Extended school hours
proposed by Bandula
New school times – 7.30 am to 3.30 pm - will come into effect next year starting with a limited number of schools, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena has said.
Addressing a meeting of education officials and teachers in Kurunegala this week, he said schools which begin sessions at the usual time of 7.30 a.m would close only at 3.30 pm. He said teachers enjoy three months’ holiday and work till 1.30 pm at present while all other government servants and public sector employees work till 4.30 p.m.
He said that this new move would help teachers to devote more time to cover the syllabus and to impart their knowledge to students. |
As concern grew over the plight of education in Sri Lanka particularly the overloading of work for children and compulsory tuition, a poll by the Business Times (BT) this week confirmed the anxiety of parents, students and administrators over the education crisis and the stress on kids.
The BT polls follows an extensive panel discussion on the same issues last week by a group of experts representing administrators, parents and doctors which concluded that today’s education structure is leading to the creation of a generation of misfits in society. (See last week’s report in the BT)
The poll asked three questions: (1) Is the education system facing a crisis today given the tough syllabus’ and examinations? (2) Are school children over-burdened with work leading up to the OL/Als examinations? and (3) Has tuition, which most children take today, become essential rather than an option because of the present system? (Results in the graphic)
The poll, conducted in collaboration with the Colombo-based Research Consultancy Bureau (RCB), a market and social research agency, amongst over 800 respondents including street interviews, found the majority responding with a ‘Yes’ answer to all three questions. Each question found more than 65 % responding with a ‘Yes’ answer.
Respondents ranged from parents, students, administrators, doctors, government officials and from various sections of civil society with many providing additional comments as to why they felt the system was wrong. One respondent, during a street interview conducted by RCB said that “tuition will become necessary for children with the appointment of the biggest tuition master as the Education Minister and now no one can stop the tuition business.” The reference was to Education Minister Bandula Gunawardene, an economics teacher-turned politician. The Minister has rejected claims that he is still in the tuition business having sold his Sussex tutory at Nugegoda some years ago.
Comments poured in from respondents on email and from street interviews reflecting the concern that today’s parents and civil society have over the education system, the stress on their kinds, the structure and role in the country’s development.
Here is a sample of the comments:
National plan needed
- There should be an integrated national plan formulated for the development of the country. These models should cater to such a national plan and not be education merely for the sake of acquiring knowledge.
- Academic education on a stand alone basis is irrelevant. There should be skills development in the various trades, including development of the arts, crafts, music etc., in as much as there is investment and development in cricket.
- The need to retrain graduates alone demonstrates the dire straits and the failure of the educational system
- Unemployable graduates on one hand, with so many jobs advertised with no suitable candidates – there lies the problem.
- Education is not the assimilation of knowledge or the acquisition of titles, but a formation of character.
Musical chairs with the syllabus
Our school system is defined and dictated by whoever is ‘running the show’ at the Education Department or the Ministry at that time.
Unfortunately our administrators travel overseas and try to emulate the system in that country and copy everything that they see, instead of taking the gist of what they learn and apply what is suited to our country and the infrastructure that is in place. The syllabus seem to change with the change of each administration, due to showmanship of those at the helm! A good example is when our children are asked to follow the O/L in the English medium with text books that are in Sinhala.
The syllabus is outdated with outdated examples, outdated case studies, and an attempt made to shove down the throats of students throat the maximum information possible, whether relevant or irrelevant. Thus we are creating a generation of mindless drones, who are unable to think out of the box, unable to think creatively and simply do not know how to use common sense to figure out solutions to simple problems!
Comments from RCB’s street poll
- Current syllabus has no value and it is not important at all.
- Tuition will become necessary for children with the appointment of the biggest tuition master as the Education Minister and now no one can stop tuition business.
- Tuition is not necessary for children who study in schools properly.
- Tuition is essential to gain a practical knowledge on subject matter.
- Tuition directs children to face the exam with a set target.
- Tuition is created by governments as large scale business
- The education structure has made tuition essential for education.
- Tuition has been made essential big business by governments
- Government schools gives the syllabus and conducts exams, but it’s the tuition master who gives all the knowledge in subject matter to the child.
