A Final Educational Fling – 10. A Plethora of Publications

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books, Darjeeling, Education, Gangtok, Jaldhapara, Kalimpong, Maithripala Sirisena, Pelling, Sikkim, State Minister

but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done

I had lots of work after deciding to support Maithripala Sirisena’s candidacy, and then after he won and I was made a State Minister. And even after I resigned there was much to do, culminating in working for a UPFA victory at the August 2015 election, as I thought the President wanted. But both the UPFA and I – and in the end the President too – fell victim to the infighting within the SLFP. Extreme elements on both sides destroyed the compromise between him and the former President that I believe he had wanted when he gave the latter UPFA nomination for the election.

So he found himself with a government in which the UNP had a majority, and used its power for more sophisticated corruption than he had originally objected to under the Rajapaksa regime. And he also found it with no clue as to how to run the economy, plunging into greater debt than had been objected to previously, and at higher interest rates.

What went wrong in 2015 is however the substance of the last section of the Endgame series I am also writing. Here I am concerned only with what I might term the personal fulfillment I turned to when I found myself no longer in Parliament. A man must after all have an occupation, and since I do not smoke, and since I did not think I wanted to resume regular work, I decided to take up writing in a serious way.

I was helped to this decision by Ariyawansa Ranaweera, one of the poets I had published in ‘Mirrored Images’, the anthology of English and Sinhala and Tamil poetry from Sri Lanka that I had put together for the National Book Trust of India. I had arranged readings of the poetry at the launch in Colombo, and then at the various other launches that were arranged in cultural centres round the country, including at several universities.

A Final Educational Fling – 6. The continuing mess in General Education

Tags

ADB, Akila Viraj, Education, human resource development, infrastructure development, Mahinda Samarasinghe, NIE, Ranil Wickremesinghe, vocational training

but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done

From the directions he gave as he took over the Ministry of Vocational Training and Skills Development, it is clear that Mahinda Samarasinghe understands his mandate and the obligations ministerial office entails. This is quite unlike most members of the Cabinet today, and they do not even have the excuse that was offered in Mahinda Rajapaksa’s time when, as John Seneviratne put it when I told him to stop usurpation of his authority, that Basil Rajapaksa was doing that to everyone.

But, though Basil is not someone for whom I have any high regard, at least he worked hard and effectively in terms of his limited capacity. Human Resource Development was beyond him, but he did achieve much in terms of infrastructural development, in the North and East in particular. There is no sign of this now, and Ranil has entrusted areas where new directions are vital, Education and Higher Education for instance, or Tourism, or Industry and Commerce, or Rehabilitation, to individuals with limited conceptualizing or creative capacity.

Education is perhaps the most obvious example of Ranil’s weaknesses playing themselves out in a manner most destructive for the country. At the first meeting of the Committee he had set up to look into Vocational Training, both the UGC Chairman and I pointed out that, while we were doing our best, the rot lay in the school system and it was necessary to reform that swiftly. But obviously Akila Viraj, bless his soul, is not someone capable to spearheading such reforms.

Ranil must know that, and perhaps – as a bright official in the South put it in welcoming Akila Viraj’s appointment – he thought he would run education himself, and replicate his relatively effective work of the eighties. But obviously, given his other responsibilities he simply has no time to devote to this important subject. In 2001 he understood this, when he told me that he had to concentrate on developing the economy and had no time for education. That was his excuse for trying to abolish English medium, which he did not claim to oppose per se, it was simply that he had no time to attend to this and no one else was capable of seeing it through. But in appointing Akila Viraj this time round, given that the young man had no credentials at all for the position, unlike Karunasena Kodituwakku last time round, he seemed to indicate that he would himself intervene.

But instead of concentrating on nurturing young Akila Viraj, instead he has decided to interfere with an area in which there is a competent Minister. But this time round he does not have anyone experienced to advise him, unlike when Edward Wijemanne and D A Perera made the running in education. Instead he has selected Ken Balendra, who is a delightful character, but knows nothing about the subject, and was given no one to brief him. Thus he had no idea at all about the technological stream that had been introduced into the General Education system a few years back, and given the outsiders he had to work with, no one had brought this to the attention of the Committee in the month before I was able to attend a meeting.

