‘Reforming education: Challenges to change’ by Dr. Tara de Mel: Book review

Dr. Tara de Mel’s book of just 114 pages presents with clarity and objectivity the experience of that time regarding the initiation and implementation of far-reaching changes in the education sector at all levels. It is in that sense shared wisdom on the dynamics of policy formulation and implementation, in a context where controversy and lack of consensus can negatively impact at every stage. Successes, challenges, and disappointments are documented without the type of fault finding or personal accolades, often found when this important area in our national life is debated or discussed

By Professor Savitri Goonesekere

DR. Tara de Mel’s recently published book places in the public domain her experience when she sat at the “top table” as a senior and empowered official of the Chandrika Bandaranaike administration, in the period 1996-2005. The book records a personal journey, but with insights on the reforms in education that the Government tried to introduce in that period. The book also encourages reflection on why successive governments in this country and professionals and educational practitioners have failed to effect necessary changes in this important area that is of critical importance for national development.

Access to education was described by C.W.W. Kannangara, the pioneer of education policy in this country, as a “pearl of great price”. But the Kannangara reforms did not envisage providing equitable access to an education of poor quality in State subsidised non fee levying institutions. His flagship State schools or Madhya Maha Vidyalayas, and the single national University of Ceylon were to be resourced and developed so that they would combine quality education and equitable access.

That promise was realised in the early post-Independence years, producing many professionals and public servants of diverse backgrounds, who each in their own way built successful careers and also contributed to national development. They served in various sectors in the country, and in regional and international institutions, with a sense of service and professionalism. They also had opportunities to give leadership in their careers paths. The high social indicators for our people that we continue to boast of for decades, were largely due to the effectiveness of education policy, resource allocation, and policy implementation that connected with other key areas like public health.

Dr. de Mel’s book offers some insights on that important national concern – the need to transform and change, and respond to what was recognised in later years as a deep crisis in the education sector. The book documents with clarity and objective insights, the spaces for creative transformation, and the manner in which they can close. 

Dr. de Mel’s professional training did not (as she remarks) give her the credentials of an educationist, a professional in the field. Yet she shared the passion of Minister C.W.W. Kannangara and many others who followed him, to ensure that this country had an education system that combined equity with quality. That link was also one which she saw as essential for both economic growth and sustainable development, to enhance the quality of life of all Sri Lankans. She was offered an opportunity to give leadership in education policy and implementation, and fulfil a passionate career interest, when President Chandrika Kumaratunga took office in 1994. 

Dr. de Mel had to then sacrifice a career as a medical doctor in academia, in a tenured post in the prestigious Medical Faculty of the University of Colombo. She did not, in her empowered role as a senior official, try to “bend the law” to walk an easy path for those with political influence, taking off indefinitely from their responsibilities in one institution, to hold another post, and returning when they want to return. Faced with a choice to return or leave her substantive post in academia, she chose to take a career path as a public servant, whose period of service was subject to the uncertainties of political regime changes. 

This decision worked out well for Dr. de Mel as President Kumaratunga shared her interest and wanted to give education the priority that it deserved. Chandrika Kumaratunga had given priority to education when she took office as Chief Minister of the Western Province. She was determined to take the education system out of the unresolved problems within which it had been trapped for many post-independence decades. And this gave Dr. de Mel the space she wanted to embark on a program of transformation and change that would have been impossible without the political will of the President. Despite a short intervening period in 2001 because of political changes, that process proceeded with the support and active engagement of the President, as documented in this book.

Dr. Tara de Mel’s book of just 114 pages presents with clarity and objectivity the experience of that time regarding the initiation and implementation of far-reaching changes in the education sector at all levels. It is in that sense shared wisdom on the dynamics of policy formulation and implementation, in a context where controversy and lack of consensus can negatively impact at every stage. Successes, challenges, and disappointments are documented without the type of fault finding or personal accolades, often found when this important area in our national life is debated or discussed.

What is of special interest is the manner in which Dr. de Mel, with the support of the Minister of Education Richard Pathirana, and President Kumaratunga, built a professional and well-qualified team that could think independently, disregarding outside pressures. They engaged in vigorous debate and discussion, and yet forged a consensus on how to formulate policies and implement them. Dr. de Mel and her team were educationists, academics and educational practitioners who brought with them a commitment to understand what had gone wrong in the last decades, and a belief in the importance of thinking creatively to address problems that had to be addressed. 

The objective was to make realistic changes that took account of context, and yet formulated policies, institutional changes and programs of implementation, that were both creative and forward looking. There were some successes and failures. The reasons for the difference are also discussed by the author who gave leadership in this reform process.

The book is a first-person account of how some initiatives failed, especially in the contested area of secondary school and tertiary education reforms. Strongly held and personal viewpoints of stakeholders on their priorities regarding compulsory courses and admission requirements for secondary school and university presented obstacles. However the credibility of the members of the team that worked with Dr. de Mel and the capacity for working independently without the toxic intrusion of political pressure facilitated some successes. 

