MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION, QUALITY OF EDUCATION AND NATIONAL INTEGRATION

Europe and India, bilingualism or even multilingualism becomes a necessity. Europeans, faced with great linguistic diversity across the region, realized the need for learning a second language when the EU was established

Even since the two native languages were made the medium of instruction in schools and universities, successive generations of Sri Lankans have had the choice of either remaining almost totally monolingual for the rest of their lives or making a gradual transition to bilingualism over an extended period of time. Most school leavers in almost all parts of the country moved into occupations that did not require them to learn a second language. Even university graduates who mostly joined the state sector could do so without a second language but many of the latter, depending on the requirements of their positions, acquired a working knowledge of a second language, in most cases English. This wasnotamajorissueastheycould often do so over a period of time spread over many years. But, the chances of the younger generations of youth learning a second language, particularly in rural areas, diminished over time as most school teachers in rural schools neither had the opportunity nor the motivation to learn a second language and this has, in turn, deprived successive generations of children the opportunity of acquiring a working knowledge of a second language. This is in fact, the opposite of what the policy makers who were instrumental in introducing free education had in mind even before the country gained independence. The establishment of Central schools in all parts of the country as part of the free education scheme was intended to not only create equal opportunities in education but also to facilitate the transition from monolingualism to bilingualism. But the subsequent segregation of schools on an ethno-linguistic basis undermined the above wellthought-out national education programme introduced in the early 1940s. Many of today's elderly people who benefitted from the early Central school system had done very well in terms of both general educational attainment and second language acquisition. On the other hand, today, it is the products of segregated schools, both rural as well as urban, who dominate national institutions in diverse fields.

As is well known, Sri Lanka embarked upon a programme of radical economic reform in 1977, partly as a response to a number of serious socio-economic issues in the early 1970s such as widespread unemployment, poverty and economic stagnation. The donors supporting the programme of economic reform wanted to contain the state sector and promote private investment. A significant reduction in state-sector employment was envisaged but the strategy adopted was counterproductive as the incentives given to publicsector employees to go on early retirement encouraged more of the competent and English educated employees to leave their jobs often leaving behind the deadwood in many public institutions. The most adversely affected was the education system as many bilingual teachers opted for early retirement and found more l u c r at ive employment in the newly-established international schools and overseas. The monolingual teachers could not do so even if they wanted to as there was no demand for them in the private sector or overseas. So, the situation in the country with respect to bilingual education got worse at a time when the need for bilingual teachers was increasing. Meanwhile, students coming to universities as undergraduates continued to display a declining level of English knowledge when the universities were seriously considering a switch to English medium teaching in the Faculties of Arts in view of the increasing demand for English-educated graduates in the expanding private sector. Often these plans had to be abandoned due to the continually declining levels of English language competency among new entrants to the universities.

It is true that many countries around the world remained by and large monolingual. This is particularly true for large countries like Japan, Germany, and France and to a great extent China. But, when a country or a group of countries is faced with linguistic diversity, i.e. Europe and India, bilingualism or even multilingualism becomes a necessity. Europeans, faced with great linguistic diversity across the region, realized the need for learning a second language when the EU was established. Indians have had no choice in this regard either, but the dominant second language across the sub-continent, namely English, turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Largely thanks to this, many Indians have been able to join the global elites in diverse fields, be it business, diplomacy, global institutions, science or technology. On the other hand, the benefits of bilingualism for linguistic and cognitive development of children are increasingly highlighted by researchers in many countries today and it is obvious that the successive generations of youngsters in this country have been deprived of such benefits.

Almost total neglect of second language acquisition over several decades has also deprived the vast majority of young people in Sri Lanka the opportunities to flourish in a fast globalizing, multilingual society. A few writers in the two native languages continue to have a captive audience by catering to the demand for reading material among youth and school children but it is doubtful whether their mostly self-published books with almost no wetting by experts in the relevant fields do much good to facilitate knowledge acquisition or intellectual development of the readers. A large majority of university students have no language skills to read anything outside their own language stream, though libraries have always been full of English language books and journals. Their lecturers usually do the reading on their behalf but this is no substitute for the reflective self-learning that one expects from university students. Given this state of affairs, it is highly doubtful whether even the small minority of youths going to the university develop their full intellectual potential during their undergraduate education. As is well known, many of them remain unemployed after graduation, to be absorbed by the government and randomly deployed across state institutions irrespective of whether there are positions to be filled or not. Such poor prospects for university graduates in what is claimed to be a rapidly developing economy compel many male children to say goodbye to formal education after the ' GCE Ordinary Level'. Meanwhile, many of the youth who do well in terms of the acquisition of language and other professional skills continue to leave the country looking for greener pastures elsewhere, making it more difficult for the country to face development and other challenges.

The very high levels of literacy that the country has achieved over the last several decades are of very limited value largely due to the fact that the overwhelming majority of school-leavers from the two main ethnic communities remain monolingual. Their almost exclusive identities and world views are already formed before they leave school. Those who go to the universities often remain cut off from each other, at least partly due to linguistic segregation within the higher education system. Their often frustrated aspirations for upward social mobility persuade them to perceive the ensuing competition as a zero sum game. Their politics tends to be shaped by subnational considerations and often become active in divisive politics of sectarian political parties or movements.

So, mobilizing the educated youth for national reconciliation remains a daunting task. Unfortunately, major political parties seem to do little to address this important issue. Some of the political parties in fact reinforce this tendency for opportunistic or ideological reasons.