Parents falsifying school documents the biggest problem, says Director

By L.B. Senaratne

One of the main dilemmas education officials face is that of parents tendering false documents to get their children admitted to leading schools, Central Provincial Director of Education D.M.J. Dassanayake said.

He said that the first problem and obstacle in education in the country was the admittance of children to the Primary sections and both Principals and Education Officers know that parents tender false documents for this purpose.

Provincial Education Director Dassanayake was deputizing for the Deputy Minister of Education Nirmala Kotalawala at the 127th Prize Giving of Kandy Girls’ High School in Kandy.

Mr. Dassanayake said that 5,000 students are seeking entry to the primary grade through false documents.He said that during his schooldays there were only about 33,000 sitting for the Advanced Level examination but today around three lakhs of students sit this examination. Parents try to admit their children to the most popular schools by hook or by crook and they do everything possible by flouting the law. The next problem commences when after the children are admitted to schools. If one has the time to overhear the parents at a school gate where they gather until the children return, one would be surprised that they seek to know from each other which is the best tuition class their children could attend.

He said this was the next problem. If one looks at the backs of school children, the heavy weight of the bags is enough. But the parents, especially the mothers, after school time take the children to tuition classes in order to be successful in the Year Five Scholarship examination.

The Provincial Director said that this is a contest and the children are pushed to a point of ‘selfishness’ and anger against his or her own classmates. He is looking towards competition against his own classmates and the end result is selfishness and anger towards society.

Director Dassanayake said that he had travelled on official work and he has never seen a country where there were tuition classes. He quipped that he saw an advertisement in a Supermarket in Hong Kong where a tuition class was announced, perhaps, he said it must be a Sri Lankan.

He said that all, including teachers and education officials, were taking their children to these tuition classes without knowing the damage that they were inflicting on their children, the society and in particular to the country, where they were breeding a set of children bent towards selfishness, anger and the attitude of even tearing the leaves of books from brighter children to gain their own ends.

He said that the Deputy Director of the National Institute of Education Dr. Ms. Leelamani Ginige, who presented the Keynote address, should try to take a walk on a Saturday along the Kandy Lake pavement. She would be surprised, not walk, since students come in hundreds after tuition classes.

The Director said that a girl is brought up in a different atmosphere in Sri Lanka, based on cultural attitudes, but with this set up the cultural attitude of 2,500 years has been uprooted. No one has the right to do so but it is happening in various ways by even through the media.