Progressive policies designed and implemented several
decades ago need to be lauded for the positive benefits they have yielded. On the other hand, nations and people do not
stay still; they move, often with the times, with new realities spawning new
challenges and these in turn requiring re-think and re-design to ensure
standards, effectiveness and relevance.
One of the most perplexing issues about the positive results
of education policy is that the beneficiaries (i.e. the educated) consistently
fail to deliver when they move to positions of power and authority. Rarely is the right person placed in the
right position. Rare too is the right
person in the right position supported with the right kind of personnel and
resources. This is a phenomenon that is
not limited to the education sector of course.
Quite apart from a culture of sidelining career administrators in favor
of political appointees, a tendency that has caused more problems than yielded
benefits, the country is clearly in the throes of a serious human resources
crisis. Two insurrections and a three
decade long struggle against terrorism that resulted in the loss of some
200,000 lives have not helped either.
The country suffers from a continuing mismatch between
instruction provided and the skills necessary to move the country forward, an
absence of a comprehensive occupation classification to determine skill needs
and a lack of systems to ensure quality of education.
Last week, students of the University of Visual and
Performing Arts took to the streets demanding that the University Grants
Commission (UGC) re-introduced practical tests for aspiring entrants. Student leaders claimed that the practical
tests that are part of the A/L exam for subjects such as music, dancing and art
are of unsound quality with assessments being made by school teachers and not
university lecturers. Scrapping the
aptitude tests, they claim, could be to the advantage of students who have
scored well in non-related subjects (thereby boosting their Z-scores).
The UGC counters that the quality of the aptitude tests is
suspect, alleging inter alia, that
the examiners can favor applicants who they themselves train in various private
‘academies’ for music and dance for example, alluding to a conflict of
interest. It is also pointed out that in
several instances students who have secured ‘A’ grades in all subjects have
failed the aptitude tests. Since the
handbook for those applying to universities has no mention of aptitude tests,
it is not possible to re-introduce them at this point.
Now it cannot be impossible, even given inadequacies
referred to above, for a system to be put in place to ensure transparency and
also to separate the deserving from the undeserving, either at the A/L itself
or through an aptitude test. The fact
that those who have their own academies do not disclose the fact and excuse
themselves from screening processes also compromises their integrity and
detracts from the legitimacy of their demands for aptitude tests.
In another example of gross incompetence, the Ministry of
Education has assigned placements in a Colombo school to 4 university lecturers
as per quotas for that category, without ascertaining whether or not vacancies
existed. That’s basic. According to the aggrieved parents, they had
been brushed off by a senior ministry official, who had allegedly claimed that
the ministry doesn’t need university lecturers.
This has prompted the university dons to consider boycotting A/L paper
marking. It is reported that the said
lecturers had been abusive during the argument with the official. Regardless of what was said and done, the
fact remains that the Ministry has not bothered to do its homework regarding
space availability. This is May, five months into the school year. Bad.
These are just two of many examples where all round and
insufferable incompetence is evident. We
could the imbroglio concerning private medical colleges, the utter lack of
supervision of mushrooming ‘international schools’ and various other
degree-awarding institutions, a pernicious tendency of student activists to
salivate at the prospect of protesting and indeed instigating student unrest,
steadily dropping quality levels in many streams of education and other
ills. It seems that saying ‘there is a
crisis in education’ is no longer valid, for our education system is
‘crisising’ and has been doing so for far too long now. It could lead to another bout of youth unrest
leading to insurrection and blood-letting, but that’s only one of the
‘possibles’, for in this here-and-now, for all the progress made over the
years, the mismatches, incompetency, lack of ethics and ad hoc policy
directives impact the entire sector.
Big words, brash acts and a preference to sweep things under
the carpet will not help. Our tomorrow
doesn’t look too rosy.
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