Education in Sinhala and Tamil Medium vs English

By Siri Gamage-January 4, 2018, 10:20 pm 

I read with interest a series of recent articles covering the merits of education in the medium of English as conducted in a bygone era prior to 1956 and the problems associated with the delivery of higher education in Sinhala and Tamil medium afterwards. Discussion covered the merits of 1956 changes to official language policy introduced by former PM SWRD Bandaranayake as well as their negative consequences when the teaching of English was given low priority. The latest in the series of these articles is by Uswatte-arachi in The Island (02.01.2017) where he comments on the role of Central Schools as well. He states that the problems in education started when the teaching in Sinhala and Tamil media was started in the university. Lack of reading material in these languages at the time is mentioned as a contributing factor to the deterioration of education. He highlights the continuing practice of teaching in English in the medical, engineering and some science faculties in comparison to teaching in social sciences and humanities where the medium change to Sinhala and Tamil was religiously adopted harming the advantages that would have been gained otherwise. He even suggests that the undergraduates should have been given instruction in English language study during first two years in the university. In writing this short article including my experiences, the aim is to show that this is a highly complex issue requiring systematic inquiry by the authorities.

I entered the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya in September 1968 from Walasmulla Maha Vidyalaya. I was among two who were fortunate enough to enter the prestigious university, the other being former professor of philosophy at Kelaniya university, V.G. Kularathne. The closest Central School to my place of residence was at Weeraketiya where the study of science was available at the time. I had no knowledge of science subjects at Horewela Primary School and the only other opportunity available for me was to get admission to Walasmulla Maha Vidyalaya. Following the trend at the time, I spent one term studying in the science stream in that school but I was not able to cope with the sudden exposure to an alien subject and the challenges it posed without prior preparation. Tasks associated with lab work, use of science texts with a lot of technical terms etc. and even learning the science concepts and principles were difficult. The principal Mr. Jayawickrama called my father to his office and courteously advised both of us that it is better if I join the arts stream as I was the last in terms of one term results in the science stream. We accepted his advice and the rest is history. I excelled in studying subjects such as Buddhist civilisation, history, government/political science, etc for the HSC in 1967. We had not only university graduate teachers who were qualified to teach in the school but they had a passion for teaching. However, the English teacher used to sleep on the table keeping his head on it as students showed little interest in learning the language. By the time I entered the university, I had little to no knowledge of English and even avoided those who spoke English in my first year to avoid embarrassment.

I was among those who were taught in Sinhala medium during the early 1970s. In fact HL taught me sociological concepts and theory in my second year. Other reputed teachers such as Ralph Peris (had no skills in teaching in Sinhala), Gananath Obeysekera, Kitsiri Malalgoda, Sunimal Fernando did their best to explain different aspects of sociology and anthropology. Mr. J. P Delgoda, commissioner of prisons taught criminology as a visiting lecturer. He brought practical experience to the classroom compared to some others who had field research experience e. g. Obeysekera. Arm chair thinking was anathema to anthropologists and sociologists who advocated the merits of empirical field research and data collection. In sociology, positivist research methodology dominated whereas anthropologists emphasised other methods such as participant observation to gather information. We were taught to look at our own society, people, culture, religion, economy, education etc through the concepts, theories and methods from these disciplines which had their origins in Europe and evolved later in the US.

My story of learning English at the university to be able to qualify and undertake a special degree in Sociology is an unusual one characterised by personal commitment ,hard work and desire as well as peer support. Therefore I would not try to generalise my experience for the time. The university had English classes but their emphasis was to give us reading and comprehension skills. However, teachers we had such as Hemamali Gunasinghe, Mrs Gunawardene (wife of an engineering professor) taught us the value of communicative English also. Most of all, their teaching approach helped us to eliminate fear within us about speaking in English. Additional tutorial classes in Gampaha (duringuniversity closure due to 1971 insurrection) and in Kandy privately conducted by a talented Tamil teacher from Trinity helped me to further my English language skills. The encouragement received from my seniors was invaluable. But my main intention here is to throw some light on learning in Sinhala medium and later teaching sociology and anthropology in Sinhala and English medium until 1986(for more read Gamage 2014).

There is no doubt that if I had better English knowledge when I entered university or in the first year it would have been much easier for me to learn and absorb alien disciplinary knowledge, principles and methods and research findings as all our text books, reference books and journal articles were in English and some in German and French. Even though our teachers at university did their best to translate and present knowledge originally available in English and other European languages, comprehension of Sinhala translations was not easy as we had to use a lot of technical terms that were not in the vernacular. However, my colleagues in the sociology classes such as Tudor Silva, Amarasiri de Silva, Jayantha Perera, and my senior Sarath Chandrasekera were generous in sharing knowledge in the discipline. I was fortunate enough to grasp the fundamentals of the disciplines with perseverance and burning mid night oil. Learning English language and Sociology/anthropology at the same time was an uphill task that I had to overcome. As I had set my personal academic goals clearly by then, such perseverance and commitment were not obstacles but vehicles for future success i.e. getting an upper second class in the honours degree.

