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Enriching free education system, a priority -Minister Bandula Gunawardena

* The school network is responsible for creating thugs, hooligans as well as scholars, scientists and professionals.

* The challenge before us is to create children who love their teachers, motherland and mother tongue

* We must move out of the examination centered education system to a student based education system and bring students back to their schools

* We need to expand edu cation opportunities to remote areas in the country and restore the free education system which has been privatised through the tuition field and enrich the free education system

A tuition master turned politician Bandula Gunawardena has always been a hot topic in the media whatever the position he held in politics.

Minister Bandula Gunawardena

Following his successful attempts to drive the trade sector in the country to face the challenges posed by the market economy, he was entrusted with the Education Ministry, which he considers a subject he can deal with effectively.

As Education Minister he is confronted with many challenges. Bringing back the glory of free education to the school system, creating a generation who respects and loves their country, mother tongue and human beings expanding equal education opportunities to the remote parts of the country are the challenges ahead of him.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Observer, Minister Bandula Gunawardena appeals that political leaders and ministers do not interfere with his Ministry with regard to school admissions and transfers in the education sector as it would hamper his efforts of streamlining the sector.

Following are the excerpts of the interview_

Q:As an economist, you succeeded to a great extent with your earlier Ministry. Yours is a very important ministry. As an educationist, what will be your main challenges in the New Year ?

A: Subjectwise and with practical knowledge there are three sectors that I can handle Trade and Commerce, Education and Finance. I handled the Trade Ministry which had the most challenging tasks in this country. The soaring oil prices in the world market, world food scarcity, global recession due to the collapse of major economies were three challenges we had to confront. I came under severe media criticism and had to wade through all of them sarcastic remarks and all the blame from the people. No one else would have been subjected to such media criticism, such a hot topic for cartoonists.

Facing all these challenges I created a state sector to compete with the market economy. I created 14 Economic Centres, expanded CWC network to 200 branches, 360 Coop Cities, 1125 Mini Co-op Cities, imposed maximum prices to essential commodities, price formulas were drawn for some commodities and the Special Commodity Levy Act was passed to make a balance in the taxation system imposed on some commodities. My Ministry was able to reduce price increases of essential commodities to a one digit figure from 28 per cent.

The Education Ministry is a bigger challenge. Earlier, I had to deal with lifeless things like onions, potatoes, rice. Now its human lives. The student population is around four million. Some 10,000 schools and 225,000 teachers and principals serve them. Every citizen of this country is related to a school student as a parent, grand parent. If newspaper has a report on education its circulation goes up. These children are the future of our country. Parents try to give their children the best education they can. They want their children to achieve what they could not. So, this subject is very sensitive. Parents hand over their children to schools. The school network is responsible for creating thugs, hooligans as well as scholars, scientists and professionals. Children are moulded in these categories, during their school tenure.

Free education introduced by C.W.W. Kannangara for all to reach the highest level in society through the Central College concept has now been disrupted with West imitated system. Instead of a student centered system, examination cantered education has been infused creating a problematic situation.

The three major examinations - Grade V scholarship G.C.E. (O/L) and (A/L) are like three supporting stones of a hearth. Parents think the entire life of children depend on these examinations. They cannot identify any other talent of the students due to this examination centered education system.

Meet Bandula Gunawardena

Name 			Bandula Gunawardena
Date of birth March 15, 1953
Education Rajasinghe Vidyalaya Hanwella and Lumbini Vidyalaya, Colombo
Graduation University of Sri Jayawardenapura (Business Admin.)
Profession Private tutor 1975 to 2000
1989 Entered politics from Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and elected to Parliament from Colombo district
1994 Lost Parliamentary seat
1999 - 2000 Member of Western Provincial Council
2000 Elected to Parliament from People's Alliance
2000 Crossed over and joined United National Party
2001 to 2004 Cabinet Minister of Rural Economic Development and Deputy Minister of Finance
2007 Joined UPFA Government under President Mahinda Rajapaksa along with 17 UNP MPs
2007 to April 2010: Cabinet Minister for Trade, Marketing Development, Co-operatives and Consumer Services
April 2010 to-date: Minister of Education
Present political party: Sri Lanka Freedom Party; Chief Organiser for Homagama electorate

Those who fail the exams are considered unwanted by society and begin to hate society. Moral values inculcated vanish due to this examination centered education. Respect for human life vanish. This situation was experienced during the insurgencies in the South and the North.

