Dr Sudath Gunasekara (SLAS) former Ministry Secretary (Also Secretary Ministry of Technical Education) and President Mahanuwara Senior Citizens Movement
1.1.2014.
Abolition of Vth STD Scholarship Examination is a crime against 80 % of the population in this country and it is a conspiracy to confine higher education to families of politicians and the affluent.
I am not a Vth STD scholar; but still remains as a proud product of the Central School system. As a direct beneficiary of that system I see the decision to abolish the Vth STD scholarship examination as a political conspiracy hatched by lackey officials and urban affluent toclose the gates of higher education to the underprivileged and the rural masses that constitutes over 80 % of the population in this country. If this decision is implemented higher education will remain a privy of the politicians, their lackeys and the rich only. It will shut the door to higher education for all those who cannot afford to pay for it. To that extent it is undemocratic antisocial. As such it also kills the spirit of free education mooted by the father of free education. It is also a blatant violation of social justice and makes the best schools and higher education a privilage of thefamilies of politicians and the affluent. This decision therefore is ill-conceived, irrational, and illogical and more over undemocratic and unrealistic in this age of the common man. Therefore I would describe the present decision as a mere political gimmick to cover the incompetence and inability of those powerful sectors in charge of education in his country to overcome the present mess in education.
Before deciding to abolish the Vth STD test first, one must understand why such examination was proposed by the Kannagara Commission and how much it has done to fulfill social justice and to human resource development in this country. This policy was decided after years of deliberation and consultation by eminent educationists for 3 years (1940-1943), both here and abroad, who’s one and only concern was the good of the entire society and the country at large within a framework of equality of educational opportunities to everyone, unlike the present day self centered power hungry selfish politicians. Educational and intellectual giants and visionaries like Prof Malalasekara, S.A. Pakeman, P.D .S. Kularatna and L.H.Mettananda C.W.W. Kannangara and Sir Ivor Jennings were the kingpins of this system. They not only incorporated the highest concepts on education both here and abroad but also the
Why the Vth STD test has today become a problem is not a fault of the system but the inability on the part of policy makers to understand the basic objectives behind it. Had the Kannagara system been properly understood and implemented with timely modifications to suit the changing needs of the country, without killing its content and spirit, the present day mess would never has sprung up. But apart from fully implementing the Kannagara proposals timely adjustments were also never done. Instead what really happened over the years was a gradual and systematic curtailment and systematic adulteration of the Kannangara system by vested interests. Abolition of the 8th STD selective Test in 1954, the neglect of the Central Colleges, that was the linchpin of the Kannangara machinery, politicization of educational administration and allowing even students already attending big schools to sit this exam could be cited as big blunders committed by those responsible for the murder of that golden educational policy invented by those great patriots who once walked this land.
Primarily both the Vth STD and the V111th tests as I understand were proposed by the Kannangara Commission as a means of selecting students for higher education based on their intelligence, aptitude, ability and suitability to a particular course of study and thereby while helping the students to fuller attainment and harness their talents to the optimum for the betterment of the society. The V111th STD test was proposed by them to give a second chance to do so for those who fail to get selected at the Vth STD test.
Secondly the Vth STD test was also used to select the cream of the underprivileged student population in the country who cannot afford to spend for higher education. That is why such students were provided with free accommodation, uniforms and board at Government expense until they complete their University education. Under that system it was proposed to have 5 primary schools within a radius of six miles and for each such cluster one Central School with all facilities such as hostels, labs, workshops, play grounds and above all qualified teachers headed by specially selected Principals. This was the magic wand that enabled thousand of village children to enter the Universities and pass out with distinction as Administrators (Civil Servants) Doctors, Engineers and Scientists, the fields so far had been a monopoly of big schools in cities like Ananda, Royal, Trinity, Dharmaraja High School and Mahamaya, Dharmasoka, Mahinda and Visaka. Only the affluent could enter these ‘Class’ schools. The contribution made to higher education in these fielda particularly in the 1950s, 60s and 70s and even much later is remarkable. Central Schools like Veyangoda Galahitiyawa,Piliyandala. Tissa, Telijjavila, Ruwanwella, Narammala. Nugwela and Anuradhapura rank pre-eminent in their performance. If you take a count of those who have benefitted from this system and held various positions both in the public and private sector and how much they have contributed to our society, you will see what wonders it has done. Majority of these ‘diamonds’ and ‘Gems’ would have remained eternally buried under this good earth un-mined, uncut ad unpolished for ever without any use to the country, may be as tillers of the soil or coconut tree creepers or cowboys and coolies for want of opportunity, if not for the Kannangara innovations.
The decline in output and quality started with the neglect of the Kannagara system along with its apex educational ‘Taxilas’, the Central Colleges. This situation forced Vth STD scholars to run for other popular schools. Meanwhile instead of equipping Central Colleges with better staff and facilities to attract the Vth STD Scholars while neglecting them the Scholarship exam was used to select students to big schools by introducing a mechanism called a cutoff point. This is what led to the present fierce battle that tormented both the students and parents. Along with this development the quality of education in schools in the periphery also deteriorated. This situation gave birth to a new epidemic called tuition, unknown in our day, which has now grown in to a cancerous epidemic situation by leaps and bounds. So much so today after politics, drugs, casinos and medicine, tuition has come to stay as the most lucrative and rewarding money spinner for teachers and a chronic headache for both parents and students. At the same time the failure on the part of public schools to cater to the fast expanding horizons in the technological field and the demand for English in the job market that opened the doors for a new set of private Schools called International Schools. They are patronized only by the rich, newly rich and minorities. Since these schools are international in every respect today they produce a new generation completely divorced and alienated from everything that is local, the disastrous repercussions will be seen sooner or later. It is unfortunate educational pundits and social policy makers have completely failed to see this imminent social disaster.
At present there are more than four Ministers of education in the centre and nine in the Provinces; thousands of educational bureaucrats with Directors of Education even at the Circuit level which were manned by circuit inspectors few years back; all grouping in the dark with their own private agendas. But there is hardly a day without a commotion somewhere on simple issues like admission to grade one, exam paper leaks or a teachers strike on some trifle matter. The Higher Education Minister is busy with ‘higher activities’ like military training for new university recruits, conferring military status to Principals of schools (to my knowledge the only country in the world having such practices) and establishing foreign Universities with tax exemptions to earn foreign exchange to whom I do not know.
These are the real issues, I think, the so-called Ministers of Education and others who are maintained by the public and put in charge of educational policy formulation, should address their minds before they jump to conclusion to abolish the Vth STD Scholarship examination, a goose that had been laying golden eggs. This is nothing but only ‘Atisarayata Ambuda gesiimaki’ as the popular Sinhala say goes, trying ‘to wear a loin cloth to stop diarrhoea’ without diagnosing and treating the real malady. Why can’t these pundits go back to the ‘One Central College with all facilities for each cluster of 5 Primary Schools within 6 mile radius policy? And have the Vth STD exame to select students for these Central Colleges only. This will also reduce the large numbers currently sitting the Scholarship Exam. I suggest the Minister first put the 54 Central colleges in to order by improving their facilities before trying to establish 1000 new Mahindodaya Schools. Surely that is much easier and cheaper too than starting 1000 new Schools. Those who still want to get in to other big schools can sit the entrance tests of those schools as it was done in the past. This is only a simple solution that could be adopted to get out of the present Vth STD Scholarship mess, without severing the neck of the goat to save the pot by abolishing the Vth STD Scholarship.