The President wants to bring down teachers from India to teach English in Sri Lanka. Why do we have to do this? It is because of the politics we have had in the past. “Administration in Sinhala within 24 hours”. This got votes then.
Now the time has come when we have to seek the assistance of another country which did not make the mistake that we made. At the time this backward step was taken, with many seeing it as a bad decision even then, the general question being asked in defence of the misguided decision was: “With whom are you going to converse in English?” Instead of making an attempt to learn the language, the people who could not converse in English thought it best to discourage the teaching and learning of English. We, and the younger generation in particular, are now paying the penalty for that disastrous language decision.
Consequently, there is a huge demand in Sri Lanka for this world language and, like mushrooms, tutories teaching English have sprung up all over the city and country. Unfortunately, not all of these tutories are staffed with teachers competent in the teaching of English. Unlike Latin, English is a living language, and we have to use it and speak it in order to become fluent in the language.
Ironically, students in Sri Lanka are given a training in English only after their secondary education, when they enter university. At university, they are taught general English for about three or four years. But many university students do not take this English language programme seriously. Even after completing the course, university graduates cannot converse in or write proper English. They feel disadvantaged, because they lack the “kaduwa”, and they are secretly envious of those who can communicate fluently in English.
We all know that politics is a dirty game. Educated people who take to politics should not deliberately mislead the masses. We must learn to compete with countries that are doing better than us, especially now, when the world has become a global village. |
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