- The tuition master is behind the moulding of children to get high marks and the schools use this to claim credit.
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If you look at some of the text books at the open university, you would probably see that the cases and examples cited are from the 1980’s or the 1990’s. How relevant is that in 2011?
It is sad how the new generation that is to take this country forward will have two to three degrees but have no knowledge of culture, no creativity and simply have no clue how to even issue a receipt at a tea boutique if the computer breaks down!
Effectiveness
However tough the syllabus may be, I always wonder whether it is effective in preparing an individual to successfully face the challenges in the contemporary world in competing with the students who follow IB or any other international standard education system. I have mostly have come across graduates from Sri Lankan universities being overrun by less qualified ones due to the nature of the education they each have received.
System too archaic
The issue is not about how tough the syllabus is; it’s about an archaic system, how poor the teaching tools are, and how non productive the assessment system is which makes tutorials a necessity and studies a chore. I have spoken to many kids who have moved from local to international schools and they say they find the studies there easier. Trust me the syllabus for international schools is more intensive. But it’s the way concepts are presented that makes it easier to understand and more interesting - having said that I do not think even international schools are perfect. Poor teacher training, poor pay scales - some local school teachers get paid less than Colombo maids -, poor funding, excessive centralization; the issues are huge and many While the government seems to spending billions on infrastructure relatively not much attention is given to building the true pillars of our future.
Z score
Elementary and higher education has been messed up in Sri Lanka. Admission to grade one is all politicised and then comes university admission which is highly competitve and again politicised. Due to the Z score admissions in place, the most eligible candidates gets weeded out and the secod tier candiates get in.
The so called ‘International Schools’ and degree awarding ‘commercialised foreign universites’ are the net beneficiaries of our systemic deficiencies as evident from the rate they have been mushrooming.
Passing exams
The entire education system has to be revamped. Today in Sri Lanka we have an education system that trains the entire student population to pass exams: They all got the ‘Text Book Intelligence’ but nothing beyond that. This is very clear when you see the calibre of the local graduates. After a 4-year program they walk out with a certificate but without any tangible skill or knowledge that potentially makes them employable.
Reforms
Our education needs fundamental reforms qualitatively and quantitatively. We must introduce subjects that the students can think beyond the books and focus on self reliance. More importantly we must train them for non traditional professions that are very much in demand as opposed to blindly demanding they be professionals where the majority fights for few jobs or clamour to be doctors and engineers.
Practical thinking
- The system does not allow the child to think practically. It caters to book worms and then how could these kids fit into society? We do not cultivate each child strengths.
- Children have lost their childhood because of over-burdening them with ‘unwanted’ material. Every tuition master is trying to beat his competitor by ‘inundating innocent children with all what they know’, whether the material is relevant or not. This requires a lot more time depriving them to have a childhood. They have no time for sports or any extra-curricular activities.
- Each individual is not the same; they have their own talents. Some are very good in exams while others are good in practical work. Therefore the system should not be based on 100% exams. There should be a mix of practical work and exams and students must have the flexibility to decide what they want to do not, what the system wants them to do. The choice should be there’s.
- There is so much disparity between urban schools and rural schools. Without competent teachers the students in underprivileged schools face immense challenges to meet the higher demands required by new syllabus.
- The local syllabus is not tought because compared to other education systems Sri Lanka’s education system has always been a lightly taken syllabus. So to match up with the international standards and taking our students to be on par with that level the current changes that they have done is good. But it needs more commitment from teachers and parents. Teachers don’t have a proper knowledge to teach the students. That’s why we are facing a crisis.
- The education system is crisis riddled. The syllabuses are not only tough, they are also so heavy that teachers are unable to spend sufficient time on teaching. Hence, the acute need for tuition and loads of homework.
Poor kids and tuition
- Poor kids are running from one tuition class to another.
- If the work load is less in the O/L then students have more free time, where they can be directed to sports, societies and social work which will build their skills, character building and make them confident, capable, healthy, presentable individuals. Also they will be well rounded individuals.
