EDUCATIONAL CONTENT AND THE FUTURE

Schools have undergone changes that were undreamt of in 1980.

- BY GOOLBAI GUNASEKARA

When we gained Independence the British systems of education prevailed. British teachers were still in Sri Lanka and some schools still had foreign Principals. The smothering blanket of colonial education gave way to a more national oriented system. In hindsight we have to admit that the educational re-organisation that took place immediately we gained Independence could have been done much better other than simply catering to perceived National interests at the time.

When the Bandaranaike disaster of “Sinhala in 24 Hours” struck a helpless population it relegated the Sri Lankan educative processes to becoming one of the most backward in this part of the world after having earlier enjoyed the enviable position of being one of the best in the former British Empire.

Hastily printed textbooks in Sinhala in order to meet that ‘24 Hour’ dictum took place. Those books were not always replaced with new translations. So what happened was that any research or new information in English texts was not included in new Sinhala texts. One reason for this inability to keep up with world knowledge in every subject was the expense of regular translation and printing was very high. Also translations implied excellent knowledge in both languages of Sinhala and English. This was not always available.

Another drawback was that there was a limited number of words in Sinhala that could be used as synonyms of the English word. Accordingly new words were coined. This was necessary for Science terminology especially.