BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

News reported president Wickremasinghe wants to implement education reforms, however, which area of education should be reformed has not clearly expressed. Reforming the education is a policy action in any country and Sri Lanka would not be extraordinary compared to other countries. In many countries, education reforms will be concerned about the availability of funds as the reforming process demands funds for various payments and the Sri Lanka needs to focus incorporating essential features should be education and the values should be gained by kids from the education.    

The address of the president (at Rahula College, Matara) focused on education reforms without mentioning a specific area of education. Education could be divided into early childhood, primary, secondary, TVET and high education.  The address of the president was a general statement without specification of reforms and whether the policymakers taken to account the president’s speech is a vital question because politicians in Sri Lanka make public statements, but they would not become a part of the active policy process.  

Since the era of the State Council education reforms has been a significant aspect and many changes in the education system in Sri Lanka incurred since then but only few reforms have been activated by bureaucrats, the major reason for inactive in implementation of education reforms seem to be a lack of knowledge and experience of bureaucrats, and the other point is giving priority for talks than actual implementing the required reforms.

As I observed, education reforms in Sri Lanka could save many spending for unnecessary activities and the quality could be improved by reforms. In Sri Lanka, many activities that could be done at school level could be avoided by reforms and educators should be given a responsible role in allowing them to use the system for making money. Private tuition by persons without proper training to educate kids should be banned and in the teachers’ supervision and evaluation process should be examined how the role of accountability of teachers performed.  

The education system of Sri Lanka is suffered by lack of funds and while this issue remaining, the education administration seems to be wasted funds for not essential work, such as for conducting competitive exams. G.C.E ordinary level, scholarship exams that are purely wasting funds and they should be done at the school level. In many countries, the Grade 10 examination and a part of Grade 12 examination are done at school level and the management structure of the schools has forced to continue scholarship examination unnecessarily getting involved by parents.

From the Kinder to grade 12 kids could be offered education in three media, Sinha, Tamil and English, however, many people with negative attitudes oppose such a broader education and TVET education also could offer according to international standard, education reforms have not directed to implement such a valuable education.  The major reason is attitude problems of parents, teachers, administrators, trade-unions, politicians and many others.

The government of Sri Lanka could be saved lots of funds if it was successful implements reforms. There are different roles for stakeholders and in Sri Lanka, the role of stakeholders alloyed, and many problems created in the education system.