Towards a National Education Policy

By R. S. Medagama-January 8, 2020, 6:59 pm

Former Director - General Education Reforms, Ministry of Education and Former Secretary, National Education Commission (First part of this article appeared yesterday (Jan. 08)

As recommended by the National Education Commission in its 2016 Report, the present Grade 5 examination should be conducted as a national assessment of schools rather than a competition among pupils to obtain high marks. There can be three simple question papers on language, math and general aptitude.

As the compulsory span of schooling has been extended up to 16 years and all children are expected to complete the G.C.E (A.L) course there is no point in having a rigorous, competitive examination at the end of grade 10, the G.C.E (O .L) examination. This examination can be a less traumatic test to guide students to select G.C.E (A.L) streams. In fact the present rigidity of streaming at A.L needs to be relaxed. It is suggested that the Department of Examinations holds a written test in First Language, English and Mathematics. There should be two papers in Mathematics Paper 1 which should be answered by all students and Paper 11 for those students who wish to proceed to follow A.L courses in Science and Technology. All other subjects can be tested at school level using SBA methodology.

The G.C.E (A.L) can be a course designed to provide a general education. First Language, English and Information Communication Technology will comprise the core area compulsory for all students and there can be three or four electives. I suggest four, because, as Prof. Illeperuma has suggested those students who wish to follow Science and Technology could select Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics so that they have a wider choice of courses when they proceed for higher education. For other courses the students can select three stream subjects and another subject to provide flexibility, The Arts students may select one science subject or mathematics. Thus the A.L Examination will be the school level terminal examination. In order to fill the gap in subject knowledge for those proceeding to higher education the 13th year can be a preparatory grade for those who are successful at the A.L Examination and wish to proceed for university education. This programme can be conducted either in selected collegiate schools or in university colleges.

5 The teaching profession: The role of the teacher is critical for improvement of quality of education. The teacher has to be thorough with the content knowledge of the subject discipline, educational theory and practice, bound by a code of ethics and be an example to the students in particular and the society in general. This needs three to four years of studies at higher level equivalent to a university degree and a professional training in education. After joining the profession opportunities should be available for continuous professional development. All members of the teaching profession have to be graduates with a diploma in education or B.Ed. degree. In order to reach this goal all pre-service teacher education institutes such as National Colleges of Education should be upgraded to the level of degree awarding institutes. The university education faculties too should expand their courses awarding B.Ed. degrees. Those non-graduate teachers who are in service need to be provided with opportunities to obtain degrees and there should be incentives to encourage them.

The current system of in-service education through ISAs is also unsatisfactory. Teachers are pulled out from schools to attend classes conducted by ISAs without arrangements to look after the classes. One person lecturing for five hours is not an appropriate method to train teachers in new methodology. Such refresher programmes can be conducted at school level under school based teacher development programmes. But for effective re-training of teachers a scheme should be designed to get all teachers to follow a comprehensive medium term training course at an institute. The underutilized teachers’ colleges and other teacher centres can be used for this purpose. Every teacher should undergo such a training programme every 10 years to begin with and later reduced to five years.

At present the teacher pupil ratio in government schools is 1:17. This is mainly because of the lack of a policy on teacher deployment and the existence of a large number of schools with very small classes. If as suggested earlier, through a scheme of re-organization of schools all secondary level children can be accommodated in secondary schools the wastage can be eliminated. Under a national policy if teachers can be recruited to schools and transfers given only when a vacancy occurs in another school unnecessary overstaffing of schools can be avoided. This system prevailed during the days of the assisted school system prior to 1960.

The NEC has recommended as far back as 1997 that a professional council be established to regulate the teaching profession. No teacher should be recruited to the teaching service without a license from such a council. The license need to be renewed every 5 to 10 years and cancelled due to dishonourable behaviour. Such a mechanism is essential to maintain the quality of the teaching profession.

6 Student welfare: In order to ensure free education, the government provides a host of welfare measures such as free health services, free text books, school uniforms, school meals in disadvantaged primary schools, bursaries for children coming from low- income families, subsidized transport etc. But an area that is lagging behind is meeting the nutritional requirements of school children. .

Good health is one of the most important factors that affect the quality of learning of a child. Sri Lanka can be proud that we are ahead of many other developing countries with regard to health indicators of children. But in one area we are behind many other countries i e in child nutrition. As nutritionists call it we are faced with the double burden of malnutrition (D.Mukerji - The Island ). According to nutritional surveys conducted by the Medical Research Institute and the Family Health Bureau of the Ministry of Health underweight among both primary and secondary school children is 28% and stunting is 8%. At the same time the incidence of over-weight is 5%. Under these conditions the prevalence of Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) in the nation will rise to very high levels in the near future.

Unfortunately this situation is not due to poverty or lack of food, but due to lack of nutrition education and wrong policies. The writer has observed that in the morning parents spending over Rs. 200 per child to purchase pastries from food parlours and that is all that these children have as their food for the day. No wonder that the children are malnourished!