The introduction of a compulsory general test for university admission and the Z score was controversial. Yet it was implemented through consensus in the universities and UGC. I recall how my first batch of Z score students admitted to the Law Faculty was a class that I specially enjoyed teaching – they were of a general standard that was sometimes not reflected in earlier years.

Some of the changes were transformative at the time. Primary school education was revamped, focusing on making teaching and learning enjoyable for children, with the active engagement of specialists in early childhood education, at that time an emerging field. This experience will be very useful today when educationists must cope with immense challenges, lack of basic resources, and the urgency of using IT. Dr. de Mel’s programs brought both IT and teacher training into the education sector as priorities for successful implementation of the reforms. Teacher training was considered vital in implementing changes, particularly in secondary school education. The system was encouraging rote learning and uninspiring teaching in a monolingual (Sinhala/Tamil) education environment. Critical thinking, interpersonal and leadership skills were the cornerstones of the reform initiative. That required strengthening teacher training.

Child abuse, violence and exploitation that deprived children of their childhood were addressed in policy formulation and institutional reform. The National Child Protection Authority was established by legislation as an independent statutory authority placed directly under President Kumaratunga. It received recognition at the Word Conference on Sexual Exploitation of Children in Yokohama as a best practice in setting up a high powered nodal agency on child protection. Compulsory education regulations, first formulated by late Lalith Athulathmudali as Minister of Education, were strengthened in this period to respond to the problem of school dropouts.

Sri Lanka’s success in eliminating many types of child labour can also be traced to the renewed focus on implementing compulsory education regulations. For the first time guidelines for prohibiting corporal punishment in schools were adopted, again by developing some consensus, despite the objections from some within the secondary school system. A very recent judgment in the Supreme Court demonstrates how the failure to sustain the momentum on child protection and responses to violence against children that was introduced by the Kumaratunga government, with leadership from the President and Dr. de Mel and her team, has impacted the lives of generations of children. 

Abuse and violence in educational institutions especially through ragging and sexual harassment attracted the concern of Minister Richard Pathirana. The UGC and Dr. de Mel’s team, successfully ensured, with the President’s support, the enactment of a special law on this subject. That too has failed to impact, as it should have over so many decades. 

I chaired (not a Task Force on University Reforms as mentioned in the book) but a sub committee of the National Education Commission (NEC) which, linking with the Chairman of the UGC at the time, obtained consensus for the draft of a new Universities Act to replace the current Act of 1978. Much work was done on this reform exercise with Dr. de Mel’s support, through the NEC. She created a collegiate environment for connecting the two major institutions in the national education system – the UGC and NEC. Both these institutions had excellent representation from academia and professions. That Draft Act disappeared, and went perhaps into a dustbin, like many other initiatives of this nature.

It is interesting that the book documents first-hand experiences and insights on the context and causes for reforms not proceeding on track. The adversarial politicisation of agendas on education, such as the resistance to any type of public/private mix in education, and the bogie of foreign donor support as a strategy for dismantling free education, remain even today. This is a debilitating reality, and/or legacy, two decades later. Similarly, the failure to ensure a rational system of school admissions. Dr. de Mel’s reform agenda wanted to address this critical need. 

She describes how the reform process tried to introduce changes, but failed to impact. Most of the litigation on violation of the constitutionally guaranteed right to equality and non-discrimination today, are in the area of flawed school admissions. The effort to regulate private service providers in secondary and preschool education is described in the book. It is not clear that new UGC efforts on quality assurance have impacted these areas.

Dr. de Mel’s documentation of the tsunami response in the education system should offer insights to the current Ministry of Education and stakeholders. The book also demonstrates the various initiatives taken to give all children and university students a bilingual rather than monolingual education, through important and creative reforms on the teaching and learning of English. The resistance to change because of diverse factors then and now is part of our well-known history on education reforms. Dr. de Mel’s focus on teacher training to implement the reforms in English teaching and learning, even in this area was to demonstrate that the argument that we “don’t have teachers in English” can be challenged. 

This book, in sharing ideas on education reform and its challenges, shows us what could have been done in a country where citizens believe that access to education transforms their lives. The Sinhala kaviya notes “ugatha mana silpaya mai matu rakina”. Robert Knox remarks with interest that people would write on the sand with a stick. Dr. Tara de Mel’s efforts to use the career opportunity she received to make a difference and impact the sector was a lived experience for her, and those who were engaged at that time as teachers and/or administrators and managers in the education sector. It is a poignant testimony to our populist political culture that many of those creative changes were not sustained in the decades that followed.

As the Sinhala folk poem records with wisdom, education is an asset “that cannot be taken by thieves or angry kings and ministers. It cannot be washed away in floods and natural disasters.” Dr. de Mel’s book offers insights to anyone who still wishes to make that idea a reality, in the full awareness of the debilitating impact of political populism and its capacity for destroying the “pearl of great price” – education.