Social scientists in public policy

by Indeewara THILAKARATHNE

The role of social scientists in contemporary societies both as understanding social phenomena and influencing public policy is increasingly becoming a challenging and complex one against the backdrop of many competitors such as interest groups, politicians and public at large.

Particularly the competition takes a stiff and intense when social scientists deal with contentious issues in society, especially in the developing world. Social Sciences emerged as a result of elucidation and gained wide public acceptance due to rational thinking. The knowledge of social science becomes widely available to an increasing population with expansion of university education. Often the ideas of social scientists gained wide publicity when they were proliferated through mass media.

Since social sciences represent no unified body of knowledge, the theories, ideas emanating from social sciences have always been surrounded by controversy, some times, stirring intense public debate. In a way, this has prompted citizens to cast doubt on the conclusions arrived at by social scientists. However, the vital issues has always been the fact that the knowledge of social science often based on empirical observations, has questioned or contradicted some of the pre-conceived notions, ideas , paradigms, social practices as well as established institutions. This leads to controversies and contestations especially when social sciences failed to play a vital role in the public imagination due to diverse circumstances.

Sri Lanka does not have a well-established tradition of liberal arts education though country was Western colonial rule for several centuries.

Secular general education was established at the tail end of the colonial administration. Unlike in many other British colonies such as India and Australia, first Sri Lankan university was established few years prior to the political independence. The only university accommodated handful of students from privileged background. When the system of university expanded following the independence, it became an instrumental exercise enabling upward social mobility of youth from lower social strata to obtain a degree certificate in order to find lucrative government jobs. Even the rudimentary form of liberal education came under attack when an underdeveloped ex-colonial economy could not produce jobs for so-called educated youths, compelling policy-makers to change university curricula to provide students with vocational skills rather than comprehensive social science education.

Compelled

Owing to the demands for democrtisation of education, post-independence regimes were compelled to change medium of instruction from English to Swabasha (vernacular languages of Sinhala and Tamil). Although nationally minded academics undertook to translate publications available in other languages into Sinhala and Tamil, the project was abandoned after few translations, forcing students to read books available in English. However, Swabasha education policy has, by now, denied the majority of children of acquiring a working knowledge of the English Language, compelling them to depend on notes dictated by teachers. Many university teachers were also handicapped as a result of them being the product of the same university system.

Against this background, issues of declining standards in the system of education were raised. Unlike in the past, there are very few bilingual teachers. The vast majority of students in the country fail in G.C.E (O/L) English. So most students, who enter the university, are without a working knowledge of English. These students unable to use the books available in the libraries and also to access internet. Some may happy that youth cannot access outside world, enabling them to manipulate them to achieve parochial political and ideological ends. This has become a serious issue as youth cannot participate in global discourse. The youth from privileged socio-economic backgrounds have no difficulty in accessing learning and other opportunities abroad while educated monolingual youth remain virtually cut off from such global processes.As a very few could afford to access higher education, this lack of higher education had an adverse effect on journalism, politics, public services and civil society organisations. On the other hand so-called educated also could not stand on their feet and resists pressure exerted upon them by parties with vested interests. As a result concepts such as autonomy, self-respect, ethic, professionalism and independence are alien to them and have no bearing on their conduct.

Country has reached a point where professional achievements command little or no respect. There is no longer a clear accepted hierarchy of merit and anybody can occupy any position. It gives a wrong perception to the youth that why they should work hard to achieve competency when such competency is no longer the merit of upward social mobility? If this situation continues, it would lead to crisis situation. It is also pity that such serious issues attract no attention of both public and private media.

(The article is based on an interview with Prof. S.T. Hettige, Head of the Department of Sociology at the University of Colombo )