When we perceive the international scene we find that in developing countries children are provided with a meal at school with government and donor assistance. Most African countries are moving towards the school and the community for sustaining the school meal programme. Ruanda a decade ago underwent a much worse ethnic strife than Sri Lanka is planning to be self-sustaining through a programme of "Home Grown School Feeding(HGSF)". In developed countries school children are provided with a nutritious meal through the school meal service or school canteens. Children pay for the subsidized meals and the deserving children are given vouchers. In Japan mealtime is an occasion to impart value education.

In Sri Lanka about one million primary school children are provided with a midday meal. The meals are supplied by a person selected by the school development society and the payment is about Rs.20 per child. The quality of the meal leaves much to be desired. How can a better meal be given for Rs.20? In order to reduce costs all schools where it is feasible school gardening should be encouraged and most schools have the land to grow leafy vegetables and tree crops. All primary school children need to be provided with a nutritious meal at government expense if we wish to have a healthy generation of young people in the future. With regard to secondary schools suitable canteen facilities should be established for all children and the staff to have a decent meal. There isn’t a single school in Sri Lanka with adequate canteen facilities. Although there is a very good circular on school canteens issued by the Ministry of Education specifying the standards and the type of foods that should be made available its provisions are observed more in the breach. Midday meals can be provided at the canteen at a reasonable rate and the deserving children can be given free vouchers.

7 Governance of Education: The manifesto of the SLPP states that all institutions in the education sector will be brought under one ministry. This is a very commendable proposal and if it can be done at the next re-structuring of ministries it would be highly appreciated. It would ensure better co-ordination and avoid duplication and wastage of resources.

At present there is a central ministry of education and nine provincial education ministries to manage over 10,000 schools. According to the Education Ordinance the Director General and other officers of the department shall execute and shall have the power to enforce the provisions of the Ordinance. Since 1968 the Director General is the Secretary to the ministry. This happened on the recommendations of the Rejendra Committee, which recommended the amalgamation of ministries and departments. But this system did not work and in other ministries such as health and agriculture the two posts were separated. Directors- General were appointed to be in charge of the technical aspects of the ministry. But in the education ministry it did not happen and Secretary continues to be the Director- General as well.

As a result there is over concentration of work with the office of the Secretary and he has to attend to all minute details of administration. The Secretary is more involved with matters like school admissions, teacher establishment work and public relations rather than concentrating on policy and monitoring. The secretary is appointed from the administrative service and he has no experience in education. To make matters worse during the last 20 years 15 secretaries have served in the ministry and any one of them has not spent a sufficient period of time in the post to gather experience or build an institutional memory. The disaster on last Easter Sunday is an example of what happens when inexperienced outsiders are appointed to key positions such as ministry secretaries.

In order to de-concentrate the work of the ministry further it is recommended that a few more departments be created at the ministry for subjects such as National schools, Teacher Education, and Non-formal Education. Those departments will function independently and efficiently like the present department of examinations.

In the provincial structure there are too many tiers to manage a few hundred schools. There is a provincial ministry, provincial department, zonal offices and divisional offices. Above these there is a Chief Minister and a Governor. Moreover the policy of the government is to devolve more powers to the schools under school based management. In some zones the number of schools is less than 40. Management experts say tall organizations are inefficient. Why then such an unproductive system in the provinces. A rationalization is imperative.

8 Quality Assurance and Accreditation: Quality assurance mechanisms need to be an integral part of all arrangements and processes in the national education system. At present there is a Quality Assurance branch at the ministry and action is being taken to establish an Inspectorate to supervise the schools. But what is needed is an independent institution for carrying out quality assurance and accreditation of all institutions coming under the ministry. Once such an agency is established all institutions under the ministry can be accredited based on an agreed set of indicators and those responsible made accountable for their performance.

9 Non- formal and Special Education: The Non-formal education branch of the ministry conducts a number of programmes at present but their quality leaves much to be desired. In the present context literacy programmes and vocational training programmes that are conducted are outdated. There are no concentrations of illiterates to conduct viable classes regularly. For a few stray cases a different mechanism need to be developed. Similarly the vocational training programmes conducted are inadequate for present day clientele. It is recommended that they should concentrate on community learning programmes for targeted groups. Examples are health and nutrition programmes for mothers, income generating activities for housewives, entrepreneurship programmes for unemployed youth and programmes for those who have dropped out from school to equip them for further education. The NFE branch and the Open School of the NIE have to work collaboratively.

10 Educational Finance: There is no doubt that allocation for education should be increased. However it would be unrealistic to expect an allocation of 6% of the GDP on education when the total income of the government is only about 12% of the GDP. The first step should be to eliminate wastage through reducing excess staff and rationalization of institutions.

11 A comprehensive Education Act: The present legal provision for education is the Education Ordinance No.31 of 1939 and the Special Acts enacted for various specific purposes subsequently. Most of the sections of this Ordinance are outdated and the existing procedures are prescribed by departmental circulars and not legally binding. Subsidiary legislation has not been codified after 1956. As a result ministers change policies at their whims and fancy. This is why a national education policy has not been implemented in spite of the existence of a National Education commission. Therefore the enactment of a comprehensive Education Act is a national priority.

In this article I have touched upon the most important aspects that should go in to a national policy on general education. It is up to the authorities concerned to further expand and add new areas that need to be considered. rsmedagama@gmail.com

Concluded