A Final Educational Fling – 20. Consolidation

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curriculum, Developing Career Skills, Diploma in Centre Management, Hotel School, Quality, Sector Skills Development Programme, Sri Lanka Institute of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission, TVEC

but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done

December 2016 saw the consolidation of the new work we had initiated from the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission. The English and Soft Skills programme was going well, and this month saw the publication of Developing Career Skills, the text for the second level courses, both the dedicated NVQ Level 2 course and the supplementary module on all NVQ Level 4 courses. The energetic Australian Volunteer Beatrice Johnson had also produced a guide, which we published in the same month.

The enthusiastic staff in our Curriculum Division had, with solid support from the Sector Skills Councils, developed new three month Level 3 curricula in a range of subjects, and we managed to have a number of these finalized and approved by the Commission at meetings in December. We had been charged with producing a Job Outlook manual, but we decided instead to produce Handbooks setting out the new curricula while incorporating the career paths available in each sector. Handbooks for the Construction and the Hospitality sectors were accordingly finalized in December.

This last subject area had not benefited from the Sector Skills Council since that had taken a long time to get off the ground. But we had great support from Chandra Mohotti , who had vast experience of hotels and who was therefore asked to chair the Council. Previously the Sector Skills Development Programme, which had been in charge of the Councils before I was compelled to take over, had failed to include any hoteliers. But the World University Service of Canada, which was helping in the sector, put me and the Minister in touch with Mr Mohotti, and he kindly chaired the Committee I set up to expedite action.

In addition we began working together with the Hotel School, the Sri Lanka Institute of Hospitality and Tourism Management, headed now by someone who had been in school with me. He was incredibly busy however since he also had to look after the BMICH, but he put me in touch with excellent colleagues, and we were able to build up a relationship that it seemed had gone sour a couple of years back. Though the TVEC had collaborated with SLIHTM on curricula then, problems of hierarchy had it seemed caused problems.

I set out as clearly as I could the formal position, which was that TVEC was the authority with regard to curricula and assessment. But TVEC also had to acknowledge that its expertise in the fields in which it operated was limited, and therefore it should rely on professional bodies such as SLIHTM – or for instance the National Child Protection Authority when it came to care of children. We needed therefore basically to work in terms of the competencies the Hotel School prescribed, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel on our own, or to work with individuals we chose.

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A Final Educational Fling – 12. Two trips to Orissa

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Bhubaneswar, books, buddhist monasteries, careers skills, Chandbali, Chilika Lake, English, India, Jaganath Temple, Khandagiri, Konarak, NVQ, profiteering, Ratnagiri, rent seeking, Sikkim, soft skills, Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission, TVEC, Udayagiri, vocational training

but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done

By October 2015, having come back from Sikkim, I had broken the back of the task I had set myself, and a couple of books were ready to go to press. I therefore had some time on my hands when I was approached about helping Mahinda Samarasinghe at his Ministry. I agreed to do so on condition that it would be part time work, and he thereupon had me appointed Chairman of the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission. I had told him that that might make him unpopular with the Prime Minister, but he said the appointment was in the hands of the President, who had been positive about the idea.

I started work in November and set the ball rolling with regard to what had been his principal priority, the introduction of compulsory English and Soft Skills modules on all Vocational Training Courses conducted under the aegis of the TVEC. In addition we developed an NVQ Level 1 Building Career Skills Course, which was an extended version of the Career Skills module for NVQ Level 3 courses.

Before we started training for this however I went abroad again, for I was still determined that part time meant part time, and I should not be tied down by the position or the work. This trip was also to India, where Aide et Action was having its South Asia Advisory Board meeting in Bhubaneswar.

A Final Educational Fling – 11. End of year efforts

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Automobiles, Construction, Department of Technical Education and Training, Diploma in Technology and Education, District Career Guidance Centres, DTET, Electronic Technology, English, NVQ, Production Technology, Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission, Youth Corps

but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done

I feel quite shattered as I write this, for the last week has been quite hectic. We had an extra meeting of the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission on Wednesday, at which we presented a number of ground breaking papers. Most important were the curricula for the Diploma in Technology and Education, which will be delivered at a number of Technical Colleges and Colleges of Technology from next year.

We will be working in five areas, namely Automobiles, Production Technology, Construction, Electric and Electronic Technology and Airconditioning and Refrigeration. The course is open to those who took up Technology subjects at Advanced Level, but here they will study in depth the practical applications of the knowledge they acquired. They will also develop soft skills, and in particular English communication skills. And most important they will be introduced to interactive teaching skills, with much emphasis on group discussions, on reflecting on experience, on sharing and assessing ideas.

We had much experience of this at the workshop we had conducted the previous weekend for teachers on the English and Education course that will commence next year at ten colleges round the country. The original plan had been to confine this to five colleges, but it seems there is much demand from students, who have been enthused by the active approach to teaching adopted by many of the teachers at this College. The NVQ Level 4 course we started in Galle a couple of months back had for instance nearly a 1000 applicants, but we were able to take in fewer than 200, and that was stretching it. If the present initiative works well, we will soon have overcome the decades long problem of enough English teachers for the country – and indeed the problem of teachers of Technology, given that the Technology stream was started without attention to teacher supply.

