Daily News Editorial

Cart before the horse?

03 October 2016

The government is to set up 670 new national schools countrywide, it is being reported. According to Public Administration and Management Minister Ranjith Madduma Bandara this is with a view to reduce competition for the 376 most popular schools in the country. The move indeed is most welcome if only it serves the purpose mentioned by the Minister.

In our view, no new schools, national or otherwise is going to change the entrenched mindsets of parents who have their own opinions as to what constitutes a popular school. No parent is going to put his/her child, say, to a Royal College in Gampaha or a St.Josephs College in Panadura. They prefer the genuine article and they cannot be blamed for this. Given the shenanigans parents undergo to get their children admitted to elite schools, such as taking temporary residence in the vicinity of such schools to qualify for the area rule, the doctoring of light bills and telephone bills etc. it is clear to what extent parents go to get their children admitted to the best of schools. The current demand by the doctors to get their children admitted to 12 selected schools is a case in point. They will not settle for anything less.

Hence, the government would do well to give this idea much thought before going ahead with the move. Instead what it should do is to improve and upgrade the quality of the existing schools. We say this because today most of the schools, particularly in the rural areas, are in a deplorable state. Some schools are without proper buildings to house students. Most schools, even in the cities, are in a derelict state. Many of them lack the basic facilities. Recently it was reported that some schools even lack drinking water and toilet facilities and come the rains classrooms starts leaking. In certain areas classes are held under trees due to lack of space.

Most schools in the rural outback don’t have teachers for subjects such as science, maths and English. Schools in the plantations are in a parlous state. Teachers are poorly paid and show little interest towards their jobs. All these matters should be rectified before thought is given to building new schools. There is also the question of school dropouts due to issues such as poverty. Although the government has set a compulsory age where children should attend school there is no means of knowing if this us been adhered to.

The government should also direct its attention to the type of education that is being imparted in our schools. The curricular should be more oriented towards job creation in this day and age dispensing with the age old practice of mere book knowledge being rammed into the heads of the students. The government should think of creating more vocational training institutes rather than building national schools all over the country. This would equip our youth with the necessary skills to face up to the future challenges in the employment sphere.

Attention should also be paid towards the quality of teachers. Today tutories are mushrooming by the day and children flock to tuition classes due to either the lackadaisical attitude of the teachers who shirk their duty towards the students or willfully neglect their charges to draw them to the tuition classes run by these teachers. If that indeed is the case the whole purpose of building schools will be lost and a waste of money. Besides, today there is a dearth of teachers and how will the government recruit teachers to the 670 schools that are to be built is the question. In short the government should reconsider the whole educational set up in the country and bring it up to date with the emerging scenario. Interference by politicians with the education set up over the years have not helped matters either. A comprehensive study should be undertaken by experts, knowledgeable in the education sphere, on the whole gamut of the ills affecting the country’s education system before schools are built willy nilly across the country. It will be akin to putting the cart before the horse.

A welcome move

More lands are to be released in the North for resettlement of internally displaced persons. According to our report quoting Rehabilitation and Resettlement Minister D. M. Swaminathan, President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has directed the Defence Ministry to release land, 454.2 acres in extent. The release of land for resettlement purposes in the North was commenced by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the present government is continuing with the process. These are after all persons who had to cede their lands either to the army or driven away by the LTTE during the war years. Hence no member of the Joint Opposition it is presumed will raise howls of protests at the move. The Minister also said that a lot of development activity will be launched side by side with the resettlement work. It is also hoped that livelihood projects too will be launched for these IDPs to facilitate the rebuilding of their lives that suffered dislocation due to the unfortunate events.