{"id":71347,"date":"2017-11-04T17:13:11","date_gmt":"2017-11-05T00:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=71347"},"modified":"2017-11-04T17:13:11","modified_gmt":"2017-11-05T00:13:11","slug":"microscopic-minority-controls-ceylons-education-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/11\/04\/microscopic-minority-controls-ceylons-education-2\/","title":{"rendered":"MICROSCOPIC MINORITY CONTROLS CEYLON\u2019S EDUCATION"},"content":{"rendered":"

By L. H. Mettananda<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Date: Circa 1954<\/p>\n

The forces that are working today against the continuation of the Swabahsa medium beyond 8th standard are certainly not a mushroom growth. It is
\npossible to trace their origins to the very beginnings of British rule in Ceylon. Just as the Kenya Government while engaged in the campaign to
\noust the Kenya Africans from the more fertile and more salubrious part of the country has found it necessary also to wipe out the tradition, language
\nand culture of the Kenya Africans which bound them to their ancestral lands and has begun to work through the Christian missions and churches\u201d, even
\nso the British Government in Ceylon entrusted the education of Ceylon children to the Christian church through the ecclesiastical Department which existed from the beginning of British rule until the year 1871 and thereafter continued to shower favours on the Christian Schools in a more subtle and surreptitious manner. This change of strategy was resorted to owing to the fact Buddhist and Hindu Schools began to put in their appearance for the first time under colonial rule.
\nThese two school organisations (a) Christian (b) Buddhist-Hindu from the stand point of their objectives are diametrically opposed to each other.
\nOrganisation (a) created a civil army and garrison every where which was more important even than the military army of occupation\u201d – stooges of the
\nBritish Government, who were loyal and became more loyal by becoming converts to Christianity. (Hansard). Organisation (b) was definitely a national organisation and it was especially concerned with the conserving of the national language and national culture, an activity that had to be carried out under the surveillance of the British raj.
\nHow sharply these two educational bodies were once divided over the question of pursuing the study of national languages, not as a medium but as a subject of the secondary school curriculum can be seen from the illuminating evidence given by witnesses who appeared before the Education Committee of 1911 to 1912 that had been appointed to scrutinize the famous Bridges Report.
\nHeads of Protestant and Catholic Schools, Burghers and Europeans spoke against the study of national languages. Whereas the Heads of Buddhist and Hindu Schools as well as the prominent patriots of the day spoke in support.<\/p>\n

CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
\nSt. Joseph\u2019s College:
\nRev. Fr L E Bouvier, O M I , Manager of Christian Schools, Colombo:- I think
\nthat the study of the vernaculars ought not to be introduced at all into
\nEnglish Schools.\u201d
\nThe very Rev. Fr C H Lytton:- (The vernaculars) will not be introduced into<\/p>\n

St. Josephs\u2019 College.\u201d
\nSt. Thomas\u2019 College:
\nRev. W.A. Stone, Warden:- (Vernacular Languages) have little educational
\nvalue in secondary Schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. Benedicts College:
\nRev. Bro. Camillus, Director:- I do not consider the Vernacular Languages
\nto be of any value in the education of the classes which attend English
\nSchools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prince of Wales\u2019 College:
\nMr J G C Mendis, Principal:- In English Schools the value of the vernacular
\nlanguages is practically nil, except for the illustration of diferences in idiom
\nor the elucidation of English words and phrases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya:
\nThe Principal:- The introduction of the vernacular languages into the
\nEnglish Schools can but prevent the pupils from acquiring a proper
\nknowledge of English. The pupils will be unable to speak English correctly,
\nand at the same time there will be an impossibility of organising the
\nteaching of the vernaculars.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. Aloysius\u2019 College, Galle:
\nThe very Rev. Fr. The Neut S.J.Superior: The vernaculars are not
\neducational.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. Anthony\u2019s College, Kandy:
\nThe very Rev. Fr D B Beekmeyar, O S B, Manager of Catholic Schools,
\nKandy:- I do not think the vernacular languages should at all be introduced
\ninto English Schools, whether elementary or secondary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. C S Schveider President, L C P A:- The mature child in whose home
\nEnglish is not spoken makes most rapid progress in speaking and writing
\nEnglish correctly and with a correct accent when placed in a boarding
\nschool, where the children are compelled to converse in English and
\nforbidden to converse in their own vernacular.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Francis Beven:- I am strongly opposed to the vernaculars being
\nsubstituted, either optionally or compulsorily, for the classical and modern
\nlanguages of Europe in the higher parts of the curriculum of secondary
\nschools. Their proper place is outside these schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr G C Bliss :- Chairman of the Planters\u2019 Association of Ceylon: As long as
\nyoung Englishmen of good birth and with public school and University
\ntraining are ready, as now, to come out to Ceylon and start Government or
\nMercantile and estate life and the salaries they now do, it must appear a
\nvery remote contingency that alteration in the education in schools would
\nlead to Ceylonese being preferred.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Arthur Alwis:- The teaching of their (Vernacular) languages in the
\nsecondary schools is of no educational value.\u201d<\/p>\n

