By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO, Nov 2 2000 (IPS)

When a major Sri Lankan political party split in mid-October, this was blamed on a conflict between the English- speaking ‘elite’, which held the top spots in the organisation and its local language-speaking cadre.

The party’s leader was accused by a section of his followers of speaking in English during press conferences, which few in the party could understand properly.

Unlike its South Asian neighbours, for most of the half century since independence from colonial British rule, Sri Lanka has officially frowned on the language of its former rulers. As a result, only Sri Lankans educated in expensive schools, are skilled in the use of English.

Bowing to growing demand, specially from the business community, President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s government is now trying to bridge this social divide by bringing back English language instruction to the country after 45 years.

“If we didn’t do away with English in the 1960s, this country won’t be in the mess it is today,” asserts business leader Patrick Amarasinghe. Indeed, the ethnic violence troubling the Indian Ocean island nation for nearly two decades, is said to be rooted in the official anti- English language policy.

Though no official announcement has been made, Kumaratunga has said her government would make English, the medium of instruction in all public schools for advanced level students starting next year.

She told a meeting of members of the Muslim community that by the year 2002, English language instruction would start from grade six. English teaching would be extended to all school grades in the following year.

The top official in the Ministry of Education, R.P. Gunawardene, also said late October that the scheme will be implemented from next year. He dismissed media reports that the country’s constitution would have to be amended to do this.

“Bringing back English is not a violation of the constitution. By reintroducing English, we are giving students an optional, not compulsory, medium to study, besides Sinhala and Tamil. We have received a ruling from the Attorney General that the introduction of the English medium is not inconsistent with the constitution,” he was quoted as saying.

“English is an international language. You need English to continue higher studies in many areas especially demanding fields like information technology…where employment opportunities are now growing,” he added.

It was Kumaratunga’s father and former premier Solomon Dias Bandaranaike, who did away with English in the year 1956 under an official policy of promoting the language of Sri Lanka’s majority Sinhalese community.

Bandaranaike’s ‘Sinhala Only’ policy is blamed for sowing the seeds of discord between the Sinhalese and minority Tamil people, which erupted in violent race riots, culminating in the emergence of the separatist Tamil militancy in the early 1980s.

The Tamil rebels accuse Sinhalese-majority governments of discriminating against the Tamil community in language use, allocation of jobs and access to education.

The two communities also face a communication gap because of the absence of a link language like English. Sri Lankan schools offer only Sinhala and Tamil language instruction.

“The ethnic problem has cropped up due to a lack of mutual understanding. To create understanding you need a common medium — English can be that common medium,” K.S. Lakshman, principal of a girls school in Colombo, was quoted as saying.

Successive Sri Lankan governments had shied away from bringing English back, fearing a backlash from the hardline and influential Buddhist clergy and the majority community.

Those wanting to study in English either have to go abroad or study in the international schools that have sprung up in recent years. Even Kumaratunga’s children studied in the latter, which hold examinations conducted by educational authorities in Britain.

The lack of opportunities to learn English is blamed for denying high-paid private sector jobs to those who cannot afford the expensive fees in these schools.

According to business leader Amarasinghe, it is unfortunate that only wealthy children can learn English while poor students have to study in Sinhala or Tamil language schools and get low-paid jobs.

Ken Balendra, former chair of Sri Lanka’s biggest chamber of commerce, who heads ‘John Keells Ltd,’ Sri Lanka’s biggest business group, thinks that the country would be left behind in a globalised and competitive world if English was not promoted.

“Some of the graduates we recruit are not a patch on the non- English graduates who are all brilliant, but the latter’s lack of English is certainly a drawback,” he said.

However, Baldendra thinks that initially, Sri Lanka will have to import teachers from Britain and the United States to train local teachers.

Tilak Karunaratne, general secretary of the hardline Sinhala Urumaya (Sinhala Heritage) party, said while he was not opposed to English instruction, this would sharpen social inequalities in the country.

“What is likely to happen is that the top schools in Colombo and the bigger cities will get the best English teachers while other smaller schools in the rural areas would get less proficient teachers,” he said.

The former radical Sinhala group, the People’s Liberation Front, better known by its Sinhala acronym JVP and now the country’s third largest political party, also thinks that the move would benefit only a few.

“The move to reintroduce the English medium would be a good one only if children of all strata all over the country get the same facilities such as good teachers and resources to study in this language,” said its spokesman Wimal Weerawansa.

“If such facilities are only provided to superior schools like a handful in Colombo, it would only aggravate the inequalities and create more problems. The JVP also feels that the importance accorded to the mother tongue and the history and culture of the country should not be neglected even if the English language is given prominence once again,” he added.

According to Weerawansa, language skills alone are not important for finding jobs.

“The private sector looks for employees from a certain social and cultural background and only those who came from certain prestigious government and private schools in Colombo fitted this culture. So there was no place for the intelligent village lad, however good he was,” he pointed out.

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