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Save our education system from the abyss it has fallen into
By Tara de Mel
A recent headline in the press highlighted that 60,000 children of Sri Lanka are not enrolled in school. The majority of this group are from the North-East, the conflict-ridden part of the country.

If these statistics are to be believed, not only is this an alarming situation, but it is also a strong wake-up call to the authorities that be and to all of us who care about the subject of education.

This news item made me recall the recent seminar held on International Human Rights Day, where the importance of introducing Human Rights Education into the school curriculum was stressed by both keynote speakers, the Minister for Human Resources Development, Education & Cultural Affairs and the former Supreme Court judge Mark Fernando.

On that day, in my address, I emphasized the importance of recognizing the right to education (primary, secondary & tertiary) to all children. The point made in the lead story, was indeed my point of concern on International Human Rights Day i.e. that ensuring the right to accessing and completing a quality education, was the primary obligation of the state.

Successive Governments, in this country, together with international development partners (better known as the donor community) have fought hard to realize this elusive dream. There have been 'upsides' and 'downsides' in this endeavour. But the grim reality, is that we have not succeeded in all our efforts.

Universal Basic Education
First, let us look at the context in which many of us in the developing world practise Universal Basic Education. I am referring to the provision of quality education to a child in the first five years of schooling. This is in addition to the 2-3 years of early childhood care and education he/she is entitled to.

Although, we have been privileged to be the role model for South Asia indeed the model nation for the developing world with our handsome figures for literacy and primary school enrolment - can we confidently and truthfully say that we have achieved quality? When we address the issue of quality, it must be very clear that this goes beyond the bricks and mortar of school buildings. It goes right into the quality of the teacher, the content of the curriculum and the practical dimensions of teaching aids.

An essential component of defining our parameters of basic education is not to just limit it to the formal sector. The reality of addressing the educational needs of both rich and poor, urban and rural, handicapped and normal, girls and boys - has to be looked at, as a primary obligation. It really is a question of bringing education to the people. Not just taking people to education.

This is where the stretching of one’s imagination and innovative skills, must be at the highest. This is the single biggest challenge in our primary education sector. And enabling the achievements of rights of all such individuals would indeed fulfill the requirements of the first building blocks of socio-economic development.

Then we have the compelling demands placed on us, in enabling the 'right' to accessing and completing secondary and post-secondary/tertiary education.

Every person has the right
Some readers may remember that Article 26, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "every person has a right to education:".... and that, "Every person must have equal access to higher education as a function of their respective merits".

The right is abundantly clear. The debate concerns its implementation. We all know of Sri Lanka's dismal performance in this area of education. Not only do we deprive the large majority of senior school leavers, of formalized/institutionalized tertiary education every year - but more importantly out of those school leavers who qualify to enter university we offer placements to only about 15%. We are more than aware, that while we enrol just about 2% of our 18-year-olds into university, South Asia on average enrols 8%, Malaysia 12%, Thailand 19% and Singapore 32%.

The challenges of providing comprehensive access to University Education to all our qualified 18 year olds, are diverse and complex. Depriving talented and bright students of such a fundamental human right is tragic. We have dearly paid, over the years, with the consequences of our myopic and somewhat self-destructive policies of not expanding our tertiary education opportunities - both in and out of the state sector.

By this we have also sacrificed value addition to individuals, to our economy and to our community at large. Providing the right to quality education to all, in those relevant age groups, makes way for the construction of stable democratic societies.

While we have enshrined in our Constitution the 'right' of citizens to free and compulsory education, and while we have gone further and introduced legislation to ensure that compulsory education becomes a reality for all (i.e. Compulsory Education Act 1998), yet, we are still far away from achieving our goal.

Sustaining the policies
How then can we implement and sustain our well polished and well articulated education policies? For these same education policies that form the basis of our planning - we must ask ourselves to what extent have we prepared the ground and to what extent are we prepared to devote funding, to ensure effective implementation and impact at the grassroot level? To what extent are we prepared to set aside, at the very least, 3-4% of GDP on education, and at the very least 1% for Higher Education?

It is more than disappointing to note that in 2004, the budgetary allocations for education have been significantly slashed, from the figures for 2003. We often forget and relegate the marginalized groups - those who are most vulnerable - in achieving access and inclusion to education systems. It is such groups that fall through the 'cracks' of our policies and remain un-included. The children highlighted in the newspaper lead story belong to such groups. They are indeed victims of circumstances beyond their control.

Thus it becomes critical for governments and their leaders to understand the urgency of removing neglects, minimizing discrepancies, and eliminating inadequacies, in the provision of access to all those requiring a quality education. It is also critical for Government to adopt innovative strategies to address this issue of providing quality education in an environment devoid of partisan politics.

I say this in the context of the most recent initiative concerning education, mooted by the IMF and an influential section of the business community of this country. Their proposal to establish a National Education Task Force (NETF) co-chaired by the President and the Prime Minister, mandated to spearhead a process of implementing an Education Reform Agenda, is indeed a laudable idea.

Through this initiative it was intended to develop a bipartisan, strategic approach to address the key issues facing the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of education. The two leaders were to give direction and guidance to a joint Task Force, comprising nominees of both the President and the Prime Minister.

Bipartisan manner
The many discussions at which I was present (including the meeting of the IMF Resident Representative with the President), were thought-provoking. They generated much excitement and hope. It appeared that education was finally going to be approached in a true bipartisan manner, a much desired policy for this country. It was also most refreshing to hear that this proposal had met with the approval of both leaders, and many of the Cabinet Ministers - all of whom had felt that this was the ultimate answer to this burgeoning problem of modernizing our education system, giving prime focus to achieving excellence with equity.

Unfortunately the NETF has yet not seen the light of day, after over six months of debate and discussion. The newspaper story of the 60,000 kids is but only one of the many tragedies facing our young people. My experience tells me that 60,000 is just the tip of a huge iceberg. If we leave aside the North-East children for a moment, we will have to face the reality of the children out of school in the plantation sector, those in the remote parts of districts like Moneragala, Badulla, Polonnaruwa and also many more.

The tragedy is not just that we have not been successful in providing quality schooling for these kids. It is also because every year large sums of money are set aside from foreign aid (specially through the World Bank, ADB and UNICEF funds) precisely to address the concerns of such marginalized groups. And we are yet to keep the pledges we are making at prestigious national and international forums, ad nauseam.

Tackling the challenges of reclaiming our education system from the abyss to which it has fallen is a phenomenal task. Sadly these are challenges that traditional administrators can't cope with, that academics often ignore and politicians pay lip-service to. But it is to these same challenges that parents demand solutions - and rightfully so.

Moreover it is these same issues concerning the quality of education, or rather the lack of its effective delivery, that place in jeopardy, our human resource development and indeed the progress of our nation.

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