Educational reforms Sri Lanka demands today for a brighter tomorrow

The 32nd Dr. C. W. W. Kannangara Memorial Lecture titled ‘For a country with a future’: Educational reforms Sri Lanka demands today’ delivered by Prof. Athula Sumathipala, Director, Institute for Research and Development, Sri Lanka and Chairman, National Institute of Fundemental Studies, Hanthana on Oct 13 at the National Institute of Education, Maharagama

Continued From Yesterday

Have these educational reforms from 1947 to date resulted in a sufficient number of citizens who are ready to face the 21st century, citizens who think beyond personal gain, and developed teachers, intellectuals, educationists and politicians, who have the capacity and the will to help develop such persons? The reality, however unpleasant, is that, no, it has not.

Has the Kannangara vision become a reality?

The aim of widening access to education was to help develop citizens, teachers, intellectuals, educationists and politicians, with the capacity and will to think beyond personal gain. Did such increased access achieve this aim? Or did it unexpectedly result in a process of converting the educated few among the poor into wealthy individuals and members of the elite? And in political power moving into the hands of a significant percentage of people who focus primarily on their rights and not on their duties and social responsibilities?

How did Israel which was established as a country in 1947 end up a developed country whereas Sri Lanka which established free education in 1947 end up a bankrupt nation? How did Sri Lanka which had the second strongest economy in Asia at the time of its independence in 1948, next to Japan alone at the time, fall so far? Can we escape this crisis without examining the factors for this fall? Why did progressive thinking not develop in line with widened access to education?

According to our conclusions based on behavioural science, economics, humanities, sociology, psychology and political science, the factors driving the current social, economic and political crisis are:

• Political leadership without a vision: the primary factor is the political leadership that governed the country post-independence, and particularly after 1977, and the narrow political vision

• Severe failures within political structures: most politicians are not honest representatives who hold themselves responsible to the public

• Corruption: politics has turned into a mechanism where wealth can be earned using the power and benefits available to politicians

• Wrong economic policies and management: failure to protect export income, import costs exceeding export income and unlimited borrowing to cover the discrepancy between dollar earnings and expenditure

• The decline of the quality of the government service: government service becoming inefficient, corrupt and suborned by political power

• Weakened moral fibre of the people: Perpetuating ignorance and poverty for political gain, failure to empower people and inculcating a mentality of dependence founded on a focus of rights alone and a disregard of duties and responsibilities

The common factor tying up all that is stated above is the lack of an education system that can engage and triumph over local and international challenges, that can ensure developing skilled and productive citizens. A key reason for this failure is the lack of a State Education Policy, which resulted in each successive government implementing disparate policies during their times. In the same vein, student organisations and trade unions carried out protests based on political motivation rather than societal needs. The solution to all issues can lie in high quality educational reforms which consider the Sri Lankan nation as a single entity.

Educational reforms Sri Lanka demands today for a brighter tomorrow

Educational reforms necessary today cannot be discussed in isolation from the global situation; they must be viewed within a broad framework of global economic crises as well as the Covid pandemic since the entire world has been turned on its head by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 1950, Rene Dubois, a French microbiologist, environmentalist and humanitarian, who later became the Professor of Community Medicine and Tropical Medicine at the Harvard University, warned that nature would attack back at an unexpected time, in an unexpected manner. This is what we saw in 2019. The high-risk behaviour of humans, pollution, destruction of forests, use of anti-microbials, changing biomes, chemical pollution, urbanisation, rapid population increase, ultra-consumerist culture challenging sustainable limits have led to the destruction of the environment. Most people remain unaware that the floods, landslides that we call natural disasters are not in fact natural but are a result of human actions.

Faced with this unpleasant truth, education today should move towards an in-depth analysis of how we should educate ourselves to protect humanity by overcoming these challenges. It is necessary to re-examine our thoughts, feelings and behaviour in the face of the global challenges we need to overcome. Therefore, the aim of Sri Lankan education and educational reforms should be the development of a child, an adult and a citizen who looks at the world from a new perspective and is sensitive to humanity; who aims to leave a future that is better than our past to our unborn children. It is my duty to remind everyone that there is no other alternative left to us.

This country requires citizens, teachers, intellectuals, educationists and politicians who have the skill and the ability to support the development of children and people who can face and manage change, and have a vision beyond personal gain. This is therefore the best time to discuss broad educational reforms which can support the challenges of this generation. In this context, what is essential are educational reforms which go beyond expanding access to education and changing curricula, or reforms which consider development of dollar-earning, exportable human resources as their only objective. The demand today is for reforms that go beyond these basic aims and aim to enhance morality and human values.

Gaveshana Magazine, of which I am a member of the editorial board, recently published its 39th special edition on the theme of ‘Educational reforms the country demands to develop a productive citizen adaptable to the modern world’. Professor Gominda Ponnamperuma, Head of the Department of Medical Education of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo stated as follows in writing an article on ‘Student-focused education and traditional education in Sri Lanka’ for this edition:

“The education system that exists in Sri Lanka today is not one that has identified the needs specific to Sri Lanka, develops human resources to match those needs, nor one that has been enriched by the positive aspects of global trends in education. What exists today is the education system developed by British colonials. This system is not currently practiced even in Western countries. Those countries too have given priority to student-centred education. The student-centred education system we believe in is closer to the education system we originally had in Sri Lanka rather than to the system that was forced on us by the British, that they themselves reject today, but that we continue to maintain.

