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Sri Lanka’s Education Mafia
Undeniably something is wrong somewhere and that somewhere is our education. The stock exchange is supposed to be ruled by the mafia, perhaps even the sports arena, so too are present day politicos and it is no exaggeration to say that there is a mafia controlling the education of Sri Lanka. Our objective is to view all areas of discussion and to determine how best we can address these areas instead of delaying action through blame tactics.
What is on paper is never practiced and what should be practiced is never relevant to all. This is what ails every area of polity in Sri Lanka.
Qualifications, Salaries, Teaching Hours for Academics and Teachers
To be appointed as a professor one must have at least 10 publications in ISI and Scopus level internationally indexed journals with a PhD from a good ranking university. It is said the majority of “Professors” in Sri Lanka do not meet this criteria. This then calls for a thorough investigation and a total clean up of the entire university system starting from top down and not bottom up as is often the practice.
Sri Lanka’s university system has 386 Professors, 79 Associate Professors, 1929 Senior Lecturers, 1556 Lecturers and 326 academic support staff in 18 universities. With about 4000 lecturers, the UGC claims over 550 academics have broken their bonds and not returned to Sri Lanka. What the UGC must next answer is, what have they done about it instead of using these figures for argument purposes? It was a former UGC Chairman now a member of something called the Friday Forum who cancelled the 500 Indian Government scholarships offered through the Indo-Lanka Accord after securing placements for his own daughters!
Globally, teachers are said to be paid the least. Comparing salaries against industry salaries is unfair just as it is to argue comparing teacher salaries with their overseas counterparts.
American schools start generally at 7:30a.m. with teachers coming at least a half hour early to write the day's objectives on the board, to allow a quick tutoring session for the weak. Lessons are 40 minute and school ends at 3:30p.m. Teachers do not leave school along with their students, they stay behind to prepare work for the next day often as late as 5p.m. Teachers never leave class without setting the classroom, making notes, assignments and activity handouts. Even weekends are spent in planning and marking work. In the US teachers spend an average of 50 hours a week on instructional duties, including an average of 12hrs a week on non-compensated school related activities (grading papers, advising students, parent counseling etc). Teachers are rigorously evaluated, they have to be regularly re-certified and they have to meet complex state and federal standards and they are expected to qualify as well. Is this the practice in Sri Lanka by teachers or academics for them to compare themselves with their counterparts?
Nowhere are allowances paid for paper correction, paper setting, exam supervision and even lecture visits over and above one’s salary. Academics are given fully paid sabbatical leave every 7 years that extends to 2-3 years or more, air fares even for the spouse are covered by the state, they are not disallowed from lecturing privately, providing consultations, involved in projects with these earnings are tax free, they enjoy more holidays than other public sector personnel. More often much of the scholarships awarded to academics are simply to advance their own personal careers than to provide any quality to the service offered to students.
The gross salary of a Probationary lecturer is Rs.51,316 while a Senior Professor earns Rs.126,536 and the take home with all the accrued allowances is something that will raise the envy of other public servants. Though together we can only wonder what qualifications politicians possess to enjoy the best of perks while being the main cause of waste and corruption. No one will grudge payments to academics or teachers if the quality of their teaching depicts results through the students they make into tomorrow’s leaders.
Way Forward
University education in Sri Lanka began in 1942. 70 years on we are still searching for solutions to put education on track.
Advisors and consultants living and working in Colombo do not understand or feel the need to tap and nurture the inherent talents of children in rural areas. The schools they attend are often neglected, the infrastructure they deserve is never allocated, teachers are not trained, yet the motivation to learn remains alive in these children. There is no requirement for new schemes and systems that eat up billions of rupees unless we properly evaluate the present systems and completely annul those that are irrelevant. Half-way programmes spell further dangers to an education system that has become a convenient tool to completely destabilise the future generation of Sri Lanka.
The problems that exist are many. University students are involved in politics when they should be working towards completing their degrees. There is an overload of information which is not structured to tap the students’ skills and talents and instead encourages memorising. The tuition enterprise has added to the failure with nothing constructive coming except fleecing parents. Loss of faith in the school system rests with not just the Government or the Ministers in Charge. The academics in universities, the teachers at schools, the parents and the students themselves are equally accountable. The situations become aggravated and blown out of proportion by trade unions, political parties and external forces. When a student is ragged and perhaps dies from the ragging it is not the government or the Minister that should take the blame but the academics in whose power it is to put an end to ragging. Similarly, it is for academics to stop politics taking place inside universities and if academics do not play politics themselves attempting to win the support of politicians, much of the confusion that exists would not take place at all. The need therefore is for all these segments to accept their accountability and thereafter to devise ways to come out of the mess that has been created.
(By Shenali Waduge, Eurasia Review)
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