Sugath Kulatunga

Ivor Jennings did not sign the Kannangara Committee Report on Free Education. Following are a few excerpts from his Rider. His stance on the country not being able to absorb  commercial and technical qualified products was perhaps one of the reasons that practical education was neglected.

“THOUGH there is much in the Report with which I agree, I regret that I am unable to sign If, however, education really became compulsory and if pupils of all classes were encouraged by free education to remain at school up to the age of 16, there might be as many as 22,500 (15 per cent of 150,000) leaving school every year with commercial and technical qualifications. I see no evidence that the Island is likely to be able to absorb even half that number. I appreciate the difficulty (which perhaps weighed with the Committee) that many pupils are receiving a wholly inappropriate ” academic” education in secondary schools. I think the solution is partly to alter the bias of secondary education and partly to improve the quality of the other schools and to encourage them to specialize.

There are other paragraphs in the Report with which I could not agree.

I regret, for instance, the racial definition of “Mother Tongue” in paragraph 90. There are many ways of encouraging the use of Sinhalese and Tamil and if it is so desired) discouraging the use of English, without attempting the impossible task of dividing the people of Ceylon according to ”race”. I should not have dissented merely because of minor differences of this character. My chief objection is that the Committee, after 87 meetings, suddenly changed the basis on which the Report was compiled. Since I agreed with the proposal to make education free, I was quite prepared to start again; but the Committee decided otherwise and I am therefore unable to sign the Report. I should like to add, however, that there are many Chapters, especially Chapters XVI to XIX which should help to improve the Ceylon system of education.”