New Horizons – 3 Belihuloya and Buttala

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Aluwihare, Amparai, Anamaduwa, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Batulu Oya, Belihuloya, Beragala, Buttala, Chitra Wickramasuriya, David Woolger, Diyaluma Falls, Gam Udawa, Getamanna, Gill Juleff, Haputale, Ismeth Raheem, John Keleher, Mahaweli, Mahiyangana, Matale, Matara, Medawachchiya, Neil Kemp, Nirmali Hettiarachchi, Paru Nagasunderam, Polonnaruwa, Rahangala, Rex Baker, Samanalawewa Dam, Somasundara, Vavuniya, Weerawila

I also much relished in my new job the opportunities I had to travel outside Colombo, to explore again and again what I had once described as the widest range of beauty to be found in the smallest compass in the whole world.

I had got used to frequent travel in my last years at the British Council, first for the office on the Furniture Project which had been started for the North and East soon after the Indo-Lankan Accord. When that unraveled, we had persuaded the Overseas Development Administration to transfer the funds to two other Districts, in addition to Amparai, which remained comparatively safe for travel.

The two selected, because of their proximity to the East, were Matale and Matara. I was able therefore to drop in frequently on my Aunt Ena in Aluwihare and on my father’s brother and his wife in Getamanna. But I also stayed often in Resthouses, and grew to love what I saw as their unity in diversity. The country had a range at different levels of comfort and cleanliness, ranging from the dingy old one at Mahiyangana to the lovely new one in the same city, on the bank of the Mahaweli. I loved too the little ones, at Batulu Oya, and Weerawila overlooking the reservoir, and Anamaduwa looking over paddy fields when Chandrika first changed the clocks and the evening stretched out for ages, as I remembered from Summer Time at Oxford.

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New Horizons – 2 Innovations in University English

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Arjuna Aluwihare, Bamunuarachchi, Dorakumbura, Eastern University, English Literature, External English Degree, Janaki Moonesinghe, Jayawardenepura University, Panini Edirisinghe, Paru Nagasunderam, Pasdunrata College of Education for Teachers of English, Siron Rajaratnam, Somasundara, Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission, UGC, USJP

The English course at USJP was not the main reason I had joined the place, though ultimately what I achieved there also had a long-lasting impact. I started an External Degree which had three components, all in English medium, and this has now become the most popular External Degree course in the whole university system. Whereas what might be termed the senior universities had prided themselves on their esoteric English courses, focused mainly on English Literature, with a dash of even more esoteric Linguistics, my course also had a language component. This encouraged English teachers, and aspiring ones around the country, who knew that what they and school students needed most was language improvement, to follow this degree course in droves.

Initially the third component of the degree had been Western Classics, in part because I thought a knowledge of classical literature as well as history would assist students to a better understanding of English literature too. The argument was based on custom too, in that Western Classics was also on offer in the Kelaniya internal and external degrees. It was seen as a comfortable option both by Colombo students who had studied the subject at Advanced Level, and by teachers who were able to do the subject in English, given that this was not possible with many other subjects.

In time however I realized that this was not really useful, and led to a lot of rote learning. So when I was at the Ministry of Education in 2001, to restart English medium in schools, I asked USJP to introduce English Language Teaching as a subject for the external degree. The Head of what was by then an English Department was Paru Nagasunderam, whom I had brought in from the National Institute of Education back in 1993. She obliged at once, which has made that degree, comprised of English Language, English Literature and English Language Teaching, even more useful for English teachers, and certainly more accessible. The only drawback is that there are so many papers to mark that results are often delayed. Needless to say, none of the other universities responded then to my request to introduced ELT into their courses, though the situation is better now in this regard.

New Horizons – 1 Moving to Sri Jayewardenepura

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British Council, Damayanthi Ahangama, ELTU, English, GELT, Lakmahal, Mr Dorakumbura, Oranee Jansz, Paru Nagasunderam, University of Sri Jayewardenepura

When I put together, last year, my book on ‘English and Education: In Pursuit of Equity and Excellence’ I thought of it as my last word on the subject. I little knew then that I would be called back into harness again, though in a very different field to those described in that book. But in introducing a range of new perspectives now into the field of Tertiary and Vocational Education, I thought back to the days when I had pioneered changes in University Education in English.

I had begun to write about this when I was putting together a book to celebrate the 75^th birthday of the house in which I live. That was back in 2012, and the book, called ‘Lakmahal: 75 years of Social Change and Political Flux’, was launched in January that year at the British Council. I had worked there from 1984 to 1992, a period described in the last section of the book.

But the book had covered only 45 years, for I had not been able to write up the next 30 years, after I left the Council and went back to working for government.I thought however that, since I am now working in a different field but one in which some of the changes necessary are similar to those I introduced two and more decades back, that I should look at those too. I have long realized that one of our problems is that we do not maintain records and register what happened when we try to move forward. I feel that reflecting on those days will also prove useful in developing policies to ensure that the education system – and not only those areas for which I am now responsible – gives a better deal to students.

***

After I left the British Council in April 1992, I had a few months of travel, including to Jamaica for the triennial conference of the Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. The Head of Literature of the Council in London had agreed to sponsor me, and they stood by the offer even though I had resigned by the time the Conference took place.

I took advantage of the trip to get to Cuba, and also to Guatemala. It was not possible to get a visa for that country in Miami, but I was told to go to Belize (one of the few Commonwealth countries that did not require a visa from Sri Lankans) and try my luck. But in Belize City they said the same, and then, seeing my disappointment, suggested I try at the Guatemalan Consulate on the border.

The Consul there said that he could not possibly give me a visa, but he took me to the border post and told the guards there to let me through. So I managed to see the Mayan pyramids at Tikal, and I then went on to Guatemala City and Antigua Guatemala, falling further and further in love with Latin America. I should note thought that I had been less successful in Cuba, though I enjoyed the decaying grandeur of Havana. I could not travel into the country since the queues in the bus stations were impossible.

With all that I only joined the University of Sri Jayewardenepura in October 1992, as a senior lecturer in the Department of Languages. English was taught at USJP only as one component of a General Degree, ie students did only one third of their papers in the subject, two a year in those days, out of six altogether.

All students in all Faculties were also supposed to do General English, which was looked after by the English Language Teaching Unit. Nominally under the Department of Languages, it functioned under its own head, who was generally one of the senior members of the Unit. These were almost all women, who were constantly bitching against each other though they tended to unite against any outsider.