger schools and finally be on par with them," Dr. de Mel added. She further noted that the teaching of IT has also become a priority because IT and spoken or conversational English are among the key requirements of the private sector today when employing individuals.

A recent Ministry survey found that there were nearly 500 schools that have more than five computers each and the ministry, for a start, plans to introduce IT - in these schools - as a separate subject not for university education but as a general subject like general English.

The authorities have not ignored the needs of the country's 200,000-odd state school teachers as their workload has increased tremendously under the reforms. Salaries have been increased or revised and brought on par with those of other government servants.

"We have placed teachers on the top of our new initiatives. We have to motivate them, we have to give them the strength and courage to work on new reforms," Dr. de Mel, who is also an advisor to President Chandrika Kumaratunga on social issues, said.

Teacher welfare centres with residential facilities to help those at the periphery unable to find proper accommodation, and special housing loans are being planned. Training needs have been identified and looked into. The welfare centres would also act as resource centres with a library and facilities to conduct regular seminars and workshops to update teachers on new trends in education and teaching aids.

Child protection is a key part of the new reforms. Together with the National Child Protection Authority, the Ministry has set up units to monitor the ban on corporal punishment. "We have sent out a new circular - replacing a decades-old one on corporal punishment - titled ensuring discipline. We are showing teachers and principals mechanisms of Ensuring Discipline without resorting to bullying and corporal punishment," she said.

School programmes dealing with issues like alcohol, tobacco and drugs have also been designed where children form into small groups and work out ways to avoid being lured into these vices.

This month, the Ministry is starting a pilot project in 100 schools where students will be taught life skills and to cope with problems like suicides, teenage pregnancies, abortions etc., guided by a group of specialist doctors.

Another part of the re forms which was never implemented but is likely to get underway this year is for big schools with a student population of over 2,500 to be run by a school management council, as it is a difficult task for the principal alone. The council would consist of the principal, parents, teachers and community leaders.

Monitoring the reforms will be a key element in the success of the government's new education initiatives and according to a study completed last week on the reforms undertaken in 1999 and 2000, in grades one and two, there appeared to be a significant improvement in the children in comparison to those who did not go through the reforms. 

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