Parents skeptical about children’s education in Colombo’s leading schools

Parents underscore the importance of six hours of schooling and add that if teachers were teaching in a proper way, children would need no tuition 

School teacher-parent WhatsApp messages to convene parents for meetings abruptly have caused great inconvenience to day-to-day tasks, a few parents from Colombo told the Daily mirror. The situation revealed a trend in most leading schools in Colombo that pay no heed to employed parents who have to encounter last minute messages to take part in school meetings or complete homework that are not feasible, given the time period assigned for activities. Besides some other parents complained about the inadequacy of school education that has paved way for private tuition to flourish at the expense of school education. Parents say that school education should be the priority.

Unnecessary burdens

Speaking to the Daily mirror, Shanika Karunarathna*, 38, shared her experience as a parent. She said that she found it difficult to plan her day-to-day tasks as meetings and other homework activities were notified at the last minute. According to Ms. Karunarathna, the parents have to spend much for several visits to bookshops every week. She said that as a result other responsibilities like caregiving roles for elders and younger children were overlooked. She said: “Some parents find it difficult to obtain leave approved during the latter part of the day. This directly affects their work. Sometimes mothers have had to leave full-time jobs.” She also revealed that the school that her son attends does not provide parents with a term plan. “If we had a proper term plan, these inconveniences could have been avoided.”

Referring to the absence of an academic calendar, Ms. Karunarathna said that a general timetable is issued every year by the Department of Education. She said: “But for each term, there is no specific academic calendar indicating parents-teachers meetings and other special events. Sometimes the meetings are scheduled all of a sudden. The parents sometimes have to apply for leave at work places at the last minute, meaning their employment is at risk.”

Meanwhile another parent named Ishani Fernando*, 40,  told the Daily mirror that  although she was proud of sending her son to a leading school in Colombo,  she had lost trust in school education as many teachers in the school have opted for  private tuition. According Ms. Fernando, many parents have had to rely on private tuition classes to get good grades. She further said: “Most of the teachers in tuition centres are from reputed schools in Colombo. They use the school name to give publicity to tuition classes and attract students.

“Private tuition classes should only aid the studies done in schools. But the school my son attends, never takes studies seriously. However, there is a serious question as to whether these teachers contribute their maximum to school education. Ironically overall academic performances are not up to the expected level when compared with other schools,” Ms. Fernando noted. 

She said: “There is no interaction with teachers at all now. We have reached a point where we are quite unsure whether our children receive a good education from the school. Most of the teachers today including the ones at the school my son attends directly promote tuition rather than covering the syllabus.”

Ms. Fernando said that at times teachers are tasked with a lot extracurricular activities. According to her, this hinders the teachers’ full contribution to school education. Even the teachers who are willing to contribute their best to school education are not in a situation to do so due to extracurricular activities they are tasked with. 

Ms. Fernando also underscored the importance of six hours of schooling. She said if teachers were teaching in a proper way children would not need tuition classes. 

The parent also complained that there could be misappropriation of class funds, as they are not used to improving classroom facilities. Instead, they are used to other school functions. Moreover, there is no transparency with regard to these funds. Parents have become skeptical about how these funds are used. 

*The names of the interviewees have been changed to protect their identities