Myopia in arts stream education in state universities in Sri Lanka

By Samanthi Senaratne and Sunil Dahanayake

(Continued from yesterday’s Midweek Review)

We noted improvements in English language teaching and learning at the arts faculties of the USJ and University of Sabaragamuwa. The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (FHSS) of the USJ offers two compulsory English courses with a credit value of 06 (i.e., 300 notional hours of teaching and learning) for all first year students and a compulsory English course of 01 credit value for all third year students. Further, compulsory credit courses in English language are offered in the second year for the students who follow their degree programmes in the Sinhala medium. The Department of English and Linguistics of FHSS, the USJ has pioneered in offering English as a degree programme to the students who have not studied English Language and Literature as a subject at GCE A/L. They have also pioneered in introducing an honours degree in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL). The University of Sabaragamuwa offers four compulsory courses in English with 10 credit value for the first and second year students of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Languages. These courses have been designed to provide a progression in grammar, speaking, listening, reading and writing in the English language to the students. Furthermore, the students selected to this faculty can study TESL as a minor subject in any honours degree and major or minor in general degree programmes. They also have the opportunity to specialise English in arts degree programmes, even if they have not studied English as a subject for the GCE A/L.

These changes made by the arts faculties have also contributed to improve the employability levels of their graduates. The AG’s report highlights that the FHSS of the USJ has been able to reduce their graduate unemployment rate from 52.1% in 2016 to 12.2% in 2018. We are of the opinion that all state universities of Sri Lanka need to include at least one compulsory subject in the English language and literature, preferably in the first two years, with formal examinations similar to the other subjects, in all faculties. When the university students master the English language skills, they can improve the other soft skills as their social interactions will increase both nationally and internationally.

These success stories show that the Ministry of Education and the UGC need to increase the opportunities available for the students to learn English. This includes the provision of qualified English teachers, teaching resources and learning opportunities at schools and universities. It is also required to increase the number of students who take English as a GCE A/L subject as they can be trained as English teachers, through teacher training colleges and universities.

Emeritus Professor and former State Minister for Higher Education, Dr. Rajiva Wijesinghe, who has made some effort to improve this situation, expressed the following comments on the 26th of November, 2013 – at a national conference on the theme ‘Supplementing ELT through Language Arts & Theatre’.

“We had also made plans for better use of the Regional English Support Centres to upgrade English Teacher Training, and provide ready access to degrees that would improve the professional capacities of English teachers. But all this was reversed, largely because of lethargy, and the incapacity to think and plan coherently which has so adversely affected our education system over the years. And, in addition, there is, I fear, also continuing suspicion of English, and a determination on the part of decision-makers to prevent our rural populations from having access to the language which is the only way of ensuring equity and equality of opportunity in the current age. In short, English continues to be the possession of the privileged, and in particular those in authority who use the language of nationalism to keep the less privileged in check, whilst, of course, ensuring that their own children have English, and English medium education, and often foreign degrees.”

We share similar sentiments and believe that all English Departments of state universities in Sri Lanka should understand the ground reality of arts education in Sri Lanka and focus on their legitimate role of propagating English knowledge among university and school students.

The Issue of Unemployment of Arts Graduates

One puzzling question comes to our mind is why these liberal arts graduates, produced by the arts faculties of Sri Lankan universities, cannot make a living, based on their education, and fit into the society with their degrees. Why they are sitting on the wooden platforms in front of the Fort Railway Station and various other public places is a question that needs to be answered by these academics who have expressed concerns against the AG’s report. As graduates of a state university, we feel sad, embarrassed and have sympathy for these graduates, who are doing ‘Satyagraha’ to get others’ attention on their unemployment and living issues.

Our opinion is that finding productive employment for the arts graduates of state universities in Sri Lanka has evolved over a period of time since the late 1960s. The youth insurrections in 1971, 1988 and current violent political student movements in state universities may be a result of these unemployment issues and hopelessness in youths due to limited opportunities available for them in terms of employment and resulting implications on their living standards. The government policy-makers, university administrators and academics in the universities are responsible in varying levels for the current state of the problems faced by Arts stream university students and graduates of Sri Lankan universities.

Based on the audit report of the AG and our experience, we have identified several interrelated issues associated with the unemployment of arts graduates in Sri Lanka as follows: lack of English communication and IT skills; limited opportunities for internships; reluctance to adapt to the social environment; and inflexible academic enrolment system in the universities.

