Laudable attempt to banish illiteracy and poverty

Education of the Poor and Powerless in Disadvantaged Areas
Publication by the Department of Research and Development,
National Institute of Education

Chief Editor: Dr. G.B. Ekanayake
Reviewed by Padma Edirisinghe

In the present age when everybody seems to adulate the big and the powerless, we have to be grateful to those who condescend to pay attention to the small and powerless thus contributing in the long run to bridge the massive gaps in society that exist now. Can one dub this service a social service or purely an educational service? No.

It engulfs a territory much vaster. We may tend to call it even a deeply meritorious act. In what way one describes it is an inconsequential issue in the context of the intensity of the subject.

The concrete result of the attention to this area by a very relevant agency has been this text sub—titled A model Resource book for small schools in Sri Lanka. What is a small school? According to the book, it is one where the student population is below 100. Do such schools exist? Yes, They do.

In fact they consist of 30 percent of the total number of schools in the island ie. 9,765 (2006 school census). Of the 549 of such schools, 549 are recorded as comprising less than 50 students! The nature of the socio-economic background of parents of the students in these schools and the geographical isolation enhance the disadvantaged aspect.

No stranger

The reviewer herself is no stranger to these schools. According to a cumulative compilation of “autobiographies” of teachers who came to training institutes from small schools, a project executed in the 1970s by Uyanwatte Teachers College, now Mahaweli College of Education, the schools are sited on inaccessible hills, far down in the wombs of depopulated valleys, in lonely mini islands off the North Western coast and in the Poorest of the poor areas in cities and ostracised as slums.

In fact, there was one village on the hills of Hatara Korale whose ancestors had been expelled by Kandyan kings for disobeying a royal command. Hence the background history of these schools could form a separate book emanating the vitality and fragrance of peculiar and endeavouring human history whose players happened to include small groups of people stranded in such inhospitable places for such peculiar reasons and for no offence of their own.Fragrant or not, it is the present generations. committed to suffer while the rest of the country has raced to higher planes of civilisation leading to a disarray of social and economic conditions almost impossible to sort out. Out of the disadvantaged spheres these children are subject to, education stands out. Before going on, it is fair to mention George Mendis who did much pivotal work in this area but a resource book of the type under discussion was yet to be born. Below are some details elicited.

Like one defect leading to another, the teacher cadre of Small Schools(SS) too is small leading to specific school types as one teacher schools, two teacher schools, school head acting as the sole teacher and multi-grade teaching where several classes are put together. All these school types have more minus than plus points. It is further a vast area that has to be looked into and changes introduced. A preliminary research was a long felt need, before wading into action. And so the research began. A brief survey as to how this research was done is necessary and goes to explain the birth circumstances of this resource book. The initial step had been taken by the Department of Research and Development of the NIE when it conducted five case studies on 5 SSs in 2009 in the Central Province that dwarfs the other provinces in the number of SSs.

After this a model for SS s was developed and eight new dimensions located. As a second step a resource book was developed in 2011 whose main aim was to assist in solving the problems aligned to SSs. Did it go into immediate action? No. It was field tested in 2012 in 15SSs in Sabaragamuwa province. In 2013 it planned to conduct a series of seminars for SSs in the island with aid from the Ministry of Education. A German education project too played Godfather to this project in a certain way.

However, the task of upgrading the quality of SSs falls mainly to MoE and this book will go a long way to provide supplementary matter to carry out this task.

Titles

Since presenting the precious matter in this 145-paged book even briefly can be a copious task, I would here present the titles of the chapters that have gone into its mould, which may bespeak the intensity of the work undertaken. Conceptual framework of the model, Realities underpinning the research, Poverty in equity :Poor and Powerless, Fact finding process and methodology, dimensions, model framework for the Resource book, Implementation plan, Principal’s handbook and processes involved in capacity development. Setting the stage for this valuable research text, pooja is played to “Education” at the very outset thus.

“Education is an enabling right, it permits to exercise other fundamental rights and thus provides a platform from which other Millennium Development Goals can be achieved”. (United Nations). And here are two quotes from two well-known educationists who have achieved international eminence.

“The situation and future of small schools in the global south is a topic of high relevance both to the field of comparative and international education. Unesco do share the author’s concern for the unrealised potential of small schools in Sri lanka and elsewhere. ‘Dr. Simona Popa, manager Prospects Unesco Paris. It should be mentioned that the author, Dr. Ekanayake is one of the foremost educationists of the island and hence the project is in strong hands sharing the skills of Dr. Godwin Kodituwakku, Director, Research & Development (NIE) and his team.

Bouquet

And here is a bouquet all the way from Canada by an educationist and anthropologist.

“I am so pleased that you have identified the true issues of rural education. I have been in rural Tanzania for 10 years and unfortunately we are no closer to admitting the truth about our education as we were 50 years ago’ Jenny Homan. Rural education in Tanzania no doubt runs parallel with the Small School syndrome. So the SS syndrome is almost of global proportions, leaning more towards the rural sector in the continents of Asia and Africa. Indeed it is a dismal picture in the scenario of global education. Lighting a clay lamp to fight the darkness?

Let us say, the model resource book along with its envisaged plan of action, are scheduled to do much more. It is a lustrous golden lamp they is being lit to banish the dark shadows of illiteracy and ignorance inevitably accompanied by poverty and misery, bed fellows of the earlier. One could even perceive the proverbial vicious circle that has to be broken at some point with vital measures.

A mammoth task ahead and good luck and fruition to all the plans and schemes charted in this resource book.