Free education and parents’ aspirations

The people of Sri Lanka have been fortunate to have enjoyed free education while under the British rule, formulated under the free education legislation and passed by the State Council in 1944. Over the decades the education system had to undergo a number of modifications.

These changes were supposedly for the benefit of the children, but are the parents of the children happy and satisfied with the current education system and have their aspirations been fulfilled? The article looks into the development and outcome of free and not so free education in the country.
C.W.W. Kannangara
The free education system enjoyed in the country is mainly due to the efforts of Mr. C.W.W. Kannangara popularly referred to as the “Father of Free Education,” who as the Minister for Education in the State Council from 1931 to 1947 presented a bill in 1944 that received acceptance to introduce free education in the country. The bill recommended that:

• The mother tongue should be used as the medium of instruction in the primary schools.
• Education be free from kindergarten to the university
• English should be taught in all schools from Standard III.

The recommendations came into operation on 1 October 1945 with Kannangara as Minister of Education. He also emphasised that everyone should learn English in order to operate in the modern world.
Kannangara established a series of Central Schools (Madya Maha Vidyalaya), modelled on Royal College, Colombo and aimed to open a central school in every electorate. In 1941 there were three central schools in the country; by 1945 the number had increased to 35, and to 50 by 1950. He also launched a scholarship program, where the best performers in the scholarship examination were given free board and lodging in the Central School hostels.
In the 1956 general elections, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike became the Prime Minister with the promise of making Sinhala the official language within 24 hours, which he achieved in a year. At that time majority of popular schools were privately owned by churches and some by Buddhist organisations, but received assistance from the Government.
Bandaranaike brought substantial changes into the education system in the country. In 1957 the medium of instruction was converted into Swabasha, but most assisted schools refused to change the medium of instruction. Under pressure from the Government assisted schools too fell under the Government control. The Catholic schools refused to yield to this pressure and continue their independence in schools even today.
During the early period, some of the teachers in former assisted schools were from South India and in 1959 the Government terminated all Indian teachers, with the claim that there are sufficient teachers passing out from local universities.
The transformation of the medium of instruction from English to Swabasha was with great difficulty. There were no proper corresponding Sinhala terms for English words; especially for science, teachers struggled and education suffered. But the move was hailed by the masses as overturning of the Imperialists. If the English medium education which commenced with church-based schools, spread over to Buddhist and Central schools were allowed to continue, within a decade, every school in the country would have embraced education in English medium at the secondary school level.
C.W.W. Kananngara’s free education proposals did not advocate the change of medium of instruction in schools. It was the elimination of English as the medium of instruction in the secondary schools that made the country face two insurrections and 30 years of war.
With the Education Department taking over the popular assisted schools and the rising demand from the parents made politicians interfere with school admissions. The clamour from unsatisfied parents resulted in a number of regulations into the admission system, as two mile radius rule, etc. These rules were modified to satisfy various power groups including politicians, Government servants, armed forces who participated in war, etc. Admission of a child to a popular school became so difficult, resulting in some resorting to bribery.
The JVP’s second insurrection in the late 1980s brought the education system to a grinding halt. Universities were closed, schools were more closed than open; JVP members conducted lectures for senior students in schools and recruited children into their groups. Even Royal College, Colombo was not spared. For almost three years this mayhem continued.
International schools had made an entry into Sri Lanka few years previously, catering mostly to children of expatriate families. Suddenly, with the closure of Government schools, parents found solace in private schools, where their children could be free from anxiety and terror. The limited vacancies in private or international schools could not cope with the demand and led to explosion of international schools that are so common today.
Not far behind were the international universities, which commenced as stepping stones for foreign university education and continue today in various forms. Education in private or international schools and universities is expensive. Then why do parents wish to admit their children paying such high a price?
School admission
Admitting a child to a popular school is a long-drawn-out process, having to satisfy lengthy requirements including being a resident near the prospective school over a specified number of years with proof, whether a parent was a past pupil of the school, was the parent an active member of the Past Pupils’ Association, whether the child’s brother or sister is already in school, the parent’s education and employment, being a Government servant, a member of the armed forces, all matter in school admission. Politicians have quotas and children of teachers teaching in the school and from the Education Department are a favoured lot. Finally, the common taxpayer who pays the bill for education is left behind.
Mode of admission
