• Students’ perspectives on recent moves for educational reform

Education is often considered an essential part of any society. Sri Lanka has chosen to prioritise education by making it a free service, with several schools and universities admitting students without charge.

However, while education is often seen as an affordable service, there have been many who have questioned the methods and structure of Sri Lanka’s education system.

“I feel like our education system puts a heavy emphasis on race and religion,” Rishan Nadesapillai, a recent school graduate, told The Daily Morning Brunch. “Being an atheist, I did not want to learn Catholicism, but as religion was compulsory, I was given no choice.”

This comment followed the Government’s announcement that History would be removed as a mandatory subject in the GCE Ordinary Level exam, and a module-based system would be followed instead of an exam-based system. 

A welcome change?

While the recent announcement of changes opened a dialogue on necessary educational reforms, several students welcomed the changes, stating that they were long overdue.

“Learning history was torture because many schools, including mine, taught history in Sinhala,” Buddhini Weerasekara (name changed), an Advanced Level student, said. “That made it incredibly difficult for me to understand, resulting in me getting low grades.”

Weerasekara said that she believed that the history that she was taught at school often hid a nationalist and racially biased agenda.

“When I look back at history lessons, I remember being taught about the greatness of historic texts like the ‘Mahavamsa’ and about kings like Dutugamunu, but there was little to no mention of the role that minorities played in shaping our history and culture.”

While many students applauded the changes, several teachers also echoed these thoughts, stating that the education reforms were necessary and would lift a burden from both teachers and students.

“I am very pleased that the Government is moving away from the exam-based system,” Wathsala Perera, a secondary school teacher, said. “I have noticed that the exam-based system puts a lot of pressure on students to compete with each other, especially if schools give out the position of the child and the class average. This has led to a lot of problems among students, including poor relationships with parents and educators.”

Perera said that she had witnessed students being abused by their parents due to poor grades in exams, which had led to declining self-esteem among students. She also stated that the exam-based system had caused parents to compare their child’s marks to the marks of their friends’ children, often resulting in children getting punished when they do not perform well and make their parents look bad.

“This is why I am happy that the Government is moving towards a module-based system where no child will feel like a failure,” she said. “At the end of the day, schools and the education system must cater towards the well-being of the child and not stick to outdated and unhealthy standards.”

The question of religion

As many students and teachers applaud the new educational reforms, calls for dropping religion as a compulsory subject have been raised. 

“We were forced to pick one of the four religions, often the one which our father followed, and study that,” Nadesapillai said. “It didn’t matter that we didn’t believe in it or that we didn’t want to study it. It was forced upon us.”

However, while several students preferred not to study religion, a few educators and members of the clergy have outlined that it was necessary for the development of cultural values. One such instance is Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith’s recent statement that the primary aim of educational reforms is to foster moral values among children. He also highlighted the need for vocational training schools. 

However, moral values and religion do not necessarily need to go hand-in-hand. “I don’t understand why moral education can’t be learning about kindness, respect, and loyalty,” Anuki Gunawardena (named changed), an Ordinary Level student said. “Instead, we have to learn about religion and often the highly regressive gender roles that are taught with it.”

Gunawardena said that she remembered being taught to behave like a ‘Buddhist woman’ and learning about several doctrines on women that she did not agree with. “I was taught that female monks were less important than male monks no matter how long they served in the clergy,” she said. “I can imagine how young girls must feel when learning that they are less than a man.”

She said that while she could not speak on the syllabus of other religions, she believed that learning about religion had affected how her peers thought. “I’ve heard my fellow students say that they have committed sins in their previous birth to be born a woman,” Gunawardena said. “And when I asked them why they thought this, they stated that it was taught to them by their religion teachers.”

On the other side of the debate, several others think that religion should have a place in school as they foster moral values and help students get closer to their faith. 

“If religion is not taught in schools, there is a risk of students becoming atheists,” Mariyam Masharik, a mother of one, said. “That is why it is important for my child to learn her religion so that she will become a better person as she grows older.” Masharik said that learning religion in school had helped her have good values, which she hoped to pass on to her daughter. 

Attempts by The Daily Morning Brunch to reach the Ministry of Education for an official perspective were unsuccessful. 

Other proposed changes

Despite the mainly positive reception of the new educational reforms, several students still believe that there is a long way to go when it comes to improving the Sri Lankan education system.

“My parents did not have a lot of money, but they still chose to send me to an international school because of the poor-quality English education in the local syllabus,” Amaya Perera (name changed), an Ordinary Level student said. 

“I have seen some of the English textbooks, and they are laughable. So I wish the Government would increase the quality of English education while also giving students the option to study English as their first language instead of Sinhala or Tamil.”

Several other students also advocated allowing English to be a first language option instead of a second language. “You can get a job if you don’t know Sinhala or Tamil, but you can’t get a job if you don’t know English,” Gunawardena said. “It’s time we recognise that English is a global language and grow out of our nationalist mindset. Further, other global languages such as Mandarin should also be encouraged.”

While students, parents, and teachers gather their thoughts on these reforms, they agree that educating the future of our country is what is important.