Ceylon Today Editorial

School admissions island-wide epidemic 

20th October 2015

Grade 1 admissions to schools has become an island-wide epidemic, witnessed in the urban areas as well as rural areas and basically anywhere where there are schools that are considered to be popular schools. Thousands of parents are faced with the obstacle of getting their children into big schools that are generally accepted to be popular, apart from the national schools in their own areas.

According to the most recent data released by the Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka has a total of 10,973 government schools, 10, 123 private and special schools. The numbers of pupils in government schools are 4,272,286, while in private and special schools there are 4,077,989. For the year 2014, new admissions to government schools have been reportedly 339,554. Approximately that would be around 400 students per government school. In most of the schools in Colombo and other major city areas, there are not more than five to six classes for each Grade with the number of classes increasing from Grade 6, so that the schools can enrol more students after their scholarship exam. According to the statistics, the number of students per class should be at around 45-50 although that is not the case now.

The number of students in a classroom which was 40 or more than that has now been brought down to a maximum of 35 students in a classroom. This has caused a grave injustice to the parents who intend to admit their child to Grade 1. The step to reduce the number of students per classroom was taken by the Yahapalana Government's Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, who was also the man behind the decision to charge a fee for the renovation of classrooms from students entering Grade 1 at schools.

The main reason behind this was the complaints made by trade unions led by stressed out teachers who slave days and days teaching a maximum of eight periods in eight classrooms which are filled with a minimum of 40 students. That is roughly 320 students per day that a single teacher has to take care of as well as teach a lesson in the curriculum. This is undoubtedly a hard thing to do. However, reducing the number of children, because there is a lack in the work force enthusiasm, is a far cry from better solutions.

More so, the fact that there are parents who prepare bogus documents and succeed in getting admission for their children to schools is a famous secret that each and everyone is aware of. Then there are those who have to go behind people such as ex-principals of the school of their choice, politicians and businessmen who would give a letter of recommendation of the child, intended for the school that has been chosen by the parents. These parents have to then bribe a ceremonious amount of money to that person. In some instances, these spurious recommendation letters are in fact encouraged by those school officials, principals, rectors and wardens.

The children, whose parents are not afraid and desperate enough to get their children where they want, eventually end up doing this while there are those honest police officers who are unable to gather such documents or be privy to such opportunities for their children because they cannot risk violating the law as officers of the State. That would mean that they would put their career as well as their child's future at risk.

The main cause of this issue is the fractionation between popular schools and other schools, an instinctual thought that has become ingrained in the society's mindset. Parents even after several generations still look forward to enrol their children in what they consider to be popular schools, which create a direct impact on the competition among schools. This competition is the ultimate feather that breaks the proverbial camel's back when it comes to the decision of the number of student admissions for schools per year and especially student admissions for Grade 1.

When the parents become desperate, they tend to seek criminal methods such as the methods mentioned above which would allow their children to enter a 'good' school. Those who fail to do this enrol their children in national and whichever school that is available and force them to sit for the Grade Five scholarship examination which is the next best option of entering a recognized school. That itself creates another problem where the parents are forcing the children to attend tuition classes which causes a big mental stress on the child. The Grade Five scholarship examination which was not created with this in mind has now become this abhorrent creation that awaits its turn to swallow up our children whole. And the parents, unknowingly, flock their children in a straight line directly to the monster's mouth.

Therefore, instead of changing the pillow for the headache which was done by reducing the number of student intake per class, the relevant authorities should look for more proactive methods reducing the competition among schools. Removing the Popular School Syndrome from the mindset of the society, this unnecessary competition among schools, the problem of children and parents can be resolved. In order to do this, the government should introduce a proper and general mechanism, regarding student admissions, that is applied for all schools, without any exceptions, that would not differ from school to school.

Otherwise we will only be jeopardizing our own future by creating a generation of sans skills, sans culture and sans intelligence.

Daily Mirror Editorial

Repeat of Olcott-Era: Dharma Voices for Animals

In what could turn out to be a repeat of the Henry Steel Olcott era for the revival of Buddhist values and virtues, another American is now in Sri Lanka for the launching of the Colombo and Kandy Chapters of the worldwide movement known as the Dharma Voices for Animals (DVA).

Bob Isaacson, founder–leader of the Santiago–based DVA, says they act on Gautama the Buddha’s fundamental teaching that every living being is born free and has a fundamental right to life and liberty.

Mr. Isaacson for several decades had worked as a human rights or right-to-life lawyer, appearing mainly in appeal cases where people had been sentenced to death.

He has the lifetime achievement of having saved the lives of more than 200 people whose death sentences were commuted largely because of Mr. Isaacson’s powerful advocacy based on his conviction that the death penalty, though legal in some countries, is illegitimate, immoral and unmerciful. DVA organisers describe the death penalty as ‘judicial killing’.

After completing his noble mission as a right-to-life advocate for human beings, Mr. Isaacson in 2011 was led to form the DVA where he is now the advocate and powerful voice for the voiceless, ‘viceless’ and innocent animals. He and other members are fully-fledged vegetarians and more so they are vegans-those who do not use any items such as leather or fur products which are made by killing animals.

When Henry Steel Olcott began the revival of Buddhist values, the mission started in the heart of the issue - the schools and the children. He thus took initiatives to begin Buddhist or Dhamma schools ranging from Ananda and Nalanda in Colombo, Mahinda and Richmond in Galle to Dharmaraja in Kandy. Today there are thousands of Buddhist or Dhamma schools, and with the 2016 budgetary allocation for education being increased four-fold, the Government is expected to give much more priority to spiritual education without which children may learn to fly like birds and swim like fish, but not how to walk like selfless, sacrificial and sincere human beings.

According to worldwide figures compiled by Bob Isaacson’s DVA, a wicked and merciless world kills about 70 billion animals every year with millions of marine species also being exterminated.The World Wildlife Fund reported reasently that as much as 48% of the marine species had been killed or made extinct.
 In line with Bob Isaacson’s vision and also that of Henry Steel Olcott, the DVA organisers here hope to start their education, awareness and action mission in schools because the minds of innocent children are known to be more open to new thinking and virtues, missions and dreams.

They dare to dream the impossible dream and fight the impossible foes. Today’s children with access to the creative and innovative talents through the World Wide Web, are ready to climb mountains, search seas and follow rainbows till they find their dreams.

Mr. Isaacson, who hopes to meet President Maithripala Sirisena and other Government leaders, believes that Sri Lanka, as the hub of Theravada Buddhism, could and should play a major role in being a Dharma voice for the voiceless animals. According to the DVA, kindness is a language that any animal speaks. But every day tens of thousands of animals find themselves victims of abuse, neglect and cruelty. We can change all this by creating a world where we can co-exist in kindness, love and compassion.

Mr. Isaacson says at the heart of Gautama the Buddha’s teachings or the Dhamma, is the practice of Sila or morality. Throughout his teachings the Buddha made it clear that humans must not harm animals or other humans and must treat all living beings with compassion.

During the past few decades Sri Lanka has swallowed lots of wrong lessons from America, including Western diet or nutrition models, with excessive animal fat to bring about a growing trend, where children are dying before their parents.

Now, the time has come, with a new consensus Government also, to take the right lessons from another American as we did from Henry Steel Olcott.