Schooling in Sri Lanka & debate on extending school hours
Posted on March 13th, 2011

Shenali Waduge

It should come as no surprise when Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s politicians blurt out policies without much thought or without discussion & it is a main reason for most of us to feel dejected by how our education system is being administered. Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s education system has unfortunately been in the hands of most who have treated education as a place to incorporate whims & fancies while in office, then as advisors they continue similar damage & then upon retirement showcase the fallacies committed. Such has been the practice over the years through successive Governments.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Before discussing school hours we need to first identify where we have gone wrong. If we can recall, Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s education system was once thought to be far better than other Asian countries, similarly our university system was regarded with much respect as well. So what seems to have happened thereafter? Obviously the politicization of education has much to answer for. Political appointments, influx of teachers unsuited to teach just to satisfy members of parliament, scant regard to strategize on how to resurrect schools in rural areas, little passion to uplift the teaching methodologies in these less privileged areas, limited flow of funds or attention are some of the immediate reasons that would come to mind.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ We cannot compare the education system of the past with the present nor can we think of replicating it as a solution to the present crisis but we should not forget that it is the past that holds the basics & fundamentals to teaching the subjects in our curriculums. These fundamentals have not & will not change. What is puzzling is why little attention is paid to teaching these fundamentals in easy to understand ways. As such we question how difficult it is for any teacher to teach the fundamentals of how to count, how to read, how to spell, how to understand the basics of science etcƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦these should not be treated as secrets known only to the teacher! How well have the education ministry managed teacher training & tested trained teachers on how they teach? The lack of proper training is what ails most of the education ills today. Regular training is needed & these trained teachers need to be regularly tested by the ministry through spot testing. It is the lack of this basic knowledge especially amongst the early school entrants that is causing them to be confused as they move up the grades. It is this confusion that makes children frustrated, parents anxious which triggers the other evil ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” tuition.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ All parents naturally desire to educate & see their children somebodyƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s in life. Many parents spend a bulk of what they earn on education especially when they see that what is taught in schools is insufficient purely because the basics have not been taught & the structure of the course textbooks being so different to how the parents were taught children hesitate to seek assistance from their parents. Another reason is that parents especially those who are both working have little time after work to spend on homework & so the natural prerogative is to seek the assistance of a tuition teacher. The discussion on tuition will divert the main theme of the essay but in short tuition which should be a means of assisting a child has nevertheless ended up a commercial effort with tuition classes are held for over 1000 students over mikes, where teachers themselves insist their class attend his/her tuition class after school & when tuition per hour for home visits is Rs.1000 per hour if one is lucky! Yet the tuition culture has become a fix it formula. It does question the logic of what a teacher cannot teach during school hours can teach after school hours. But this unfortunately is the ugly practice. All children not attending their classes get penalized! These are just a few of the ugly practices taking place. A lesson for all is that education & learning is not for passing exams alone! What a tuition teacher does is prepare students for exams with model answers & that is why students end up memorizing text books!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Of course there is variety in todayƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s curriculum & project work has been incorporated but this is really no different from the social studies/history taught in yonder years. Of course children today are lucky to have so much information available to them often at a touch of a button however all these are add-ons & without the basics the children themselves in time to come end up getting frustrated. Besides, though environment is taught (a subject in lieu of social studies) how many children (junior or senior) know the capitals of the world, where countries are located, who invented whatƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦.etc!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Over the years the trimmings to education curriculums have been for too many to mention & these authors are well advised to calculate what they have included against its success revealed through results which is the only benchmark we have ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” the results of ordinary level & advanced levels are deteriorating! So where are we going wrong.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It is easy to blame the politicians but we all know that it is their job to deceive, it is natural for them to say one thing & immediately deny what they said however officials serving key posts in the education & all other institutes that are tasked with setting Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s education in the right path need to be equally responsible. It is their silence to foolhardy policies & circulars that have ended up taking our education system downwards & our children are paying the price. These fanciful ideas have not only ended up with children frustrated, parents anxious, the country itself is losing out on producing talented individuals. Those that are financially well off are able to end up migrating or sending their children abroad & the country looses out on currency as well.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ A parents dilemma starts even before their first child is born for how many ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-goodƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ schools are there in the mile radius that the ministry stipulates? Then there is a question of abuses within the admissions where most often these policies end up being sacrificed not for a few rupees but more than a few lakhs!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Then there are good efforts that end up being hijacked for profits one good example of such is the effort to bring nutrition to schools & offer a free mid day meal. What ultimately happened was those that were tasked to prepare hygienic & nutritious meal ended up preparing sub-standard food leaving many children suffering from food poison & parents refusing to allow their children to be guinea pigs for those aspiring to make a quick buck! Despite government circulars how many schools have stopped the sale of fast food items & requested canteen owners to serve nutritious food only?