What is the student-centred education system we believe in? This concept is based on the definition of the word ‘education’. Currently, education is defined as skills to be developed through understanding, experimentation and experience, rather than material that can be transmitted from one person to another.

If education is a resource that flows inertly from a teacher to a student, then, education can be limited to confining a group of students to a room, and a teacher providing a series of lecture notes according to a set timetable. Yet, education is not thus defined. In that case, what defines student-centred education? True education, as previously defined, should be a process where a student, together with other students and a teacher, engages in effective conversation, allied student experiments, experiences and activities, leading to the acquisition of mental and physical skills as well as conceptual and spiritual change. It is however questionable if this is feasible in a school classroom of today?

For this to be feasible, there needs to be an environment where students can form small groups in a classroom to carry out experiments and discuss experiences under the guidance of a teacher, leading to intellectual, physical and conceptual development in the children. However, the classrooms of today are only suitable for information transmission from the teacher to the student, and not for conceptual and intellectual development through discussion between the student and the teacher. Continuing in this vein will prolong a ‘memorising education culture’ that dulls critical thinking. For future Sri Lanka to have an intelligent, skilled work force with strong values, the current classroom structure needs to change.

A counterpoint to this claim is that a teacher is weakened in student-centred education. That is completely false. In teacher-centric education, the teacher prepares notes and passes it on to the students. The teacher then explains anything the students do not understand. Students then learn the teacher-provided notes and reproduce such learnings at an exam. In student-centred education, the teacher develops ‘learning stimulants’ that need to be discussed and experimented on with students, for example, documents, reports of practical applications, activities to engage in. Students explore the stimulants the teacher developed, in small groups. The teacher directly participates in such discussions and experiments and explains any confusing or difficult points. The teacher consistently assesses if the students have reached the educational targets and objectives.”

The explanation above indicates how student-centred learning can further strengthen the role of the teacher rather than weaken it, and how it can lead to greater creativity and enjoyment in the profession of teaching.Pre-colonial Sri Lanka had an education system which is the polar opposite of teacher-centric education. In this system, the teacher would identify the skill set best aligned with the student and would teach the student either fencing, or archery, or irrigation methods, or agriculture and so on. It is quite student-centric since the teaching content and method is modified to suit the needs of each student, rather than a ‘one size fits all’ education methodology that assumes a single teaching and learning methodology meets the requirements of all students.

As we pointed out previously, education is well-known in this country as something that should have, but has not, evolved. Last year, this task of educational reforms was assigned to the Educational Reforms and Distance Education State Ministry. Dr. Upali Sedere, Secretary to this Ministry, disclosed in a special article for Gaveshana magazine the proposed reforms, which are due to be enacted under the current Minister as well.

The reforms are based on six key objectives:

i) active contribution to national development

ii) effective and efficient work-oriented person

iii) person with entrepreneurship mind

iv) patriotic person

v) good human being

vi) happy family

The curriculum that is based on these factors consists of four separate parts:

i) scholarship

ii) productive citizen and activity-based education

iii) teamwork

iv) emotional development

This will be structured on a modular method, on a student-centred basis. The curriculum is divided into three parts:

i) essential learning

ii) self-learning

iii) extra curriculum

Accordingly, the objective is to guide students towards a vocational education based on extra activities. It is mainly intended for years 1-11, or general education, according to Dr. Sedere, however, simultaneous change is necessary in both years 12-13 and in the university education system.

Dr. Sunil Jayantha Nawarathne, Director General of the National Institute of Education, writing in the same magazine, discusses the basis of the proposed amendments as follows:

“Our country has an education system that dates back two thousand five hundred years. This excellent education system was subjugated and lost with the expansion of the education system the British imposed upon us, leaving us with this British system by 1948. We have still been unable to establish a home-grown education system seventy -four years later, leading to multiple issues in the citizens who follow this education system. We need a new generation suited to the 21st century. To achieve this objective, the National Education Institute is introducing these new 2022 educational reforms with a national objective in mind. Creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial mindset are what we aim to achieve with this new education system.”

Let us examine what a productive citizen, fitting the 21st century looks like.

21st Century and 4th IR ready human capital

21 CHC = 3R + 3L + 2C + SDL

21 CHC – 21st Century-ready Human Capital

3R – Reading

wRiting

aRithmetic

3L – Learning skills

Literacy skills

Life skills

2C – Character development

Citizenship

SDL – Self-directed learner

He terms the current education system in Sri Lanka as a 3R system – (Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic). This does not include innovation or questioning the status quo. He accepts that advancement is not possible using the old system, when the reality is that we are now 22 years into the 21st century. “Even an old mobile phone does not meet the requirements of today. A Smart phone is now a necessity – for using the internet, photography, banking and many other activities are now carried out using the smart phone. To change the system to meet today’s needs, the 3R system needs further additions: 3L, 2C and SDL.

3L – Learning skills, Literacy skills, Life skills

2C – Character development, Citizenship

SDL – Self-directed learner