Run international schools on loose rein, experts advise

The government’s move to regulate international schools by bringing them under the wing of the Ministry of Education is being lauded by educationists but they caution against any temptation to control the private education system.

Last week, the Ministry of Education said that it would seek cabinet approval to make registration of all international schools compulsory to ensure that proper standards are maintained.

Dr. Sujatha Gamage, educationist and senior research officer at the thinktank LIRNEasia, which describes itself as “propoor, pro-market”, said bringing the schools under the Education Ministry would help regulate the quality of education in those schools. She also said entry to international schools should be made affordable and in the proposed new framework parents would be able to make informed selections on the costs involved.

“Parents could make informed decisions for their children if the institutions are mandated to make information available,” she said. Private education should be regulated not because of the false assumption that it is evil or of low quality but to impose standards that would elevate the education imparted to students.

While the government has no official statistics of the number of schools functioning in Sri Lanka LIRNEasia statistics said that there are around 200 international schools of which only 24 are registered under The International Schools of Sri Lanka (TISSL).

These registered schools enrol around 40,000 students a year. If a modest estimate of 50 students per year is given to the remaining 176 international schools, that sector provides 12,000 slots for new students who are unsuccessful in acquiring places in the popular schools of their choice.

Dr. Gamage compares the Grade 5 scholarship exams that give students in rural areas and the plantation sector the chance to enter popular schools to the Advanced Level exams that gains students entry to university.

In 2018, 355,000 children sat for the Grade 5 scholarship exams, and only 15,000 students received places. Around 50,000 children were qualified but did not get places and continued to attend their old schools.

There are around 186 popular schools, and Grade 1 admission to these schools is limited. In 2019, these schools could only accommodate 16,000 students despite the schools creating extra parallel classes.

The cut-off mark for admission has been decided on the number of slots available. In 2019, a student needed to score 93.5 per cent or more to secure a place in Royal College and 94.5 per cent for Visakha Vidyalaya. A school in Hatton needed 81 per cent or more.

The students who cannot make it to the popular schools, find their way to the international schools, private schools and assisted private schools. They can choose from 34 historical private schools including Musaeus College, S. Thomas College and Trinity College, which have been independent since inception, 46 assisted private schools and an additional 200 international schools.

Educationists believe that regulating the international schools will aid parents in selecting schools for their children.

Ministry of Education, Additional Secretary, Policy Planning and performance Dr. Madura Wehella refuted claims made by education trade unions that international schools are set up illegally.

She said international schools are registered with the Registrar of Companies but it was necessary to regulate them by bringing them into the education system.

The liberalisation of the economy in the late 1970s has resulted in the proliferation of international schools to cater to the need of children of foreign investors who settled here. These schools were registered as businesses under the Board of Investment Act.

Later, with public perception of international schools changing, the number of schools kept increasing at provincial council and pradeshiya sabha levels, with the institutions being registered as mere businesses.

Today the Ministry of Education has lost its hold on education so much that it has no statistics on the number of international schools in the country.

The ministry wrote recently to all the provinces and pradeshiya sabhas for a count on the number of schools functioning as international schools.

Additionally the National Education Council (NEC) was asked to come up with standards that should be imposed and discussion has been started how best they could be regulated. TISSL General Secretary Malithi Jayatissa said that the government should include international schools representatives in discussions on education reform.

She said the government should also extend the same support provided to the public schools, including offering textbooks, cur- riculum and teacher training.

University of Peradeniya Professor of Chemistry Dr. Vijay Kumar said international schools fill a gap that the government is unwilling to fill. He said most students go to them because they cannot gain entry to a decent government school.

“If the government improves the standards of the rural and estate schools parents will not have a problem in admitting their children to government schools,” he said.

Dr. Kumar stressed the government should focus on the questionable quality of international schools; many schools mushroomed with inferior facilities, no extra-curricular activities and unqualified and poorly paid teachers.

The international schools should be encouraged to work with the government, employing self-regulation and open data and a common platform including the number of teachers, their qualifications, fee, affordability and information, he said.

The National Education Commission appointed to formulate a new Education Act for General Education has recommended that the state “should retain overarching responsibility for making the private sector a supportive partner in education within the legal and regulating means appropriate to a national system of education”.