The Inflexible University Academic Enrolment System in State Universities

Sri Lankan state universities are compartmentalised and adopt the model of offering degree programmes with one subject major. There are limited opportunities available for the students for inter-faculty and intra-faculty enrolments and doing more than one subject major similar to the universities in developed countries. This need has to be addressed by the UGC and the Ministry of Education, and the students of Sri Lankan state universities should be allowed to complete double major degree programmes within a four-year period instead of the conventional model of one major degree programme. These double major degree programmes are also identified as a mechanism allowing the university students for inter-faculty and intra-faculty subject enrolments. For example, a student in the Arts stream can be allowed to complete Business Administration, Accounting and Finance, IT, Law or Science as a second major. On the other hand, Accounting or Business Administration students can be allowed to complete a second major in English, Political Science, Sociology, Law or IT subjects. In developed countries, the students are allowed to complete two or three major subject areas for their undergraduate degree programmes. The inter-faculty enrolment will increase the importance of arts education in Sri Lanka. The arts faculties should be happy to take students from other faculties, such as Management, Engineering, Medicine and Science so that the university students will become valuable citizens enriched with ethics, values and their ability to think out of the box will be developed. They become productive citizens who can understand the problems of the society as they get the opportunity to study subjects such as Economics, Political Science, Literature, History and Sociology as part of the degree programme. The role of arts faculty academics will also be expanded under such academic structure. We feel the time is opportune for us to broadly review the existing system of education in state universities of Sri Lanka.

Further, we noted that some state universities namely Moratuwa, Wayamba and Uva-Wellassa do not have arts faculties. However, we noted that leading technological universities, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) (USA) have faculties of arts and humanities as they provide the liberal arts knowledge required for the students, who major in technological subject streams. These two universities are ranked as the numbers 1 and 6 respectively in the world university rankings (QS Rankings, 2021). We suggest that every state university should have an arts faculty to inculcate the languages and social sciences for the students to understand the environment in which they work and live.

Developing Positive Thinking in University Students and Graduates

The students at state universities in Sri Lanka should be inculcated with the attitude to undertake the employment opportunities without considering the status of the job from the undergraduate days. They should be made aware that we live in an egalitarian society and not to be embarrassed about the status of the job. The undergraduates should be encouraged to do casual or part time jobs as self-financing opportunities to meet their needs while studying for the degree programmes. We noted that the university students engage in such part time jobs in Australia and the USA to finance their education, even the students coming from rich families. Doing such jobs for self-financing also provides the university students an exposure to various activities and organisations. The universities should provide the students with adequate computer labs with flexible hours to improve their IT skills.

Conclusions

The Auditor-General’s report on “Propensity to Tend Education under the Arts Stream and the Unemployment of Arts Graduates”, and subsequent dialogue indicate that Arts stream education should be reformed in schools and universities. We suggest that the improvement of the English language competency of school and university students should be a high priority of the country, in this context. We conclude that the lack of English language skills, inflexible student enrolment systems of universities and inadequate social skills have contributed towards the unemployment of arts graduates coming out of state universities.

In addition to the English language skills, the other areas that should be improved are IT literacy, inculcating positive attitude towards life and work, and provision of internship opportunities alongside subject specific knowledge and skills. The university students should be allowed to do double-major degree programmes with inter-faculty and intra-faculty enrolments. When there is a proper policy direction and pragmatic programmes for arts education, they can be used as the basis for fund allocation from the national budget to promote arts education in the country. The academics of arts faculties can play a lead role in policy-making, curriculum development and programme implementation. This will enable them to legitimately claim that they have contributed towards producing liberal arts graduates in true sense and these graduates will not be a burden to the society.

The word “myopia’’ is taken for this article from the classic article of “Marketing Myopia’’ published in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) by late Marketing Professor, Theodore Levitt in 1960. Levitt argues that the companies are in the process of producing goods and services without understanding the long-term needs and wants of customers and consequently perish in the long run. Likewise, if arts faculties of state universities in Sri Lanka fail to understand the long-term needs of the students, graduates and social, political and economic environment in which they work, they will be producing graduates without knowing the customer needs. It is better to be far-sighted and introduce necessary changes to be compatible with the aspirations of the society.

The first and corresponding author is Senior Professor in Accounting at the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Her email address is samanthisenaratne@sjp.ac.lk.