The process of getting a child admitted to a popular school commences even before the child is born. In fact some parents when their children get registered in marriage give an address closer to the city and when the wedded couple have children on their own, the address continues into the child’s birth certificate. Some rent houses closer to popular schools; others transfer their address over to slums next to schools, paying huge sums to slum owners. The list is endless.
Or if one is very close to a senior politician in the Government, none of the above criteria is required.
Degrading of society
The mode of admitting a child to a school has contributed immensely to the degradation of our society. Having forged addresses and documents at marriage as well in the child’s birth certificate, the child meets real society at the first instance, when the child faces the school admission interview. The child is groomed for weeks or months, prior to the interview of a series of lies prepared by the parents to convince the School Admission Board.
The effect of the lies on the child’s mind cannot be ascertained, but surely would have a deep impact. Or would this be a starting point for a selfish, self-centred life expected from the child in Grade 5 and other examinations, overtaking everybody, which would continue to university admission and getting employment.
Grade 5 admission
For those who missed the admission to a popular school at the beginning, a second opportunity arrives at the Grade 5 examination and parents drive the children through tuition classes without pleasure and play, just to get admission to a better school. The parents admit the sacrifice made by the child is not worth the benefit, but are unaware of another solution and the rat race is on.
School education
The Ministry of Education allocates teachers to the schools at the ratio of one teacher to 23 students. In popular schools there are well over 40 students in a class and in some over 50 to a class. This results a large excess of teachers in some of the popular schools, resulting some teachers staying in office and never teaching, others are highly connected and are given very few hours of work.
As the classroom is overfilled and cramped, the teacher has no space to move around and can only look at books in the front row. Children cannot be given individual attention; children’s homework is not corrected, as the numbers of books are too bulky to be carried around.
In rural schools, after the Grade 5 examination, better students leave for popular schools; with parents as well as teachers not caring for the remaining students.
It should be noted that in most of the United States universities, classes for common subjects for the first year students may reach 100, thereafter classes are restricted to 15 students.
The cost of education
The State is supposed to give every child a free education, but is the education really free? The cost of educating a child includes the cost of books (basic textbooks are given free), stationary, bus/van or to travel to school and back, and the tuition costs that can vary from a few hundreds to thousands of rupees per month per subject. Parents are also expected to satisfy the demands of the School Development Society.
Some tuition classes cater to over 1,000 students in a class, seating on a timber bench with no back support and children spend four to six hours at a time there. The availability of toilet facilities is insufficient considering the 10 or 15 minute intervals between classes. Naturally the children suffer in agony, would become sick, in the long-term if not in the short-term. More affluent parents get tutors to call over to the children’s homes, but costs could easily top Rs. 10,000 per month.
Value of popular schools
How valuable is a place in a popular school? Why do parents take such trouble to admit their children to a popular school? Simple, theoretically education in all schools cost the same, free, at least on the face of it. Popular schools have better facilities as buildings, class rooms, libraries, sports, and above all, prestige. But in education, there is no guarantee that popular schools offer better education. Their higher performances at public examinations are due to their ability attract better students from other schools and the tuition classes the students attend.
Decades ago, past pupils from popular schools adorned higher echelons in the Government service and being a member of a selected community gave access to higher levels in Government. Now with affluent parents preferring private schools, the value of Government schools is diminishing. However parents feel admitting a child to a better school is worth the effort and are prepared to pay a high price or a bribe, as the payment is only once in the child’s school life.
The current system is deeply rooted in our society; people have come to accept the system and do not wish alternate ways. Especially, those in the Education Department as well as the politicians who have benefited from the existing system do not wish for a change.
The child
The entire education system is supposed to be for the benefit of the child, but what does the child undergo? Most children in suburbs leave their homes by 6 a.m., carrying breakfast, tea and lunch in their backpacks. After school they attend tuition classes and reach home by nightfall. They need to do homework (some of which is usually done by a parent), grab something for dinner and sleep to continue again the next day. Weekends are filled with tuition classes. The children have no time for physical exercise, relaxation, or entertainment. Is this a childhood and what can be expected from the child?
The underlying basic problem is Government schools do not deliver a proper education to the child and the child is expected to get the knowledge in the tuition class. Is it a wonder that parents who could afford it send their children to private schools?
An alternative to the present system
People and society have accepted that admission to a popular school has an enormous value; otherwise the country’s citizens would not sacrifice so much to admit their child to a so-called popular school. If so, why should a product of such high value and demand be given free, especially when the country’s education needs so much funding?
The writer proposes that the admission to popular schools should not be free, but be chargeable with an admission fee and a monthly fee. The admission fee and the monthly fee can vary from school to school depending on the popularity and demand from the public. The schools could be sub-divided into three categories: 1. Free schools. 2. Nominally paying schools and 3. Fee levying schools
