2018 Jun 29
10% of the suicides recorded in the year 2017, within Sri Lanka, are from individuals below the age of 20. Out of this value 43.4% were students still within schools. Approximately 70% of convicts with crimes related to the handling and use of drugs are individuals who have left the schooling system at grade 9. This figure moves to 98 % if we consider school leavers at the Ordinary Level and Advance Level classes.
The Department of Census and Statistics reports that in the year 2016, close to 4.1 million students were enrolled in 10, 162 government schools[1]. These schools have been broken down and graded as type AB, type C, type 2 and type 3. We will not be dwelling into the details of how the classification is established but rather contextualize the exact reach the schooling system has within our country.
A recent incident that involved an assault made by 3 younger students on the head prefect of that same school has sparked this discussion. This assault took place outside the school premises. Although this may fall into history as just another incident in a fairly competitive and rough ground level, the mental element of the situation should be reexamined.
It is important to bring to light the reason why an education system exists and why it should evolve in order to remain as a contemporary agent in spearheading the sustainable growth of a country.
How are the children doing?
Close to 10% of the Sri Lankan children between the ages of 5 to 17 do not go to school. About 11% of them have never been to school[2]. This value may seem small but amounts to close to 50, 000 students who have never been to school . This study has been made by the Department of Census and Statistics, for which the methodology has also been attached herewith.
Moving to the latter stage of a student’s life at school, in the state sector we notice an exponential increase in the competitive nature of their approach to education. The University Grants Commission finds that in the year 2015, out of 155,550 qualifying applicants, only 18.68% got admission to enter a state university[3]. Here we haven’t spoken about the quantity of students failing to reach minimum requirements to pass the Advance Level examination. The reality that can be crystallized reviewing this statistic is that schools are automatically sharpened to direct their attention solely on curriculum based education. Regardless of whether or not that has been successful, it is not hard to see that a prolific amount of effort should be undertaken by both the school and the students to meet the established criteria in order to make it in life as a graduate. A vast majority of the population attends state sector schools, which is why it’s important to look into this area.
What can be done?
When going across the layers of information that point to a system that in itself has catered to producing a very inhumane playing field, we must realize what the outside stakeholders have to say with regards to the integrity of our education system. UNICEF had once gone on record to suggest that most disciplinary standards have not been updated in a long time within schools. This creates the doubt of whether the vacuums within prevailing disciplinary systems have paved the way to a shadowy atmosphere for students to grow up.
If the student populous isn’t capable of solving issues based on practical and logical conclusions drawn rather than measures that fit the ego of an individual, a question can be asked as to whether the technical knowledge that the entire country seems to be chasing really has any humanitarian worth. Reviewing the logical circumstances of the world, something that Sri Lanka holds dear is her integrity and very much deeply woven heritage. This clearly is where the dignity of our people and our country lies. When the very system in charge of upholding what is ours, and injecting what is new, that isn’t parasitic, makes terrible faults in terms of its products, we must take a step back and look at the direction that is undertaken.
It is often commonly witnessed that Sri Lankan schools don’t prioritize the psychology of a student but rather the content that should be entered into the mind. This is the leading cause, when coupled with tertiary factors such as poverty, which makes troubled and self-centered individuals.
Let us single out the mistakes right now so we don’t fall prey to the very system that is in place to make us a more competitive community in the real world.
[1] http://www.moe.gov.lk/sinhala/images/Statistics/stat2015_2016/2016_new.pdf
[2]http://www.statistics.gov.lk/samplesurvey/Child%20Activity%20%20Survey%202016.pdf
[3] http://www.ugc.ac.lk/downloads/statistics/stat_2016/Chapter%202.pdf
