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| Sunday, 22 January 2006 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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A/L Results: Only tip of iceberg by Tilak A. Gunawardhana While what happened to the results of the local Advanced Level (A/L) Chemistry paper would have greatly shocked the students involved, the explanations given for the lapses gave even greater shocks to teachers involved. After all the hard work had been done over the years the Education Department turns round and complains that the computer used was over six years old and had a faulty sensor. Why was this not observed years ago? How irresponsible can senior officers of a department get where the future of a whole generation of students are concerned? Now it is doubtful if the results of all A/L and Ordinary Level (O/L) examinations have been properly processed. This is the only visible tip of the iceberg of callousness and indifference. Those of us who are teachers have no clue as to what is going to come next from the department. What more shocks are in store for parents and teachers? For more than a generation the problem of teaching methodology where especially English and Mathematics were concerned drew everyone's attention due to the poor performance of students in these two examinations and those beyond. When the former President took over the Ministry of Higher Education, two signals were sent out. One was that higher education was suffering due to a variety of reasons, and the other was that a determined attempt would be made at the highest possible level to correct it and but through bureaucratic bungling, apathy and lack of foresight. When Doctor Tara de Mel a close confidante of the then President was appointed advisor and secretary to the ministry over the heads of dozens of experts of proven ability and knowledge, parents and teachers were disappointed. What special ability or knowledge did she posses, part from experiences apparently gathered managing the children of then President when she was apparently in London (not in Paris). In real terms what did she achieve during her term of office (when it officially ended no one knows)? Probably everyone in the Education Ministry kept free of the flu and the HIV viruses. Later the National Institute of Education (NIE) apparently had appointed one of its own officials to make an assessment of the progress made during that time, and evaluate the results and achievements of that period, and that report has yet to see the light of the day. It seems that there is no money in the department for its publication. We are familiar with the 'headline making' pronouncements of the deficiencies of our secondary education and promises that they would be corrected in due course jointly by the then President and Mrs. Tara de Mel working without any assistance from any quarter corrupt or not. But instead of a diminishing of these problems, more have arisen, and we still do not have worthwhile results to show where the quality of students or the quality of their performance are concerned. Then there was the 'world shaking' introduction of the system of 'student centered education'. One has to visit any school in the areas which were selected for experimentation to see that nothing has been achieved so far. If at all, only some upper classes of a few international schools have effected a modicum of the necessary changes. But the results of these changes have to be realistically evaluated. Students are no more self-reliant, more intelligent or more imaginative than before. What is obvious is that the mechanism of private tuition has completely and effectively swamped orthodox school teaching. There is not a child in the Colombo, or Kandy or Galle districts who do not attend private classes. It is still the most devastating indictment of our state educational system which year after year has failed in their duty towards poor innocent parents of the country. |
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