Dr C W W Kannangara. This policy ensures that all citizens, from primary to university level, have access to free education. It was a pivotal moment in the then Ceylon’s history, significantly expanding education opportunities and contributing to high literacy rates.”
Previous to this date the government (British with local administrators) ran rural schools, mostly primary or secondary. Missionary schools dotted the island with foreign principals and even teachers of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist and Baptist denominations in which the medium of instruction was English. To counter them, Buddhist schools were started in many major cities and later came the Hindu and Muslim schools.
The city dwellers, the elite, those with incomes, gave their children the benefit of education up to senior secondary and gradually beyond when University College, Medical College and Law College were inaugurated.
Central Schools were established as part of a nationwide initiative to provide free quality education, particularly in rural areas, starting in 1943. This initiative was spearheaded by Dr C W W Kannangara again, often referred to as the ‘Father of Free Education’. These schools aimed to offer comprehensive education to students selected from a defined geographical area, typically within a six–mile radius. The initial launch in 1943 established eleven central schools which quickly expanded to 23 and then 54 by 1944, with one school per electorate. It was with the addition of these Madyama Maha Vidyalayas added to the Maha Vidyalayas that promoted the upward mobility of the middle and lower middle class rural children. After independence from British rule in Ceylon, many students of these schools were taking their place in the administrative service of the government at higher positions. These schools are now called National Schools.
The above is an introduction to my subject because my focus is on children of working class families: farmers, office aides (peons), three wheeler owners/drivers and even daily paid labourers. I prefer my Nan articles to be subjective and so I mean to present a couple of examples of present day and very recent past individuals and families of a couple of upwardly mobile youngsters of the new group.
Area rule for university entrants
I quote again from my search on the Internet: “University admissions are governed by the University Grants Commission and utilize a system that combines merit and district quotas. This system aims to balance academic excellence with equitable access across different districts. District quotas allocate a proportion of places in each course to students from each district based on its population,” The area rule or district quota system for university admissions came into effect in 1972, alongside standardization policy.
A side effect of this good policy was that students from big cities were discriminated against. A four subject pass at the university entrance exam from a college student in a big city –Jaffna and Colombo particularly – were kept out of university unless their results were exceptionally high while a student from Badulla with three passes gained entrance for medical study. Uva was considered a very deprived province. Such a girl was identified to receive my mother’s savings when she died. I befriended Anula, who was in Medical College, University of Ruhuna , and helped her further. She visited and stayed with me several times and then was posted to the Kandy General Hospital. In appreciation, she wanted me to be witness to her marriage to a fellow doctor. She kept in touch with me as she settled down to marriage and raising a family in a Mahaveli system. I gathered she was a humane doctor. Many like her benefitted from the area rule. She was clever, bright and sharp. She wrote letters to me in Sinhala. I suggested she attempt English letter writing. Within three months she was fluent.
Cases of now
More recent cases. A vendor near the Fresh Fish outlet I go to for my week’s supply of fish would sell vegetables on the pavement of an adjacent building. His ware was manioc and all kinds of fresh green vegetables. One Saturday he was absent. Next, I asked him what happened to him the previous Saturday. My daughter got married, he said, and elaborated with no hubris: She is a doctor and married a businessman. He continued his vegetable selling business.
Asoka was a rescued JVPer then aged 18 with a very strict mother and mild father. He was sent to an uncle’s home for safety. He learnt driving and was given a van in charge of; his uncle being an entrepreneur in the tourist industry. Then came the tsunami and business dried up. Asoka managed to lease out a van from his uncle and conveyed benefactors and their supplies to tsunami devastated areas. One Sinhala couple, resident in the UK, was served by him and there developed a friendship of gratitude from his side and appreciation from theirs. They returned to live in Sri Lanka and helped him by buying him a house and helping with his growing family of three. He dabbled in business; construction of houses et al. But his income would shoot up or sink low. He was now employed as a driver in an embassy and his honesty, dedication to his job and loyalty to his employer earned him the respect of most of those he worked for. His wife was a Roman Catholic and entered his eldest daughter to a convent in the outskirts of Colombo that ran an English medium stream, which this girl joined. The second in the family – a son – studied in a private school that had all teaching in English.
The story moves to the two young ones. They were superb students and both entered the Colombo University offering Math and Statistics. Both passed their honours first degrees with classes. While in university, the girl applied for a job advertised by a prestigious garment business. Though the ad called for a graduate, she was employed though still to sit her finals. With her BSc honours degree with an upper class, she wished to proceed to the US to continue her higher studies. Her results, complemented by her English ability, got her a position in a North Carolina University where she was paid for teaching freshers, and granted access to their Master’s degree course. Her husband of a couple of months followed her soon enough to the same university. That was just before Prez Trump vented his revenge on universities starting with Harvard, which it was said refused Baron Trump’s entrance as an undergraduate student.
A fact to prove my point that working class families’ children are going places, delightfully and with honour, is that the young man’s father was the chef in an important establishment. The Secretary General of the establishment had paid for his only son’s American education in the same university that the chef’s son is now in.
Many three wheeler drivers’ children are also graduates and even doctors produced by our local universities. I know two sons of peasant farmers of Polonnaruwa who have graduated in IT and related subjects from the Universities of Jaffna and Ruhuna. These two I WhatsApp chat with so they improve their English speaking. This talking between Talk Mates is an innovative method introduced by Capt. Elmo Jayawardena through his most helpful Candle Aid charity organisation. These two are only children in their families. Thus, the very comforting supposition that the population of the island is not now increasing greatly. We may soon have negative growth. As a friend says, large families are a curse. I agree that it is an impediment to poverty alleviation and upward mobility of young ones.
Thus, in addition to free education and implementation of the area rule, children of blue collar workers, informal sector daily wage earners, and even domestic aides are taking the chances offered to them to climb the education and employment ladders. The education system receiving particular attention from the NPP government with Dr Harini Amarasuriya heading it, is also a blessing. However, the disaster of the Sinhala Only policy still dogs us.
Good for the new generation of keen students! Good for their striving parents and good for the country too!
from The Island https://ift.tt/p9J1Fab
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