By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO, Jan 10 2000 (IPS)

At a secondary school in Sri Lanka’s north central region, there are not enough teachers for every class. While the school should have a minimum of 17 teachers, there are only 10 including its principal.

There is no one to take the mathematics, English, agriculture and art classes. The school has no electricity, library or science laboratory, which were promised under wide-ranging education reforms introduced last January.

“The students are expected to read newspapers and watch television according to the new reforms. But they have no money to buy the newspaper — let alone enough to eat,” the school principal, who declined to be named, said in a recent interview.

“There is no electricity in Haradana Village and they study from the light of bottle-lamps. So how can they watch TV?”

A whole slew of new policies for overhauling the education system were expected to equip students with skills to “meet the challenges of the new millennium”, the policy makers had said.

One year later, the reforms are only widening the gap between rich and poor schools — one of the things the changes were intended to counter.

Sri Lanka has an enviable literacy rate of 90 percent, but a six-year study by the government showed that far too many children could not read or write.

As a result, major changes were made in the curriculum, teachers’ guides and textbooks. Coloured textbooks, meant to attract students, replaced the drab black and white ones while teachers are being trained to be more innovative in class.

The changes were introduced in all grades, from one to 13 or the final year, with the aim of improving concentration and developing practical skills instead of the earlier rote learning.

A new subject called ‘science & technology’ has replaced science, and children have the option of starting work instead of joining a university after they finish school.

Parents, teachers and educationists agree the changes were necessary, but concede they are difficult to implement because of the lack of basic facilities in rural schools, which need to be upgraded to ensure they match those in the urban areas.

“How are rural students expected to learn computers or other technical skills when they do not have basic needs like food, proper shelter and clothes?” an anxious parent from a village off the north central town of Dambulla wanted to know.

A school principal from northwest Puttalam wonders if it is reasonable to expect students of the Royal College, Sri Lanka’s most prestigious government boys’ school in Colombo, to become masons and carpenters while his school produces doctors and computer engineers, as the reforms have envisaged.

“Is there any equality in this system?” he asked, lamenting his inability to provide even basic facilities at his school.

Education authorities in Colombo are the first to say the sharp inequities cannot be eliminated in a hurry, and point out that they are upgrading the facilities and infrastructure.

“We cannot do it overnight but 300 schools have been selected for development,” Director-General of Education R.S. Medagama, who is in charge of implementing the reforms, told the ‘Sunday Times’ newspaper last October.

He said during the last three years, the government has earmarked 900 million rupees (12.8 million dollars) for improving the facilities.

Regarding the shortage of teachers, he said the problem was their “deployment”. In fact, the teacher to student ratio of 1:21 was very high for a developing country, he said. “We have been liberal in our deployment. Hereafter we should send new recruits to schools where there is a dearth,” Medagama said.

The reforms were intended to give education a boost. Prepared by the government’s National Education Commission (NEC) which is committed to ‘Education for All’ since the Jomtien conference, it sought to promote vocational teaching and knowledge.

“We want to make learning more interesting, allow the children more freedom in the classroom and also teach them some skills. That is the focus of these reforms,” Prof. Laksman Jayathilake, chairman of the NEC had said.

Rural parents and teachers are disappointed in the reforms. Village schools will churn out masons and carpenters or farmers while the city schools with computers in the classrooms produce

computer engineers, they say.

“Our children would end up as masons or farmers while students from the Royal College could become computer experts or accountants without going to university. Do you now see our plight?” according to a parent from northeastern Polonnaruwa.

Village schools are still battling for working toilets, and a roof over their heads. In a school in Puttalam, three classes are held in one large hall. “Imagine one teacher shouting in English, another in Sinhalese and the third trying to teach Tamil, all at the same time,” says a parent.

The reforms have not reached all schools in Sri Lanka.

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