Forgotten history

Sri Lanka has a rich heritage and an ancient civilization steeped in 2,500 years of history - one of the reasons why Serendipity attracts many foreign visitors every year - but educationists grumble that history studies in schools and universities are losing their glamour. As educational structures become increasingly dominated by science and technology and newer topics enter classrooms, some traditional subjects such as history, literature, the humanities and arts have lost their appeal and popularity among students, teachers and the public. Apparently the study of these subjects doesn't help students to find quick and lucrative employment, unlike in the past.

At a recent international conference organised by Sri Lanka's University of Peradeniya, historian Dr. Wimala Ratnayake cautioned an audience of local and international scholars that by neglecting and ignoring the role of history in education, Sri Lanka was giving an opportunity to self-seeking politicians and rabble rousers to distort history as never before. "The answer to distortion of history is not to turn your back on history but to see that it is correctly taught to every citizen so that independent judgements that good history teaching/learning can develop in children and youth will help them to discriminate between right and wrong, truth and falsehood and what is good and bad," she noted in a research paper.

History perhaps is playing a significant role in Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict where Tamil rebels are fighting for a separate state in the north and the east for minority Tamils. The rebels and Tamil politicians claim areas in the north and the east as their traditional homelands - by virtue of the fact that a majority of the Tamil community lives there. But others reject this claim, saying that all communities in Sri Lanka have a right to live anywhere and that there has never been a "traditional" homelands concept.

Ratnayake's anxiety about the declining interest in history education stems from statistics that show that history - a very popular subject in the 1950s and the 1960s - has almost disappeared from the curriculum of schools and universities in the 1970s and the 1980s. The number of school candidates who offered history for the GCE (advanced level) dropped drastically to 1,981 in 1990 from 17,507 in 1966. Universities showed a similar trend with about 11 percent of students opting for history as a subject in the 1980s compared to over 50 percent in the 1960s.

Ratnayake cites a report by the National Education Commission on the issue to illustrate the seriousness of the problem, and puts forward a case for returning history to its pristine past, before it becomes history itself. While stating that Sri Lanka has evolved over the centuries nurtured by significant traditions and a deep rooted culture, the Commission says that "the question is being raised as to whether, we are seeing the evening of that culture and civilization. Education instead of deepening wisdom appears to be narrowing the outlook." This, Ratnayake stresses, was bound to happen when a store house of knowledge and wisdom, and a continuous and recorded history of 2,500 years were not given their due place in the school curriculum.

"This has happened at a time when the country is faced with political, social and economic problems of a serious nature that demand historical perspectives, and at a time when everyone needs to understand the past to shed light on the present national crisis," she said. England, faced with a similar situation in the 1960s, reintroduced history and geography as foundation subjects in the national curriculum for 5 to 14-year-olds, thus re-activating an interest in the study of history.

National cohesion, national integrity and national unity are of paramount importance to guarantee the future of Sri Lanka as rising communalism, divisive forces, terrorism and violence threaten to tear the country apart. Ratnayake surmises that children, only through a historical study, will understand and appreciate the nation's achievements, contributions, successes, failures, the struggles of those who built this great civilization and cultural traditions to which all citizens are heirs. "It will help them to identify with their rich historical background, give them a feeling of belonging and a sense of security which will help to develop in them a feeling of patriotism and nationalism (not narrow chauvinism). It will help them to understand their place in society," she told the audience.

Ratnayake, from the University of Peradeniya's History Department, said that the allegations of youth being unpatriotic, destructive, selfish and indifferent to the needs of society stemmed from the failure of history being given its rightful place in the school curriculum. While sociology, economics and political science are vehicles for analysing the world, history plays an even greater role in that it is a general subject that embraces the other social sciences without requiring to acquire a detailed methodology and language of each separate social science. Ratnayake says that children should be provided opportunities to handle original source material, visit historical sites, view archaeological excavations, make use of museums, and interview and talk to elders in the village and towns. The claim of history as a training ground for statesmen, rulers and administrators is unmatched. In the past most countries seem to have regarded history as an important area of study for prospective kings, rulers and statesmen.

More Plus *  Nepal gets the headache  *  Fighting for democracy

Return to the Plus Contents