Eminent headmasters – an extinct species

by Leelananda De Silva

I read with interest, a commemorative speech which Mr. K.H.J. Wijayadasa, former Secretary to Presidents Premadasa and Wijetunga had delivered. It was to commemorate the life of Mr. G.C. Edirisinghe, former Principal of Dharmapala Vidyalaya, Pannipitiya. It was Mr. Edirisinghe who built up Dharmapala Vidyalaya, which is probably the last of the leading non-governmental independent schools to be established in Ceylon. This speech of Mr. Wijayadasa brought me memories of an extinct species, great principals of independent and government schools of the past, prior to the taking over of educational institutions by anonymous bureaucrats after 1962.

The leading schools of the 19th century were mainly established by Christian missionaries, apart from Royal College, which was a government school. Most of these schools had British principals until the early part of the 20th century, and many names come to mind – Rev. W.J.T. Small of Richmond, Rev. A.G. Fraser of Trinity, Highfield of Wesley and so on. Even in the Buddhist schools which were established in the latter part of the 19th century, there were foreign principals, F.L. Woodward of Mahinda College, Galle for instance. This era of having British principals ended by about the mid 20th century.

Then we came to an era where many of the Buddhist schools appointed Ceylonese principals – P. de.S. Kularatne of Ananda, E.A. Wijayasooriya of Mahinda, S.A. Wijeytilaka of Ananda and so on. The Christian schools too had outstanding Ceylonese principals – L.E. Blaze of Kingswood Kandy, Canon R.S. De Seram of S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia, E.R. De Silva of Richmond, P.H. Nonis of Kingswood and many others. All these principals made an enormous contribution towards the building of these schools to be highly developed educational institutions (I am not too conversant with the girls’ schools and the schools in Jaffna, but undoubtedly they had distinguished principals).

When the government started to intervene in the establishment of a set of leading schools teaching in the English medium, all throughout the country in the early 1940s – known as the Central Schools – the principals of these schools were handpicked by the Minister of Education, C.W.W. Kannangara. They were assured a high degree of independence to build up their schools. Many of these principals became well known names – D.T. Devendra of Hikkaduwa Central, P.M.M. Jayathilaka of Ibbagamuwa Central, and many others. These were great principals who made an enormous contribution to building up the academic reputation of these central schools.

By the mid 1950s, the universities of Peradeniya and Colombo, still instructing through the English medium were the home to many of these Central School products. Students from Sinhala and Tamil speaking and bilingual homes were obtaining a high standard of University education in the English medium. This was not to last for long, and with the many so-called reforms in educational policies, an era of mass education in the Sinhalese and Tamil medium ensued.

The day of the eminent headmaster ended, with a massive educational bureaucracy now in charge of the schools. The principals became part of the bureaucracy of the Department of Education. One day, you could be principal of Royal College, and the next day, some obscure educational bureaucrat in a remote district. Principals became transferrable bureaucrats and the quality of the schools declined, not because of the change in the medium of instruction, but largely due to the change in selecting principals and headmasters.

An important aspect of the high quality schools of days gone by was not only due to the quality of the principals. These principals had the freedom to select high quality teachers – graduates and trained teachers, especially from the Maharagama Teacher Training College – to teach in their schools. They were handpicked persons. Most of us who had the good fortune to be educated in these schools would remember the great teachers we had. They were dedicated individuals, not being pushed around by departmental bureaucrats and looking for earnings through tuition classes. It is the principals and teachers together which made these schools great institutions. What the Central School experience teaches us is that schools can be government institutions, but they can also be autonomous places of education, with the principals and the teachers having a major role in determining the system of education in those schools.

It would be a long journey to reform the current school system, but a start needs to be made somewhere. An important early step is to bring about a change in the selection of principals and allowing the principals to select their teachers and the right to get rid of them (of course, these teachers will be part of a government service). The selection of principals should be done by an independent board, and not by the educational bureaucracy. For a start, the principals of National Schools (there are about 400 of them) could be appointed this way. These principals should be ensured the right to be in a distinctive service, for principals and headmasters – without being transferred to other parts of the educational bureaucracy. Just as C.W.W. Kannangara did, the Minister of Education could take the initiative in this matter.

I am confining myself to this particular issue without getting involved with the larger educational reforms that are urgently required, to improve the quality of education in this country.