We had our lively and committed German consultant to introduce the new pedagogy curriculum, since it will be the English teachers who have to handle this for the Technology and Education students as well as the English and Education students. It was fascinating to see the way in which the teachers reacted, including the older ones who were encouragingly enthusiastic. The new Asst Director in charge of English at the Department of Technical Education and Training seemed to have made an excellent selection, though I have noted that there are other good teachers too, and by next year we should be able to run the course in many more centres.

A Final Educational Fling – 8. Promoting coherence

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contracts, National Youth Services Council, NVQ, Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission, TVEC, vocational education, vocational training, VTA, Youth Corps

but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done

One reason I am so irritated by the interference of the Prime Minister in the Vocational Education sector, when he should instead be trying to drill some sense into his Minister of Education, is that it causes confusion with regard to areas on which we have begun to make changes. Recently I was told that his committee had set up a committee to coordinate curricula for the tourism sector, but had forgotten to invite the TVEC. They had instead invited the Vocational Training Authority and, though the minutes of the first meeting indicated the need to involve TVEC, by the time of the second meeting this had been forgotten. And those who had set up the committee had failed to read through the relevant legislation, which would have made it clear that VTA was a delivering agency, whereas promulgating curricula was TVEC responsibility.

Meanwhile we had been moving on new curricula through the committee on the hospitality industry we had set up, as well as through the Tourism Industry Sector Council which the Sector Skills Development Programme team had tried to establish last year. That ran into some problems because they did not have hoteliers on it, but we have managed to change this and that too now seems ready to move forward.

So we had in November produced 3 month Level 2 course curricula for Room Attendants and Food and Beverage Service, which VTA is preparing to put into practice in January. This month we had moved on to curricula for Pastry and Baking and for Bartending. It was worrying then to be told that a curriculum reform process was going on elsewhere.

My initial reaction was to just ignore this, but I thought that would be irresponsible, so I asked that we be kept informed. There was a prompt apology and a gracious invitation to the next meeting, so I went, and felt there was much we could do together. In particular, though TVEC is responsible for NVQ curricula, we know that we do not have technical expertise and in this sector the lead should obviously be taken by the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hospitality Management. Its very able head, who chairs the sub-committee, shared the Hotel School curricula with us, and I thought that we should absorb some of the content in different subject areas. Conversely I feel they might benefit from a clear structure, and an inclusion of at least some aspects of the methodology to be adopted, which we now include in all NVQ curricula.

I did find, in exploring how we had developed our curricula, that there had been hotel school involvement, but it was not clear whether this had been formal. Some years back the Hotel School and TVEC had engaged in active collaboration, the former seeking NVQ status while TVEC sought their expertise to update what seemed not very productive curricula at the time. But with I think changes of personnel, this initiative lapsed, and worse there was little institutional memory on either side as to what exactly had been achieved.

A Final Educational Fling – 2. Setting priorities

Tags

Critical Thinking, Department of Technical Education and Training, English, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sabaragamuwa University, sinhala, Tamil, Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission, Vocational Training Authority, Vocational Training Centres

but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done

I had enjoyed working with Mahinda Samarasinghe when I was Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, and also during our many visits to Geneva when we staved of the efforts of the British (and then the Americans after Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State) to stop us eliminating terrorism in Sri Lanka.

Mahinda gave the impression of being laid back in his approach, but he worked hard and studied his briefs. He was also capable of sharp insights and, on becoming Minister of Skills Development and Vocational Training, he worked out very quickly what was needed. Before asking me to help, he had identified three major problems, and I suppose he knew from my track record that I was the best person to help him resolve these.

First and foremost was the need to update courses, and in particular to introduce English and other soft skills. I had been the first to introduce Core Courses into universities, when I joined Sabaragamuwa University way back in 1997. This built on what Arjuna Aluwihare had started when he set up Affiliated University Colleges, but it was only at Sabaragamuwa that we introduced Critical Thinking, with exercises designed to make students recognize systems, understand the concept of variables, and ensure attention to relevance. Initially the students protested about what they saw as games playing, but later I recall a group telling me, when I attended a wedding of one of the brightest, that it was such aptitude tests that they were set when applying for jobs.

We also made both Sinhala and Tamil compulsory for all students, in addition to English. When I insisted on a Third Language, my Sinhala and Tamil staff declared that students were no longer taught to write properly in mother tongue, and this should be remedied. I also introduced library studies, because I found that students had no idea how to find material in books, since they had not been taught the use of a contents page, let alone an index. I used to feel immeasurably sad, if for instance I asked them which countries neighboured China, as they rifled through the pages of the atlases we gave them instead of checking first where the relevant information was to be found.

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.