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ We now come to the topic of extended school hours? Much as many would cry surprise, school hours running from 8a.m. to 3p.m. was the norm some years back. Some children with permission from school even went home for lunch & came back! Now this exercise would be futile for we are well aware how many children actually live in that 1mile radius or nearabouts to actually go home in the present & makes us demand why schools would have school buses if this circular had been in effect!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Most school children today travel to school by public transport (bus or train) accompanied with a parent or alone if they are old enough, by vehicle (car or bike) or by school van. Return home journey is generally by bus, school van or with an elderly guardian (grandparent or relation). Children return home to a parent, grandparents or at a day care. Extending school hours would not affect the morning journey to children though it may affect the return home especially if children live much beyond the stipulated radius of the ministry & so naturally these parents would be one of the first to object. However, they have little right to for it is by choice that they have committed to sending their child to a far away school. Of course parents would be concerned with the meal factor. While schools in the developed nations have good canteen systems the same type of expectations & actual realization is a concern as well as the consistency of its efficiency. With many children traveling from beyond the 1mile radius the meal factor will be of more concern than the actual change in hours. So did authorities factor in these issues before going public or was it just to test the water?

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Why would authorities feel the need to extend school hours? Is it to stop the tuition mania, is it to incorporate a new strategy to allow & offer school children some quality educationƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦ it would be interesting to know the exact reasons behind this. Generally a change in policy would result if politicians feel it would affect the votes they get. That unfortunately is how policy decisions end up being implemented or not.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Most developed countries have extended school hours & those schools that extended school hours to improve the quality of education especially in areas where lower economic children with tendencies to not pay attention to studies were very happy with the results. Children started to nurture a love for learning, they were able to be kept away from distractions like watching tv, hanging around with children upto mischief & teachers themselves started to feel happy teaching them. Of course teachers of these countries become teachers because they love teaching & do not regard their role as a paid job! Teachers in these developed countries are paid well because though school finishes at a particular time the teachers cannot leave school without preparing the work for the next day. When teachers in Sri Lanka cry foul over the extension of school hours far ahead of parents or children we must wonder why? Understanding that they too are parents is besides the point, they are public servants & as such expected to work from 8:15a.m. to 4:15p.m but not only do they leave along with the school children immediately after school closes they also become privy to all the school holidays in addition to the holidays given to public servants. Yet, teachers have been the first to object to remaining after school hours to even prepare for the next days work. Again the courage to actually enforce this will be questionable especially in Government schools are politicians would always think along the lines of votes they are likely to loose & that would be how teachers unions will lobby their cases!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ So what a dilemma we are faced with & its far more complicated than the exercise of adjusting to extended school hours. Extended school hours is actually worth the risk being taken. With longer hours it gives children the time to question areas that they learn, it allows teachers themselves to take time to see how far each child has understood & for innovative & creative schools, it gives them the opportunities to introduce time for sports, drama, learning foreign language, project work, learning about world affairs & history & it will also be a good occasion to have scouting, girl guides, first aid & other emergency programs, cooking & even some vocational programs introduced in partnership with the private sector. Senior children will be able to really plan their life & to be able to seriously think & test what they are good at. Extended school hours would also stop the tuition craze for besides making tuition teachers richer it hasnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t helped in bringing results. Tuition teachers have increased, the monthly charges have increased, tuition goers have increased, even children who have just begun school end up going for tuition but where is the results?…. !!! Therefore parents nor the child are in reality benefiting & the education department would be doing a favor by attempting to stop this through the extended school hour introduction.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The only issues again that would need to be discussed prior to this would be the meal factor, the travel factor & most importantly how passionate teachers are to enjoy spending additional hours teaching their children? It may well be good to kickstart this in a few rural schools as well as some Colombo schools where principals would like to experiment & see how well the new timings would work.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Spreading out the subjects, incorporate new methodology of teaching, spending quality time with the children, getting external parties involved under proper supervision would definitely bring the results as other countries have experienced.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Without the passionƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦nothing will get done however.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

One Response to “Schooling in Sri Lanka & debate on extending school hours”

  1. Fran Diaz Says:

    Thanks to Shenali for analyzing the all important topic of government run schools & Education in Lanka.

    We ourselves were students in govt. schools way back in the 150’s & 1960’s, and even in those days really good teachers were rare. Writing on my own personal experience, I recall learning some lesser known basic principles in arithmetic & math outside the school system, which enabled me to get a credit pass in the SSC exam (now GCE O.L.). Why didn’t our math teachers show us these principles themselves ? Obviously, our math teachers must have been good in math themselves, or otherwise they would not have been in those teaching posts ! How did they get to be good in math ?

    On the contrary, I recall with gratitude our General Science, English language & our European History teachers and to this day I think of them all with affectionate gratitude for bringing alive to us General Science, English literature & European History. It must have been a difficult task to them as they had none of the tools a modern day teacher has, but only the text books.

    Teaching, like Nursing, is a career that demands dedication and passion. Without those two elements, the teacher is just a person who is merely reciting a lesson from a book. Teachers must inspire their students to THINK and use the subject taught in their daily life as much as possible. Children also feel if their teachers basically like children or not. Magic in learning happens to the student only when subject matter useful to Life is taught by a inspired teacher who likes children. We can rest assured that such a combination will produce bright students, equipped to handle life’s problems, as well as possessing skills to handle future jobs.

    Teaching properly is not an easy task and teachers should receive good remuneration for their good work.

    Therefore, choosing the subject matter for teaching is as important as having good teachers. Then extending school hours would be meaningful, apart from adding extra curricular activities. Our school hours then were from 8 am to 3 pm.

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