Free schools
The schools with the least demand will not charge any fees from their children; the Government will issue the books as well as the uniforms free of charge. The children in school can be given a free mid-day meal.
Nominally paying schools
Nominally paying schools will charge say Rs. 100 to 250 per month per child for normal school expenses and children would be issued with free text-books.
Fee levying schools
The admission to fee levying schools would be subjected to an admission fee and a monthly fee, which would vary from school to school depending on the popularity and the demand from public. The admission fee may be Rs. 100,000 for Royal College and reduce depending on the popularity. The monthly fee can be set considering a teacher’s salary alone costs over Rs. 1,000 per student per month. Even at the proposed level of fees there would be enormous demand and the schools will have to arrive at selection criteria.
Auction of admissions
It is proposed that 25% of places in fee levying schools be auctioned, with admission given to highest bidder. This would bypass the underground sale of admissions, with the payment of bribes becoming open payment that goes to the education system.
Grade 5 examination
The Grade 5 Examination would be open only for the students from free schools and for nominally paying schools with 50 per cent of the places in fee levying schools to be filled with children passing at the Grade 5 examination. At Grade 6, school fees would be increased to accommodate the cost of scholarship students. The scholarship students in fee-levying schools would not be given free books or uniforms, but a cash payment in lieu of scholarship so that superficial difference between students would not be visible.
Class tests
Class tests are normally held with question papers prepared by the Ministry of Education. This could continue, but from Grade 6, the children in fee-levying schools falling below stipulated grade would be expelled after a warning.
Children from rich families could go to a private school and the scholarship children will have the scholarship withheld and with repeaters returning to the school they came from. This arrangement will keep every student on their toes.
Grade 8 examinations
During British rule, there used to be an examination held at the end of Grade 8 and the test was abolished in 1956. This examination was very useful as it weeded out the students who were not interested in studies.
Especially in rural schools there are a number of students in each class who are not interested in studies, but have been promoted every year. These students obstruct other students from studies and are a nuisance. These uninterested students can be weeded out at the Grade 8 examination and be guided to a trade school or an agricultural school.
Usage of funds
The establishment of fee levying schools will result a substantial collection of funds. It is to be noted that in a fee levying school class numbers need to go down to around 25, to allow proper attention to children. This will reduce the number of students in popular schools and prevent closure of smaller schools.
The admission fees and the auction fees would be used for a programme for upgrading non-fee levying schools and a swimming-pool programme. Each year a swimming pool would be constructed attached to a nominally paying school in each district with 75% of the cost coming from the collected funds. The balance funds for the swimming pool would be collected by the schools, with the school having the highest collection getting priority. This programme will enable construction of 220 swimming pools or the construction of a school swimming pool in every electorate in 10 years and will help improvement the physical fitness of students and the residents of the neighbourhood.
Conclusion
With the payment of school fees, the parents would demand a better quality education without the need for tuition. The class numbers of fee levying schools would have to come down to 25, reduce the number of students in popular schools, and increasing the numbers in rural schools, preventing the closure of small schools.
Any parent will agree that the current free education is expensive in terms of money as well demanded time from the parents transporting children from the school to tuition classes and the fees payable. The fees payable to fee levying schools will not make much difference to the parent’s pockets.
With fee levying schools filled with affluent students, nominally paying schools will be in demand and quality will improve. They being located closer to homes children will have more time for sports and cultural activities.
Fee levying Government schools will offer competition and an alternative to private schools. State schools are already established in better locations with more space and lands would be able to give money’s worth to their students.
The proposal will reduce the intake numbers and competition to enter so-called popular schools. The reduction of intake to popular schools will improve admissions to non fee levying schools and the availability of funding will improve the currently neglected non-popular schools.
The proposals are aimed at the elimination of one of the primary reasons for the breakdown of honesty in society, by not having to produce forged documentation and making children lie at such an early stage. The restriction of Grade 5 examination to non-paying schools would eliminate the bulk of the demand for tuition or at least the parents would not be so affluent and the tuition culture will reduce.
C.W.W. Kananagara would never have imagined the free education he proposed would be exploited by the politicians and the tuition teachers, making a mockery of free education.

(The writer is a Chartered Civil Engineer who graduated from Peradeniya University and has been employed in Sri Lanka and abroad. He was General Manager of State Engineering Corporation of Sri Lanka and left the position in February 2010. He is presently employed at a Chinese construction organisation. He also ran a manufacturing and a sales organisation for over a decade.)