Education and ethical behaviour

Education, health and transport are sectors of critical importance to an economy. In Sri Lanka health and transport sectors have been subject to frequent wildcat strikes causing misery to the public. It is disturbing to note the entry of the teaching profession to this category as witnessed in the disruption to marking of advanced level answer scripts and the unforgivable one day token strike that of course was overshadowed by the tsunami scare.

The teaching profession as a whole did not favour “strikes” but were forced to do so owing to union demands. One would hope such strikes will not be heard in the future.

Close on the heels of the unfortunate mess in the universities epitomised by violence and demonstrations the crisis of striking teachers has caused concern in the school system. In the early years perhaps when the numbers were few the marking was carried out by the teachers individually. The present system of setting up marking centres was initiated during the last two decades to speed up the process for the benefit of students.

Salary anomalies and delays of implementation have traditionally paved the way for trade union agitation at much inconvenience to the public. Conflict resolution is a specialized management tool and involvement of ministers with their own political affiliations has only compounded the issue. This column has repeatedly urged the government authorities to set up a dedicated conflict resolution unit free of politicians to seek speedy resolution. In most cases the common factor has been the inability of the authorities to honour the commitments given to trade unions.

Prof. Lakshman Watawala, a Chartered Accountant, speaking at a recent public seminar elaborated on the current happy status of the accountancy education, principally the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Association of Accounting Technicians, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and the success of the accountancy education which is now well established. What’s striking is this is entirely a private sector led process but students are willing to pay a price for quality.

This poses a question on existence and or absence of free education, its delivery, quality and the ethical aspects. Today it’s no secret that private tuition becomes a necessity from Grade 5 thus keeping the school children away from their homes and schools for a greater part of the day. This situation is also reflected in most schools finding it difficult to engage students in sports and other extra activities necessary ingredients in education. We have had a well established secondary school system but the present trends indicate that the future is not rosy.

What is very clear is that there is an emerging thriving international school and a private tuition business. Despite this unfortunate prevalent situation the undergrads continue to protest about private medical colleges and private universities and push our youth out of this country at a tremendous social cost and a financial burden to the parents as well as to the country.
Sri Lanka has already paid a heavy price for the neglect of English education. Today we don’t have people in the calibre of eminent education professionals like H.S. Perera, S.F. de Silva and T.D. Jayasuriya who worked with dedication and foresight but we have a complicated ministerial structure with a range of secretaries. The inefficiency and the incompetencies of this structure were clearly displayed in the recent Advanced Level crisis and the most unkindest one-day strike perhaps a unforgivable black mark for a noble profession.

On the subject of teachers and ethical behaviour I was fascinated by an article in The Sunday Times written by “ULK”, a Royal Rugby captain of 1962 on a great school teacher who has served his old school with absolute dedication for over a half century.

This also reminded me of young Zoology teacher of our times who on return of her maternity leave after the birth of her first child voluntarily arranged extra classes after hours and on Saturday mornings to make up for the lost time and also made them compulsory. Perhaps such great teachers are in the profession even today.

This country has a rich legacy of education and teachers and there’s growing appetite for quality as well demonstrated at the Colombo International Book Exhibition. Another noteworthy event was the closing ceremony of the “Tea workshop” conducted by the tea sector as part of the Tea Convention where a large number of school children from tea plantations were brought to Colombo for participation in the final session. The presentation made by a Wayamba undergrad, a product of the plantation community, probably conveyed the message of “Power of Education” and the growing interest for social responsibility.