Parents want to admit their children to popular schools and prepare them for examinations. They need a vehicle to transport for their children and provide cellular phones for them. They placed their confidence on tuition rather than the school system.

So the challenge before us is to create children who love their teachers, motherland and mother tongue. We have to create a moral value based society which respects humanity. We have to move out of the examination centered education system to a student based education system and bring students back to their schools. We need to expand education opportunities to remote areas in the country and restore the free education system which has been privatised through the tuition field and enrich the free education system. These are the challenges before us in the next year.

Q: What steps is the Education Ministry taking to expand equal education opportunities in remote areas?

A: We have to improve physical and human resources in remote schools with a better management. So we have begun improving 1,000 secondary schools countrywide to have at least one such school in each Secretariat Division, qualitative improvement in the schools education system by improving the facilities in those schools from grade six to 13. We have already sought the assistance of the World Bank, philanthropists and donors to make this effort a reality. With the improvement of these schools we can take over the responsibility of each and every student who completes primary education at any school when they reach grade six. We are preparing better schools for secondary education in every part of the country including in the North and East.

Q: What is the Ministry involvement in the grade one admission process?

A: The Education Ministry is not involved. We do not accept appeals. We do not issue letters. We will intermediate only when there are bribery and corruption chances coming up. We will join the Police to investigate if parents forward cases to the Ministry after making a complaint at a Police station. We have a special program.

Q: Are there no problems regarding the school admission system?

A: We do not need to bother about Grade One admissions as we are to have better secondary schools for each four to five primary schools. It does not matter where primary education is had.

Q: What about the standard of education at these primary schools?

A: There is no problem. The best primary education is given in remote area schools. If we analyze the results of an examination the best results are from village schools. Because teachers teach with much affection in those schools.

Q: What steps have you taken to increase the pass rate at examinations?

A: The G.C.E. (O/L) is the first examination to be held after I assumed duties as Minister. We have increased the time given for the maths paper as there were complaints that adequate time was not given for this paper. We increased duration for the second paper from two to two and half-hours. Prior to the O/L examination, the Examination Department issued model papers for all subjects and distributed them in CDs to Chief Ministers to be printed at provincial level and distributed among students, free of charge. We conducted 1,250 seminars countrywide free of charge. Teachers and lecturers for these seminars participated without fees. Education Publications Department (EPD) printed all past examination papers and marketed them among students. The correct answers for the question papers issued for seminars were printed and distributed. For students to purchase these books easily, we established EPD branches countrywide.

As a result we expect that O/L results will see a change for the better. We will increase these measures each year to further increase pass rates among.

We will have teachers for all A/L classes after transferring the surplus of teachers from national schools. From February we will start seminars with the participation of university lecturers and professors. After appointing the board of the National Institute of Education we will take measures to remove primitive types of lessons which have become a burden to students from the A/L syllabuses. We will maintain international standards.

Q: During the O/L examination, there were reports that some centres did not receive an adequate number of question papers and that question papers were not received on time?

A: These are minor matters. Those who complain have not understood the seriousness of the situation. When we issue examination papers to 4,000 to 5,000 examination centres problems of this nature might arise. Sri Lanka has a cartoon culture that thinks that the Education Minister should go home when there is a shortage of 100 question papers at one examination centre. There are persons who have entered the media field without a proper education. They look at things in hatred and highlight minor matters as big issues.

What we need a better education system where thinking ability develop from Grade One. I was the topic for many cartoonist when I was Trade Minister. They target not on an institution but a person. They attack me personally. I do not care about the statement issued by teachers organisations funded by foreign NGOs. I stood with the students of the country and also the teachers who affectionately teach them, but not with those organisations issuing statements with political motives and for dollars.

Q: What is your opinion about providing English medium education at schools?

A: I have no intention to divide the education system to English and Sinhala mediums. We are promoting bilingual education. We teach a few subjects in English from Grade 6 onwards. I do not accept that we have failed if we don't learn in the English medium. Take the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans as examples. They think in their mother tongues and not in a foreign language. We also should think in our mother tongue. As a tool we should learn English, to build a human resource suited to international standards. We expect to improve English language skills and also trilingual skills.

