WHY WE NEED MORE KANNANGARAS NOW!

Dr. Kannangara, the father of free education in Sri Lanka, a visionary and a patriot, was elected to the State Council in 1923, 1931 and 1936. He served as the Chairman of a Special Committee on Education and had been appointed as the first Minister of Education in Sri Lanka in 1931.

He had stated “Education should be free from the kindergarten to the university. The mother tongue should be used as the medium of instruction in the primary schools. English should be taught in all schools from standard III”.

He took steps to establish a series of Central Schools similar to Royal College, Colombo in major locations outside main cities. Due to free education concept, literacy rate from 46 percent in 1950 had been rising to commendable levels compared to our neighbours in the region.

He believed that nothing could be achieved unless you produce good and educated citizens. Dr. Kannangara believed that if the elders break laws, youth too will do the same thing. If the elders look upon public issues from purely selfish angles, with a view as to how they will be affected personally, the youth too will do the same thing. It was intended that in addition to this kind of teaching in schools, it must be strengthened by precept and example in order to produce thoughtful, considerate and law-abiding good citizens.

The irony is that after a few decades of independence the nature of Sri Lankan politicians and politics have changed.

Policies of successive Governments ran counter to the vision of Dr. Kannangara. Politicians and politics have encroached in to every sphere of life and activity in our country. The successive governments had reduced the allocations annually for education below three percent of the GDP. Owing to these reductions, the allocations were barely sufficient to pay the teachers’ salaries and the other inevitabilities.

It resulted in serious deterioration of the quality of education, slowing down in literacy rate and causing disparities in regional education. The ad-hoc policy changes introduced by political leaders from regime to regime, absence of a national policy on education, politicisation of recruitment, lack of suitable teacher training, have caused irreparable damage to the system. Did they use strategy because “Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive, easy to govern, but impossible to enslave” – Baron Brougham?

Successive Governments, probably in order to win the votes and popularity, had introduced free school text books, free school uniforms and subsidised public transportation for students.

It had however been revealed that there had been high rate of school drop-outs, low participation in education and poor attendance. There have been instances of unequal distribution of resources, overloaded curriculum and lack of assistance and opportunities to continue higher education. Due to these, Sri Lanka has now failed to achieve universal compulsory education cycle – Grade 9 completion rate, which is 81 percent for boys and 84 percent for girls - with about nearly 20 percent failing to complete education until Grade 9.

A survey has revealed that the teachers advise the students to attend tuition classes and the private tuition has now become essential - not an option. Despite various policy changes with international assistance from UNICEF, CIDA and World Bank for improvements, nothing had produced the desired outcomes but gobbled up overseas aid.

Shouldn’t the Government consider increasing the salaries of university lecturers and teachers since they have not been paid reasonable salaries?

In fact, teachers neglect their legitimate duties and they give private tuition to earn an extra income. The teaching and learning process should be made joyful and relevant to changing national and global needs. Shouldn’t the educationists make an attempt to bring about changes in the values, attitudes and behaviours of both teachers and children?

Consequent to free education, female enrolment in universities had increased over 65 percent which was only 7 percent in 1942. However, due to lack of birth certificates particularly some street and poor children were prevented from enrolling in Government schools. The Grade One admission too has become a serious issue and parents seek justice from the Human Rights Commission and from the Supreme Court too.

It also has been pointed out that only 9 percent could obtain university admissions and a majority of the students having completed A/L do not have a clear path to continue their formal higher education due to limited opportunities.

According to UGC statistics – 2012, more than 79 percent of students could not enter higher educational institutions. On the other hand, students who drop out after GCE – O/L and A/L would still not be suitable for the labour market due to lack of specific job skills required by the employers. It is sad however that nearly 90,000 students who sat for the GCE (O/L) examination last year have failed in ALL nine subjects. Shouldn’t we also be concerned about the closure of 164 from 10,176 of government schools scattered throughout the country?

Governments during the past decade and a half provided 1.7 percent to 2.9 percent of the GDP for education and nearly 80 percent of it went for salaries.

After defeating the war, the defence bill annually had been around 20 percent of the GDP. How about the costs of maintaining unusually large Cabinet of Ministers, State Ministers and Deputy Ministers?

Do you know the investments for vehicles, fuel and maintenance cost more than education in our country? In developed countries, they have ensured to keep recurrent expenditure for these at minimal level. In our case, we do the reverse. We provide money for every other thing first. Education, health and transport came last!

Time has come for politicians to stay away from education. In fact, decisions of appointments of officers, transfers, including admissions to schools, printing of text books, purchasing of uniform materials, awarding of contracts are manipulated. Do they give such contracts to people who print posters to them?

Dr. Kannangara lost his seat at the 1st Election he faced having introduced Free Education Law to the Nation in 1945.

The Indian Representative in Sri Lanka at the time had this to say – “Sir, If you were born in our country and if you had presented a bill to provide free education in India you would be treated like a God by Indians”. His contribution in the field of education was not recognized by the voters and had been defeated. He had been later appointed as the Ambassador to Indonesia and served there from 1950 to 1952. In 1952, he contested and won Agalawatte electorate and was appointed Minister of Housing and Local Government without being appointed the Minister of Education owing to the opposition, especially from socially and economically privileged groups, who had been more powerful and influential.

Educationists must be allowed to perform their duties with professionalism, while being politically neutral with suitably qualified and motivated personnel.

The right people have to be attracted to the right posts since indecision and passing the buck is the order of the day in the education sector too. They must promote and demonstrate ethical conduct while exercising courage to take up responsibility with the highest sense of integrity for the benefit of our children. Nelson Mandela too had said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.

According to UGC statistics – 2012, more than 79 percent of students could not enter higher educational institutions. It is sad however that nearly 90,000 students who sat for the GCE (O/L) examination last year have failed in ALL nine subjects. Shouldn’t we also be concerned about the closure of 164 from 10,176 of government schools scattered throughout the country?