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16th November 1997

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The English Days

Notes from an English Teacher's diary - Part 6

The late sixties were an exciting period in English language teaching. They were the years of "English Days" initiated, organized and popularized islandwide by Circuit Education Officer (English) D.R.L. Samararatne. He was (and still is in his retirement) an indefatigable, resourceful and much sought after English teacher who knows what to do and does it (in keeping with his old CTC motto, "Know what to do and do it."). Stationed in Galle in his new post, he organized with unparalleled zeal almost missionary in its scope, what he called the "English Day" in the schools there.

Never before had we known anything like what Samararatne organized in those glorious days of ELT. He generated among learners and teachers of English wonderful enthusiasm for the language. He motivated both urban and rural children no end to learn English through a rich variety of activities that transcended the "dry bones of English structure and syntax". The text books in use at that time ran into pages of dull English ("What is that?" "That is a book, etc") based on an equally dull syllabus replete with sentence patterns classified by Hornby. (A S. Hornby's 'The Teaching of Structural Words and Sentence Patterns' was the Bible on which English text books were based). Samararatne, added a scintillating new dimension to the routine English lessons in schools; he replaced boredom, indifference and apathy among pupils with zest, fervour and passion.

Samararatne had just been appointed to the newly established English inspectorate with a brilliant record of a hundred per cent G.C.E. (O/L) passes in English in a Maha Vidyalaya in Kurunegala, where he was Principal. He had organized "English Days" there, and his elevation to the English inspectorate gave him an opportunity to try out on a larger canvas what he had successfully experimented with in a rural school. "English Days" held both pupils and teachers in thrall. It was the heyday of second language teaching in Galle, thanks to D.R.L.

The Minister of Education at that time, the late I.M.R.A. Iriyagolle was the chief guest at the Galle Regional "English Day" held at Sangamitta Vidyalaya. He was hugely impressed with the English performance of the pupils in Galle district - in speech, poetry, song and drama. They rendered Mark Anthony's oration and Portia's address; they recited The Highwayman and La Belle Dame Sans Mercy; they sang 'This is my bread basket, Deeki Daki Doo and My Bonny Lies over the Ocean; they enacted scenes from Julius Caesar and Pride and Prejudice - to recall just a few of a variety of items they performed before a vast audience of parents, teachers, officials and members of the public.

"English Days" in Galle were a resounding success. What is good for Galle is good for the whole country. Minister Iriyagolle snatched Samararatne from Galle and brought him to the ministry head office in Malay Street and asked him to do what he did in and for Galle in and for the whole country. And didn't Samararatne do it with perfect aplomb! He also made many personal sacrifices. He not only did lots of routine work entirely by himself typing reams of material required for his "English Days" on an old Remington typewriter in the English Unit, cyclostyling copies and despatching them to the schools, but spent lots of money out of his own pocket. He even had to sell his car to meet the expenses he incurred in organizing the All-Island English Day programme in Colombo. Those were still days when educationists, like politicians of that time spent out of their own pockets to do a job of work for the greater good.

Today, alas, organizing anything can be turned into a profitable commercial venture. Preparing a project proposal alone is big money so is appraising a proposal. An erstwhile colleague recently told us that he had been paid Rs. 200,000 for preparing an educational project proposal for a Colombo-based foreign proposal ('appraisal' is the correct term) the fee is Rs. 30,000! How much more lucre must there be for implementing a project such as "English Days"!

They had a long period of gestation and a period of follow-up between implementing them. "English Days" were not the be-all and end-all of English teaching: they were a means to an end, the end being, for the pupil (the key actor) learning the second language in all its infinite variety and richness. "English Days" truly uplifted English learning from the morass in which it lay.

Now, decades later we meet many people occupying responsible positions in society who had benefited from the "English Day" project of those years. For example, Muriel, an assistant bank manager recalled her role in the "English Day" at Sandalankawa Madhya Maha Vidyalaya and recited "The Highwayman" from memory for our delectation; Wimala, a Sarvodaya worker, who now speaks fluent English with foreign visitors to Dhamsak Mandiraya at Moratuwa, told us that at Matugama Madhya Maha Vidyalaya she had delivered the welcome address in English at the "English Day" and received several rounds of applause for it.

"English Day" produced a multiplier effect. Why not a "History Day"? History teachers organized "History Days". Why not a "Science Day"? Science teachers organised "Science Days", and so the idea caught on. The pebble that Samararatne dropped into the pool of English teaching spread ripples across the teaching of other subjects in schools.

"English Days" are not completely dead. We were invited recently to preside over an "English Day" at a "International School" in distant Ratnapura. But, such occasions are few and far between nowadays. D.R.L. Samararatne has retired!


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