|
|
High school results shock Lankans
Monday, 21 May 2007 - 8:28 PM SL Time
|
|
|
Sri Lanka has the highest level of literacy (91%) in the South Asian region. An overwhelming majority of its school going population (4 million) enjoys free education from the kindergarten to the university undergraduate level.
But the quality of the education does not match the quantitative achievement.
In this year`s General Certificate of Education-Ordinary Level
(GCA-OL) exam, held after 11 years of schooling, 51 per cent had failed. The
failure rate in Maths was 57 per cent; in Science, 51 per cent; and in English, 63 per cent.
21,813 students had crashed in all the subjects. But the most shocking aspect was that 4,128 of these came from schools in Colombo district, which supposedly has the best facilities.
A recent survey conducted by the National Education Commission (NEC) found that out of a representative sample of 4,054 students from 70 schools taken from across the country, 18 per cent of the 6 th. Graders could not write at all! Only 35 per cent of the 10th graders could take down a passage dictated to them.
`This is alarming,` said Dr ST Hettige, Professor of Sociology atColombo University. `But not unusual,` added the noted expert on school education, Prof. S Sandarasegaram. `Performance has been deteriorating over time,` he said.
But the really worrying part, according to him, is that there should be such poor performance when the O Level exam is not tough at all. Secondly, the returns are not at all commensurate with the huge expenditure on school education.
`It is LKR 4000 crore ($363 million) per year overall, and LKR 8,500 per student, with the World Bank contributing a substantial part of it,` Sandarasegaram said.
Inadequate staff, poor quality of teaching, political interference in appointments and lack of autonomy are blamed for the sorry state of school education. Many Tamil medium schools, especially in the war-affected North East and in the plantation areas, go without a full complement of staff.
Hardly 200,000 students are in autonomous, private, and fee levying schools, getting a decent education. Nearly four million are in state-run schools where teachers` appointments are made on political considerations and influence, sacrificing qualifications and quality.
`The lackadaisical attitude of the teachers results in the students having no motivation to study and do well. The curricula are not relevant to the needs of the students. Teaching methods are archaic. Schools are ill-equipped and not at all child-friendly. There is also violence in our schools,` Sandarasegaram said.
`The Principals lack autonomy, with the result, Principals and teachers with innovative ideas find no outlet. What we need to promote now, is the bottom-up approach, where ideas come from the school level, and not imposed from the top, where the officials are not familiar with the ground conditions which vary from place to place,`
he suggested.
No doubt there are centres of excellence. But these are few and far between and concentrated in a few towns. Parents, politicians and officials try hard, and use fair means and foul, to get their wards into the few good schools. But they forget to improve the bad ones,which are the vast majority.
|
|
|
chinthanaya
Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 1949
Member Profile
|
 21 May 2007 13:37:24 GMT Report for Abuse
|
21,813 students had crashed in all the subjects. But the most shocking aspect was that 4,128 of these came from schools in Colombo district, which supposedly has the best facilities.
In this case, students from war affected areas must be appreciated! |
tarquin
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1525
Member Profile
|
 21 May 2007 13:42:36 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Every indicator of the nation's health and welfare has deteriorated since Eelam war IV started about a year ago.
The sinhala rulers are hell bent on worsening the situation by promoting war rather than putting forward a sensible and acceptable solution to the ethnic problem.
The response of the sinhala rulers to this sorry state of the nation is mind boggling nonchalance. The Rajapakse brothers are only interested in filling their coffers and nothing else. |
Revy
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 11676
Member Profile
|
 21 May 2007 13:45:04 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Mahinda chinthana at work, only by turning out idiots can he guarantee future votes for descendants of his clan. Perpetual bilking of Sri Lanka and its people is made easier when people are too dumb to see what is being done to them.
Please continue your racist war while your nation burns LOL.
Edited By - Revy - 21 May 2007 13:45:28 GMT |
stopLTTE
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 91
Member Profile
|
 21 May 2007 13:45:30 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Good news for the future of Sri Lanka. The best score in litracy level in South Asian Region. The skills of the teachers can be improved and the test results will follow.
When the LTTE menace is eradicated from Sri Lanka the future looks bright. Investment will flow in and create a lot of job opportunities for all Sri Lankan's even for those who have low scores.
The LTTE should be history within a year or two, if the terrorism ban on the LTTE is enforced and the SLA continue to keep on liberating Tamils from the LTTE occupied areas. Let us all hope the Government will not cave into any demands from Norway, Britain or the USA to prolong this misery. Finish the LTTE terrorism.
Edited By - stopLTTE - 21 May 2007 13:52:02 GMT |
Parasuram
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 508
Member Profile
|
21 May 2007 13:50:43 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Investment will flow in and create a lot of job opportunities for all Sri Lankan's.
If people are not educated enough what types of job creations are we talking about.
The simple truth is , politicians do not care about the welfare of the children, keep on filling the Swiss bank accounts and intimidate the journalists.
They killed Sivaram Tarakki WHO WAS AN EXCELLENT JOURNALIST.
Now they have withdrawn the security for Sunday times Iqbal Athas for writing the facts, only God knows, how long will Iqbal Athas be with us.
Edited By - Parasuram - 21 May 2007 14:08:43 GMT |
Guneayya
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 14
Member Profile
|
 21 May 2007 13:51:41 GMT Report for Abuse
|
| Rock on kids! watch more MTV. Good for your future. Dumb Asses! What the bloody hell is going on? |
smile4u
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 190
Member Profile
|
21 May 2007 13:53:16 GMT Report for Abuse
|
StopLTTE you represent the type of person this failed education system will produce - dumber than dumb. If you understand statistics - investment is already flowing to other nations like Vietnam and China and it is based on greater profits, a trainable workforce etc. for the investors. The stupid education system is not to be blamed on the LTTE, so whatever happens to them is not going to change the quality of the educational system which has been plagued with all the things referred to in the news item.
Logical thinking is an asset - if you can join the dots rationally. Your conclusions are so idiotic it made me write in after several months!
Edited By - smile4u - 21 May 2007 14:10:39 GMT |
JRJayawardena
Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 6746
Member Profile
|
21 May 2007 13:54:59 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Gune ayya,
the problem is kids don't like studying but like messing about and watching tele while underworld gangsters make quick bucks.
Sadly the country has gone to the limits of 'Money is everything' so why would someone concern studying?
We need role models like Anagarika Dharmapala, Dr Adhikarama, Munidasa Kumaratune, Martin Wickremasinghe and G B Senanayake. sadly we only have terrorists and money spinners.
JRJ |
Dewey
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 5023
Member Profile
|
21 May 2007 13:59:50 GMT Report for Abuse
|
| There was no major change in curriculum as I know. Perhaps they made the exams tougher. This is the failure of examiners who set the questions. |
MaKaSo
Senior Member
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 5311
Member Profile
|
21 May 2007 13:59:52 GMT Report for Abuse
|
This is shocking...50% of the blame should go to teachers and parents for not taking proper actions to make sure that their chilren/studetns are doing what they are supposed to do. Other 50%, defnitely the authorities.
18 per cent of the 6 th. Graders could not write at all!
If they can not write at all, udder what conditions they had promotted to grade 6. Who should be responsible for risking these chilren' future by promoting to higher grade without proper assessment. Teachers or Paretns??
Today, anyone can start a preschool anywhere and no one question the qualification or experience of those monti-sorry teachers.
It it time to overhaul our education system from scratch. |
|
Search All News and Discussions