Speech as delivered by Prof Rajiva Wijesinha as Chief Guest At the Launch of Reflections in Loneliness

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Advanced Technical Education Institution, Affiliated University Colleges, Arjuna Aluwihare, British Council, C W W Kannangara, Chandana Ruwan Jayanetti, Education, English, English Association, Galle, General English Language Training Programme, Jaffna, Kandy, Kurunagala, Labuduwa, Matara, Ministry of Education, National Education Commissio, Oranee Jansz, Reflections in Loneliness, Sanghamitta College, Tara de Mel, University Grants Commission, University of Sri Jayewardenepura

Speech as delivered by Prof Rajiva Wijesinha as Chief Guest

At the Launch of Reflections in Loneliness

By Chandana Ruwan Jayanetti

I am both pleased and proud to be here as Chief Guest at the launch of Chandana Ruwan Jayanetti’s ‘Reflections in Loneliness’, a collection of poems and prose. I am pleased because the book is a fine example of creativity. It covers a range of emotions through poetry, while the prose recreates a lost world which reminds us how swiftly the fabric of society is changing.

My pride however is perhaps the greater feeling on this occasion, for Chandana is one of the first pupils in a new programe I started, which will remain perhaps my most enduring contribution to this country. He was also one of the best, and amply justified the faith we had in our rural youngsters, when we offered them an opportunity that had been zealously guarded before by the privileged.

I refer to the opening up of tertiary level qualifications in English, which commenced at the Affiliated University Colleges in 1992. I had long been complaining of the fact that English continued to be the preserve of an elite, but those in charge of educational policy thought this was only proper. However President Premadasa appointed a visionary University Grants Commission Chairman in the form of Arjuna Aluwihare, and he embarked on a brilliant initiative to expand opportunities in this sector. Having met him by chance at a social event at the British Council at which I was then working, I was drawn into his orbit, and ended up leaving the Council to take charge of all his new English initiatives.

English as Liberation

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Academic Affairs Board, Cambridge University Press, children, Deputy Minister of Education, Disaster Management Club, Education, English, English Language Teaching, English Language Training, English Teacher Training, Explorations, GELT programme, General English Language Training Programme, Handbook of English Grammar, Language Arts, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Policy and Plan Implementation, Mohanlal Grero, National Institute of Education, Oranee Jansz, Ordinary Level, Regional English Support Centres, renewable energy, RESC, St. John’s Ambulance Brigade, Teacher Centres, Teaching, The Care of Children, Theatre, UGC

Keynote address by Prof Rajiva Wijesinha

Delivered at 2.30 pm, November 26th

at the National RESC Conference – 2013

On the theme ‘Supplementing ELT Through Language Arts & Theater’

 

I do not tend these days to accept invitations to speak in the fields of Education and English Language Teaching, but I was pleased to accept this one, largely because of the theme of your Conference. I feel in a sense out of touch with the subject, but this has been deliberate, because I must admit to some sadness at the manner in which the Ministry of Education failed to build on the foundation we had laid there for better English Teaching, and for better syllabuses for all subjects, during the years in which I advised on English, and also chaired the Academic Affairs Board of the National Institute of Education.

We had also made plans for better use of the Regional English Support Centres to upgrade English Teacher Training, and provide ready access to degrees that would improve the professional capacities of English teachers. But all this was reversed, largely because of lethargy, and the incapacity to think and plan coherently which has so adversely affected our education system over the years. And in addition there is I fear also continuing suspicion of English, and a determination on the part of decision makers to prevent our rural populations from having access to the language which is the only way of ensuring equity and equality of opportunity in the current age. In short, English continues to be the possession of the privileged, and in particular those in authority who use the language of nationalism to keep the less privileged in check, whilst of course ensuring that their own children have English, and English medium education, and often foreign degrees.