BUDDHISTS & HINDU SCHOOLS
\nAnanda College :
\nMr D B Jayatilaka:- An adequate knowledge of these (vernacular) languages
\nis an absolute necessity to get along successfully in the professions — the
\nlegal, the medical and the clerical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dharmaraja College,Kandy:
\nMr. K.F.Billimoria, Principal:- Vernacular languages are really important for
\nthe majority of Ceylonese.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mahinda College Galle:
\nMr. F.L. Wooward, Principal:- My experience of boys who come to me from
\nschools where the vernacular is not taught is that they lack something. They
\nare not real, and seem to belong to neither one people nor the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hindu College, Jaffna:
\nMr. G.Shiva Rao, Principal:- A study of the vernacular will better enable
\nthe educated classes to reach the masses and to interpret the West to the
\nEast.\u201d
\nCategory (a) under the aegis of the colonial regime, walked towards the
\ndenationalisation of the anglicisation of their pupils and regarded the
\nnational languages as subversive of this two fold object.<\/p>\n

Category (b) in spite of official frowns aimed at bridge-building between
\nthe children and their pupils culture. In the new set up, the two fold object
\nof category (a) is dangerous and must be immediately given up. On the
\ncontrary, what the country needs today is more and more bridgebuildings
\nbetween education and the people. Therefore the objective of category (b)
\nis entitled to the highest regard of the entire nation.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, vested interests die hard. Yesterday, the die-hards of the
\nChristian minority opposed the study of Vernacular\u201d languages in English
\nschools; today they are opposing the change over to Vernacular\u201d languages
\nmedia beyond the 8th standard. This is the way the Christian minority who
\nnow form about 9% of the population are determined to control the
\neducation of the entire nation. Kenya Government may allow that kind of
\nthing to wipe out the language and culture of Kenya Africans in its attempt
\nto expel them from the better parts of their country. But in free Ceylon
\ngiving the control of education to a microscopic minority cuts at the very
\nroot of democracy.<\/p>\n

Of course, the opposition of this minority to the switch over to national
\nlanguage media beyond 8th standard is organised through self-appointed
\nbodies like the Ceylon Head Masters\u2019 Conference, The Ceylon Head
\nMistresses\u2019 Association and the Ceylon Educational Association. All these
\nself-appointed hodies have high-sounding names. But the Ceylon Head
\nMasters\u2019 Conference represents only 25 schools of which more than twothirds
\nare Christian Schools; the Ceylon Head Mistresses\u2019 Association too
\nrepresents a similar number of girls\u2019 schools and is predominantly Christian;
\nand lastly, the Ceylon Educational Association, a survival of colonial days;
\nrepresenting Christian interests almost exclusively, dead some time ago, but
\nnow mysteriously brought back to life – obviously to fight the last battle for
\nexclusive privileges for education in Ceylon. All these three associations
\nappear to follow as their model an exclusive body like the Colombo Club\u201d
\nbearing a name that is democratic, but in reality an impregnable castestronghold
\na little England, in which dogs and natives are not allowed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By L. H. Mettananda Date: Circa 1954 The forces that are working today against the continuation of the Swabahsa medium beyond 8th standard are certainly not a mushroom growth. It is possible to trace their origins to the very beginnings of British rule in Ceylon. Just as the Kenya Government while engaged in the campaign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}