A rejoinder

Reasonable knowledge of English for all

The need of the hour:

by Prof. S.T. Hettige

I am grateful to Anil Pagoda Arachchi for responding to my short article on critical issues in education published in Sunday Observer of 16 Dec. 2007. The purpose of this short reply is to clarify two points that appear to have given a wrong impression to the reader. While the first point relates to the issue of English language skills, the other relates to citizenship education.

As far as English language teaching in schools is concerned there are two separate matters. First one is about English language proficiency, the other being English as a medium of instruction.

While there is almost no controversy about the need to impart English language skills to schoolchildren, there is absolutely no agreement among educationists regarding two medium of instruction.

The controversy about the medium of instruction can be traced back to at least the early 1920's. Even Mr. C. W. W. Kannangara, the father of free education in Sri Lanka, favored school instruction in the mother tongue and most educationists since then have taken the same position.

Even highly westernised nationalist leaders like Sir Ponnambalam Ramanadan favored Swabhasha education. Yet, most of these leaders and educationists in the same breath emphasised the need to promote bilingualism, or even trilingualism in the country, taking into consideration both educational and national needs.

In other words, great emphasis has been placed on teaching English as a second language to schoolchildren, so that when they reach higher grades or university, pupils could easily switch to English if they have to do so due to the requirements of their educational stream.

We have nearly 10,000 schools in the country and about 200,000 teachers. Not even 10 percent of these teachers have a reasonable command of the English language. In other words, most of our teachers cannot teach in the English medium.

Even in the universities, many of our lecturers cannot teach in the English medium. I mark answer scripts of so-called English medium students from a number of universities including my own and I know how difficult it is for these students to express their ideas in English.

Among these students, a few have a very good command of the language and they express their views very clearly and conveniently. Students with a poor knowledge of English are obviously at a disadvantage. On the other hand, if they answered their papers in the mother tongue, they would have certainly done much better.

Introduction of English medium instruction in schools is problematic not only from an educational point of view but also from an equity angle. Those who have a very good command of the language are going to perform much better than those who do not.

We know that the former usually come from English-speaking backgrounds. There can of course be exceptions. In general, English medium instruction in schools in the present context is going to benefit the privileged much more than the vast majority of underprivileged children in the country.

The need of the hour is to provide opportunities for school children in all parts of the country to acquire a reasonable knowledge of English. Introduction of English medium instruction in a few schools is not going to do this.

If we concentrate on a few schools and provide all the facilities to conduct classes in English, we might be able to improve English knowledge among students attending these selected schools. They will remain in isolated pockets, while the vast majority of schools will be unaffected. This is not what we should do if we were to improve English language skills among school children in general.

Not all children need a very good command of English. Many children drop out after several years of schooling. Others drop out after GCE Ordinary Level. Some go up to Advanced Level and leave the education system. A small proportion of pupils go to university.

English language requirements vary widely among these different categories of pupils. Those who need English most are the ones who go to university. Yet, we know, most of those who end up in the university do not have even a basic knowledge of English.

On the other hand, those who do not move up the educational ladder can benefit a great deal if they have basic communication skills which most school children in the country lack. These are the issues that we need to resolve urgently.

If we can improve English language skills of our teachers and encourage them to communicate with pupils on a regular basis, communication skills of children will also naturally improve. On the other hand, it is impossible for these teachers to conduct classes in the English medium.

Given this situation, English medium instruction will remain confined to a few isolated pockets, alienating the vast majority of children in the country. The second issue that has been raised relates to citizenship education.

It is true that elements of citizenship education have been incorporated into school curricula. Yet, the issue is to what extent such elements are internalised by the children in the context of an ethno-linguistically segregated education system. As we are aware, most of our schools are not necessarily secular institutions.

They are identified by the religious denominations. i.e. Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Catholic, etc. They are also segregated on ethnic lines. Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim Children belonging to different ethno a linguistic groups remain isolated from each other until they leave school and enter the adult world. How ready are such children to become equal citizens in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious State like Sri Lanka?

The impact of citizenship education has to be gauged by measuring the outcomes of the educational process, not just by looking at what goes into the education system by way of school curricular.

It is possible to find out, by way of scientific surveys, whether the children have internalized the values and ideas embodied in school text books. Such surveys conducted in Sri Lanka do not show that our youth have internalized such values, hence the tendency among many youths to have parochial views on citizenship and political issues.

For instance, the idea of a secular state which is taken for granted in most developed countries is an alien idea for most of our youth. They often do not distinguish between secular and non-secular institutions. Do our youth want school to be a secular institution?

Do the managers of schools and teachers want their schools to be secular institutions? And finally, the issue of inequality within the education system, I agree that disparities are not just between rural and urban.

Disparity between schools in urban areas is as important. Now we have wide gap between State and private schools. The point is that we have failed miserably to arrest the worsening trend. Given this situation, it is impossible to ensure equality to opportunity within the education system.