- Some of the poor who are left out try their best even to get into a ‘leaky boat’ to find some employment abroad as the economy cannot find jobs for them; some of the women among them become slaves in some Middle Eastern home while their children back home are abused even by their fathers and uncles.
- Most of those who pass out from the local universities stay unemployed for long periods are shunned by the private sector as they are not competent/not proficient in English to work in a tough business setup, go on strike often to show their anger and are ultimately absorbed into the already over-crowded public sector which is incompetent most of the time due to politicization.
- School children are over-burdened due to the competition among their parents not because of the work leading up to the O/L or A/L examinations. If the child is doing well in studies, he/she knows how to manage the educational lifestyle with their day-to-day life.
- School children are overburdened with work, and caught up in the rat race. Their pleas for help are manifested in the teenage suicides and mental breakdowns that plague our nation. Of course, the connection between the two is not acknowledged or recognized
Lucrative business
- Tuition has become a lucrative business for the masters earning them millions of tax-free money and not properly taxes
- Children these days either study and go for tuition, and watch TV as recreation. What happened to playing cricket with the kids from down the road or going to the park to play with your friends? Kids have no exercise which is one of the main reasons why most kids these days suffer from childhood obesity. It is the crime to see what’s happening to our kids.
- Mainly due to the standard of teaching and teachers have declined to such low level. Private tuition has become essential fill the gap.
- Tuition is taken as a mandatory thing by parents and it has become a trend. There is a possibility to catch up with school work and home work without going for tuition for all the subjects.
- Tuition is definitely a must, as schools are unable to cope with the workload and the intensity of the syllabus. Compare the local syllabus with those of international exams? How much of this teaching will gear our children for life, like teaching them social skills and character building?
Literacy rates highest in Asia
Sri Lanka has one of the highest literacy rates in Asia – a commendable achievement indeed. However a qualitative assessment of competencies in key criteria shows a huge shortfall that is evident from primary right through to the highest grades. For example a 2005 World Bank Report on education in Sri Lanka, revealed that on an average, mastery of language skills (across all languages) was less than 50% at the end of the primary cycle. Likewise for mathematics, the mastery level was a mere average of only 38% at the primary level. One can easily extrapolate how this trend would impact education at secondary and tertiary levels. The study reports an GCE O/L pass rate of a mere 37 %. Moreover of these approximately 1/3rd of the student population, only about 50% go on to pass their A Levels.
Children today assimilate information differently than in previous generations. They are exposed to multimedia and technology, and are constantly bombarded with information. The education system unfortunately has not kept pace with that change. There is a low emphasis on research and practical applicability of what children learn, and far too much stress on study by rote. No wonder then that children find the content of the curriculum tedious, boring and in parts not relevant. Simply put school children are not engaged enough.
The current system also shows a lack of flexibility because of the manner in which assessments are conducted. Even if schools were to take a modern and innovative approach toward teaching, they remain constrained by the exam requirements which, by and large, still require students to memorize and regurgitate information. In most advanced countries today there is a system of continuous assessment and standardized exams, if at all, are conducted only at the high school level. By contrast, many local schools initiate children into the exam culture as early as the first grade.
Raising the competencies of teachers is another huge challenge if we are to overhaul the education system in Sri Lanka. Bill Gates has identified education as the single biggest issue facing America and has made hefty investments in this area. His research has uncovered that investments made in better teaching which include upgrading teacher skills, better teaching methods and tools but most importantly recruiting, incentivizing and retaining the best teachers, had far greater impact than any other measure. Reduction of classroom sizes, better equipment and infrastructure etc. had a relatively insignificant impact on overall student performance by comparison.
In Sri Lanka, teachers today earn only 85 % of what they did in 1978 after factoring in inflation. They work with very little in terms of training, feedback and incentive.
The need of the hour is to provide teachers with student oriented and activity based teaching tools that will engage and teach children to think creatively and independently. Teachers should be empowered and encouraged to innovate. After all any change to the education system has to begin in the class room.
On a closing note, expectations made of professionals today is discipline, creativity, pro-activeness and leadership. We have to ask ourselves if our education system helps deliver what is demanded by industry in the 21st century and if the answer is no, then the time to change is NOW.
Concerned Mother |
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