Apart from that we are also taking steps to teach English for all citizens under the English for all programs. We will adopt distance learning methods to enable people to learn English via media.

We have sought assistance from UNESCO. A team from India has already arrived in Sri Lanka and conducted a series of discussions to conduct those classes via satellites.

Q: What steps have you taken to include vocational subjects in the curricula?

A: Life Skills is to be introduced to the O/L examination as an optional subject. It will be divided into three fields and students can select one area for study. Technology, Agriculture, Entrepreneurship.

At the A/L we hope to introduce a Technology stream in addition to Science, Maths, Commerce and Arts. Say we have 4,323 students with 3 A passes and we have more than 23,000 students who had failed all three subjects. We are not going to ignore them. Minister Dullas Alahapperuma will send letters to include them in vocational training centres.

Q: What are the steps taken to improve the nutrition level of school students?

A: In low income generating areas we have taken steps to provide the mid-day meal with support of the parents and past pupils' associations. Due to this program the nutrition levels of these children have improved. School canteens have become one of the centres which distribute vector carrying food items. Jointly with the Health Ministry steps have been taken to stop selling food stuff which would block the nutrition level, from the next term of school.

Q: Is the Ministry to introduce a new school bag also?

A: The Ministry along with the Health Ministry has introduced a school bag which is not detrimental to the health of the student. The EPD has introduced this school bag.

Q: Is it compulsory for students to have this bag?

A: No. Students can even carry their books in an 'Panmalla' which is an environmental friendly bag. They can carry their books in their hands. If someone makes a complaint to us saying it is compulsory, we will immediately transfer the school principal.

Q: What is the current position of the transfers within the education sector?

A: An abnormal situation has been created. They have not been done according to service requirements. Officers have been transferred due to threats and influences. School children of remote areas have been subjected to severe injustices. In some remote schools there have been no teachers for years. They cannot produce good results due to shortage of teachers. The transfer policy has not been properly implemented. An excessive number of teachers are in schools which have more facilities. There are some teachers who have served in National Schools for 20 to 25 years continuously. The Provincial Chief Minister made an effort to implement the teacher transfer policy without political influence and there is improvement in provincial schools. I obtained special Cabinet approval to transfer teachers who had served in National schools for more than eight years. We are taking steps to have a balanced number of teachers in each school with no disruption of education to enable every school to get the services of talented teachers and principals, to remove hatred from those teachers for serving at one school for long periods. We are going to implement the teacher transfer policy without political influence. I have requested all political leaders and politicians not to interfere school admissions and transfers of teachers and principals. I have requested that I be allowed to fulfil the responsibility given by the President and they have cooperated.

Q: Regarding the recruitment of qualified teachers, sometimes they have basic educational qualifications but are not talented teachers. What steps have you taken to rectify this situation?

A: Regarding the recruitment of qualified teachers to the teachers service through competitive examinations. We hand over to those teachers the education of our children. Some of those who pass these examinations are not in a position to teach students. They can't mould children to face future challenges.

We recruited 500 English medium teachers through a competitive examination. They have graduated in the English medium and were recruited after interview by university professors. They were sent to schools after a basic training at the Peradeniya English Teacher Training School.

More than 100 of them refused to accept appointments as they realised that they cannot teach in school classrooms. President Rajapaksa advised us since teaching is a very responsible profession although we recruit graduates as teachers we should train them for one year at the Teacher Training Schools as we are sending them to take responsibility of human beings and mould them to face future challenges. Graduates have to undergo a compulsory one year training and they will be absorbed into the permanent teacher service considering their performances during the training period. If we provide them teaching appointments when they demand jobs from us it would be a curse we thrust upon the future generations.

Q: Will it be full time training?

A: We will train them at Faculties of Education, Teacher Training Schools, National Institute of Education, Leadership Training Institute at Meepe.

Q: What is the position about formulating the education policy?

A: Over one thousand persons have given evidence before the Parliament Select Committee on National Education Policy. University professors, professionals, scholars, political leaders, religious leaders, and representatives from various organisations have given evidence before the Parliament select committee.

We are going to formulate a new education policy and pass a new education act in 2011.

 

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