Nonetheless, most of my colleagues in a batch of 700 were only able to complete a general degree studying 3 subjects such as history, political science, Economics, Sinhala, Buddhism and others. Their exposure to disciplinary knowledge in the English medium or for that matter English language was highly limited unless they had come from city schools or central schools. They relied on translated knowledge by their lecturers and tutors. I might add that such translations at the time were of the highest standard compared to what we observe in universities today. There was also a common view at the time that university graduates had an all round knowledge not limited to the subjects learned. For example, an arts graduate would have knowledge in how the body functioned, world affairs, bureaucracy and government, how to make decisions in troubled circumstances, psychology, dealing with police, art and culture, city matters etc. Later on recognising the importance of providing undergraduates knowledge in several fundamental fields of study, a Foundation year was introduced. The degree obtained by these students was called Foundation degree due to this and it acquired some notoriety among the undergraduates as a result. However, I attended some lectures by Osmond Jayarathne, E.R. Sarachchandra etc. delivered as part of this foundation year on my own choosing. They were excellent introductions to subjects they dealt with. For example, Osmond talked about the universe.

The point about higher education emphased by previous writers to The Island such as Elmo, Samaraweera, HL,Karunanayake and Uswatte-aratci is whether the country would have been better if university education was provided via English or Sinhala, and Tamil mediam? There is no question about the merits of having a knowledge of English and for that matter other European and Asian languages. Such knowledge theoretically at least can open the young minds to global knowledge and literature,achievements in science and technology, history of civilisations etc. However, we should not forget the fact that the social science disciplines and humanities to some extent were subject areas with colonial trappings in their origin, introduction to Ceylon, and translations to Sinhala and Tami student audiencesl. The knowledge taught thus was/is not universally applicable or value free. It needs to be adapted to local context,it's needs,culture and even nation building exercises. In short, such disciplinary knowledge needs to be decolonized. This has not happened to the extent that the generations of young people who received free education in Sinhala and Tamil deserve.

Instead of text books with original ideas,concepts,theories,paradigms or methods by our social scientists,what we still see in Sociology at least is Sinhala and Tamil translations of texts published decades ago in English.( This is not to say that there are no excellent edited collections of papers,especially as felicitation books for retiring academics,published in English). An academic dependency on western and American knowledge inherited from a previous era still dominates our social sciences(see Gamage 2016). We do not have centres of excellence in teaching and research in cutting-edge fields such as post colonial studies,critical feminist studies, post development, Southern theory that focus on recent developments in Asia, Africa, Latin America etc.along with theorisations from the global south In such an environment where translation of old knowledge in the disciplines, rote learning for passing examinations etc are encouraged instead of critical examination,evaluation and adoption or rejection of received disciplinary knowledge,can we expect an innovative nation to emerge? Can we expect a knowledge hub to succeed? Can we expect our social science graduates to be on par with the bilingual graduates of a bygone era in terms of their intellect and skills set?

When discussing the merits of education in English compared to Sinhala or Tamil, we need to remember how a class of English educated was nurtured by the British government and missionaries during the pre 1956 era. This class lost knowledge of local culture,religion, language,customs etc. in the process of trying to imitate Western style of life and fit in with the British administrators. They imbibed in and imitated Western ways of living,religion,language,customs and more for the benefits and privileges received from the colonial government and missionaries. It was the locals who learned In Sinhala or Tamil while acquiring a knowledge of English and in some cases Sanskrit and Pali who made a critical contribution to the nationalist revival,free education and gaining of independence,e.g Sir Baron Jayatillake. Intellectuals of this category are called bilingual intellectuals(see Ranjani Obeyesekera 1984).

A concerning aspect of higher education today is not only the depleting number of bilingual intellectuals but also the lack of teaching about our own knowledge traditions contained in our cultural,philosophical,literary and religious traditions or even a knowledge of our history and language. This is partly due to the heavy reliance of our social scientists in universities on Western disciplines unadulterated. Thus even though the universities teach social sciences in Sinhala and Tamil, the graduates are not only incapable of accessing wider knowledge in English but lack a grounding of indigenous or local culture,history,religions,literature,arts,music etc. Thus they disown their inherited identity and subjectivity plus heritage and acquire a modern identity and subjectivity,though many struggle to achieve even this due to the class and city-village divide. The former is in line with colonial designs originally set in place by the British and being continued up to this day by our higher education system via the Western and American disciplines translated. This has deep and far reaching consequences for the country.This is another reason for a concerted effort by authorities to reform higher education with decolonisation of curriculum and teaching as a central focus instead of parroting the merits of internationalisation of education and the English language per se.

Before the country prepares graduates in social sciences and humanities for the global economy or market with free education, it needs to prepare graduates with a sense of pride in their own identity, culture, history, religion, art, literature and collected wisdom. If not, we will be training graduates whose first preference is to leave the country at the first opportunity to be a migrant in an English speaking country thereby denying their services to the country that trained their hand. Unfortunately, some misguided youth who did not enter the universities also try to follow the same path even by boats.I think the loss to the country as a result of not reforming higher education to country's current needs is even more in billions lost compared to the bond scam. Gamage.S. 2014.Changing Patterns of Anthropology and Sociology Practices in Sri Lanka in the Context of Debates on Northern and Southern Theory, Social Affairs, Vol. 1(1).

Gamage,S. 2016. Academic Dependency on Western Disciplinary Knowledge and Captive Mind among South Asian Sociologists, Social Affairs, Vol. 1(5).

Obeyesekera,R. 1984. The Bilingual Intelligentsia: Tgeir contribution to the Intellectual Life of Sri Lanka in the Twentieth Century, in Honouring E.F.C. Ludowyk Felicitation Essays (eds) Percy Colin-Thome and Ashley Halpe, Thisara Prakasakayo, Dehiwala.