Ranking education

Thursday, 28 February 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka’s education system is a morass of problems. Yet the recent decision by the Government to confer military titles on 4,000 principals in the hope of providing a solution barely scratches the surface of constructive policy.

Last year some 23 principals, mostly from popular schools in Colombo including Ananda College, Devi Balika Vidyalaya and Nalanda College, were awarded the title of colonel after 10 days of training at the Rantambe Cadet Camp. The Education Ministry is hoping to build on this in the latest round of inductions that will take place after 45 days of training. Interviews are set to kick off as early as next week, according to reports.

There are several points of concern that need to be evaluated when providing such a large number, essentially half of the country’s schools, with militarily-trained principals. One such is that this results in deep militarisation of the education system and by extension society. As Sri Lanka attempts to heal from three decades of brutal war, introducing more military constraints to society must be viewed with extreme caution as they can undermine civil liberties and open engagement.

There is also fear that with this latest move schools will not only come under the Education Ministry – a complicated process at the best of times – they will also be subject to the Defence Ministry. The training of university entrants, which was objected to vehemently by university teachers and was one of the key points in their prolonged strike last year, also highlights the increasing militarisation trends of Sri Lanka’s education system.

Militarisation also contravenes democratic ideals and promoting transparency and accountability within the education system, the lack of which can be sensibly fingered as the main reason for most of the problems that it faces today. Deep politicisation, cronyism, corruption and mismanagement are just a few of the massive problems that have engulfed schools. Given this tenuous situation, donning a uniform and gaining a title would do very little to realistically clean up the sector on the ground.

Another issue is budgetary constraints. Even though the Government in its 2013 Budget raised funding allocations to the Education Ministry by 6%, this is wholly inadequate given the inflation rate, which is almost touching the double digit level. In fact many research organisations have pointed out that the Government has systematically reduced money for the education and health sectors since 2006, resulting in a serious shortage of resources.

Lack of funds was prominently discussed when a schoolgirl was caught for stealing eight coconuts to obtain funds to paint her school. As teacher unions subsequently pointed out, the Government had in recent years delegated maintenance activities to schools, resulting in teachers having to pass on the burden to parents. Even though the furore touched off a media frenzy, motivating the Government to ban fund raising projects, this is an unsustainable move.

With so many burdens, the Education Ministry, Treasury and other stakeholders need to provide real solutions to the education system. Top-down methods such as this will not only be pointless, but will also leave the issues to be covered over only to stagnate and explode at a later stage.