BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

It seems that Sri Lanka used to apply an absurd way for judging the quality of education gained by students looking at irrelevant criteria based on which school kids attended to gain education. Knowledge is identical from whichever school it gained. All over the world accept that education is a quality factor irrespective of from which school it gained and basically education relates to gaining knowledge, skills and values that are regarded as major areas of the basic education. This idea goes back to Socrates who explained that whichever is suitable for the purpose it is regarded as quality and it is easy to determine that if any person has knowledge, skills and values appropriate for the purpose such basic education is regarded as quality disregarding the place where the education was gained. Despite this accepted principle, it seems that Sri Lanka uses a criterion to determine the quality of education based on the place where kids obtained education. Because of this misconception, there is a competition to admitting kids to schools.

Before I gained higher education from universities, I attended a school in a village and this background induced me to insult me in public despite my higher education and other skills. Could education gained by a person be devalued based on the place of education was gained? It happens in Sri Lanka and I faced many instances for humiliation because I gained education from a village school. I visited several countries and never seen in such countries the education is valued based on the place students gained education.  I observed that no policymakers or responsible government authority attempted to change this deluded criterion and explain whichever school educated students required level of knowledge, skills and values gained it is quality. I met many kids they studied in so called Christin Colleges but they couldn’t gain required marks to enter the university.  Many wealthy parents spent a large sum of money their kids couldn’t gained required level of marks to enter university courses related to medicine, engineering and information technology etc.  

Many people in Sri Lanka seems to treat the value of education based on the place or school where the education was obtained and this type of value judgement is fallacious and determination of the value of education in such a manner is a highest disrespect to education. Before, European invasions, education was to categorized as good or bad not on the basis of the place anyone gained education but it was based on the demonstrated ability to display the competencies of a person. In fact, historical education based on the gaining competencies and nobody wanted to determine the value of education by using fallacious criteria.  

During the colonial era various churches attempted to interpret the education should be obtained from Christian institutions and the education gained from Buddhist or Hindu institutions regarded as lower quality. Whichever a place with a name board of a Christian saint regarded as quality education without referring to competencies gained and it was a question to me whether such a wrong assessment on the education should be applied to determine the quality of education gained by a person, and my view is quality education should be regarded as knowledge, skills and value gain through the education required competency level.

A conversation between Socrates and Critobulos (Ozman and Craver (1999), Philosophical Foundation of Education, USA, Upper Saddle River) explained that if anything is suitable for the purpose it is regarded as quality. When it judges the quality of education it doesn’t matter from which place or school education obtained it is regarded as quality, if anyone obtained right knowledge, skills and values. Such education regards as the quality education and it is immaterial from which institution obtained education by kids.

The race to admitting kids to schools in Sri Lanka is an outcome of fallacious attitudes and no one has attempted to change this wrong thinking. I observed that in Australia, when a person faced to a job interview the members of interview board never ask if the subject was studied in Australia, which Australian school was attended to, especially they are not concerned about the name of school.  As a person who gained higher degrees from Australian universities, I would like to suggest that education policymakers must change the way of determination of education based on school’s name and equity and justice based education should be in Sri Lanka.