English flourishing in Jaffna

1 April 2023 01:19 am

Jaffna was once at the pinnacle of education in Sri Lanka. However, at an Akaram Foundation Workshop in Jaffna on 15.10.2016, Prof. Roshan Ragel produced statistics to show that Jaffna District had slipped from first place in 1980 to ninth (last).  

 

John Gladstone Rajakulendran,  MSC (!943-1947), Barrister

In the same period, the Western Province held on to its second place while the Southern Province moved up from third to first.  

In engineering and Medicine alone, the Northern province did not see the same loss, from first to third, and from first to fifth, respectively.  

This loss, I believe, based on my personal observations of university minutes, Vice-Chancellors’ letters, reference letters from school principals and lecturers etc., corresponds to a loss of English fluency.  

A reversal of this decline can only be achieved by reviving English. Very early as English fluency declined, Suvendrini Kadirgamar in 1973, founded The Rajakulendran Academy of Western Music, Speech and Drama. The school was strengthened when her sister, Vimala Jebanesan of some 50 years’ experience in the field, joined her after a career in teaching the subject locally and abroad.  

 

Their students were also prepared for exams conducted by the Royal Schools Board of Music London in whose examinations their student Poopalan Lakshman garnered the all-island prize for speech and drama reserved only for one person. Varajith Umashankar came first in Sri Lanka

 

Far-sightedly, to keep standards in line with worldwide norms, the two sisters’ students were presented to exams by the similarly named Institute in Colombo whose representative for Jaffna Suvendrini is.  

Likewise, their students were also prepared for exams conducted by the Royal Schools Board of Music London in whose examinations their student Poopalan Lakshman garnered the all-island prize for speech and drama reserved only for one person. Varajith Umashankar came first in Sri Lanka.