Sri Lanka is country with a proud history of having free
educational system even before the country gain independence in 1948 from the
British empire. A year before in 1947, Dr C. W. W. Kannagara the Minister of
Education, introduced the Free Education Bill in the State Council and the
right to free education of children above 5 years old to children those who are
below 16 was established. Since the independence Sri Lanka has undergone in
many transitional periods where the country’s educational policies were changed
from time to time by different governments since 1948 to present.
In 1950s with the introduction of the mother tongue (Sinhala)
as the medium of education, a significant transformation took place throughout
the island. The number of enrolments into the schools grew rapidly during the
following years. In 1960 the government decided to take over the private
schools which were established under the British empire and that created the
path to establish national school system in the island. Still the need of
distancing the national education from the prevailing British influenced
education system was an unanswered issue. In 1972 the first step to achieve the
non-influenced education system was taken by attempting to localize the
education content. Subjects such as Science, Mathematics and social studies
were introduced in the secondary education. In 1981 “cluster schools” were
introduced in order to bring the schools with no resources close to schools
with more resources. This step was a huge transformation of the education
system in Sri Lanka which at least was an attempt to seize the equality among.
However later on the concept of equality has faded in Sri Lankan education
system where the privileged got the best while the under privilege got the
least.
In 1985 The National Institute of Education was
established which added a new chapter to the education in Sri Lanka. The year
following in 1986 National colleges of education were introduced as well. The
establishment of the two institutes transformed the country’s education by
creating professional teachers into the system. In 1997 another noticeable
transform took place when the modernization of school text books, curricula,
teaching methodologies were introduced. On the other hand distributing funds
for improvements of the facilities and proving management trainings for the
schools were also some of the major transforms took place. In the same year the
change of examination system was taken into consideration and was fulfilled in
order to level the country’s exam level with the international examination
level. In 2002 the reintroduction of “English medium” educational system where
3 main subjects (mathematics, science and social studies) were taught in
English, made a big impact in countries education.
Considering the political decisions taken to
transform the education system in the island have being doing major impacts
since post-independence up to today. The introduction of free food, free
uniform free text books have affect the education of the country in a positive
way where the free tab, free Wi-Fi for schools had been criticized by the
majority in the country as a negative for the economy of the country. Some of
the most recent political decisions taken related to education in Sri Lanka
were diverting the compulsory participation for grade 5 scholarship to “if want
– participation” and discontinuing the announcement of island tops of GCE
Ordinary Level.
Regarding the higher education in the country,
a major transform took place when the “Mahapola” was introduced for the
university students which was a monthly income for the university students
during their university life. Introduction of vocational institutes which
enabled higher education for the students who miss the opportunity to enter
universities via GCE Advanced Level created a significant impact not only on
the educational system but also on the economy of the country. Establishment of
Vocational universities, ocean universities and Private universities too were
some of the recent decisions taken in order to transform the education in the
country.
While most of the policies have benefited the public and the
young generation of the island, some of those have created issues not only in
the educational system but in country’s economy as well. However Sri Lanka has
achieved many achievements related to education since the post-independence
when compared with its region due to the major transformations took place in
the country during the last few decades. Therefore the country has benefitted
by those post-independence transformations which were taken either due to
political or fundamental reasons.
- Dhanuka
Thenuwara –
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