Friday, 3 January 2014 00:00
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Much has been written and said about the Government’s proposal to scrap the Grade 5 scholarship program. Many professionals who owe their social mobility to the exam as well as parents who hope for better opportunities for their children have criticised the move as an effort to close the door to prestigious schools. Yet, there is clearly much damage that the exams also pose.
Child experts have time and again pointed out that the Grade 5 scholarship exam puts a ridiculously high level of pressure on young children. At an age when most children in other countries are enjoying their childhood, youngsters in Sri Lanka are trapped into an endless – and some would say vicious – cycle of school and tuition classes.
Parents spend staggering amounts of money and energy to get their children the best assistance possible because the scholarship exam gives a tiny sliver of hope for parents who dream of sending their child to prestigious schools that they would otherwise never get to even step inside during a rainstorm, as the Sinhalese adage goes.
Caught in the frighteningly competitive environment, children become empty vessels to which only the driest of academic knowledge is stuffed. Many lament that students need to be spoon-fed and are incapable of discovering or learning for themselves. Still others have observed that children do not have the emotional depth and social skills to become good citizens and indeed many of these shortcomings can be traced back to the strident education regimen they are subjected to at a very early age. Usually for the sake for the Grade 5 scholarship exam.
Therefore, surely the most sustainable and genuine solution would be to upgrade all schools and bring them up at least near to the standard of the much-envied prestigious schools in Colombo and elsewhere. The Education Ministry some time ago came up with a plan to upgrade 1,000 schools around the country to the same standards as their Colombo counterparts. Yet, sadly, progress of this move has not been displayed.
Education is recognised as a basic right. As such it not only needs to be available to every child, but must be done so at the same standard. This the Government has failed to do and while it is very enthusiastic of ad-hoc plans like scratching the Grade 5 scholarship program, it has not been so vehement in increasing the annual budget allocation for education despite massive protests and strikes from academics. The demand for 6% of GDP may be unrealistic under present economic expectations, but schools, especially, need to be given better funds and management.
The furore over dismantling the Grade 5 exams have once again brought into the limelight the discrepancy and vast inequality existing in Sri Lanka’s education system. So significant has it become that scrapping the exam can be likened to depriving a child of a basic human right as education is vital to defining the potential of a child’s life.
If the Government goes ahead with revising or reducing the access average children will have to accessing elite schools without having constructive policies for developing all schools that are implemented, the result would be many lives consigned to darkness.
