From: pdy@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Yapa,,,)
Subject: Re: Education and Jobs in SL
Organization: Clarkson University
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 09:24:53 GMT

 I would like to add some general comments to a very good discussion by several
   people

1. The education stanadrd of the students are affected by the peer pressure
   and the surroundings.  Threfore, the students in Big cities like
   Colombo and Jaffna have more chnace to succeed than those from rural areas.
   The main point I'd like to make is that even if we raise the standards of
   Rural schools you are still going to see a large majority of students
   entering the Univ will be from Cities. Nevertheless I agree that  we should
    RAISE the standard of Rural schools.
   sub note _ our past politicians attitude has been to chnage the name of 
   outsation schools to a catchy one. two examples
   are  Royal College in Polonnaruwa
        Royal Primary at Mt. Lavinia
      despite their names they do not match up to original Royal

a better example is DS Senanayake MV ( It was a completely new name) and 
did not exit in 1964. It had only grade 1 in 1965.
We need to create Schools like DS Senanayake MV in Rural Areas.

2. Students from rural areas have the same rights as the ones from cities.
   What is this about them driving a BMW. Why not !. It is up to them.
   How the individual spend his/her money is up to them. It is priority setting.
   I am from Colombo Suburbs, and went to a leading school in Colombo.
   in US I had a Nissan ( only 10,000 US$). Right now here in Japan ( for 1 yr)
   I have a 2000$ USED Toyota.  This is how I priorotize. I have no Jealousy
   for someone from Bibile or Kachchativu ( or any place) for driving a BMW or
   Ferrari. That's their choice. 
  
3. As Arul correctly pointed out
   " this whole process (standardization ) was started
because it was felt that the Tamils were getting more than their fair share
of the "professional education pie", the people who truly benefited from the
initial standardization were the English medium students, the majority of whom
were Muslims. It was no coincidence that Badiuddin Mohammed was the Minister
of Education!!!  "

 I reiterated this because there is no truth to the accusation
(by some) that Tamils are the only affected people.
There is no simple solution to the problem. If it is completely based on merit
then Rural people would find it impossible to enter the Univ.

4.  Arul says
" the A.L. exam included a  Practical Exam as well which was
conducted at the UNiversities in Colombo and Peradeniya. The government
abolished this in 1971 so that students with poor lab facilities will 
have a fighting chance. Somehow I feel that this decision reduced the quality
of science education in education. "

I agree with Arul completely here.  Some Engineers passing out today are very
poor with hands on skills ( I personally know them)
I also want to add that removing practical exams completely inflated the 
grades ( marks ) students get at AL. remeber in the days of practical exams

a. SL produced ONLY ONE 4 A's person. As soon as practical exmas were
   removed it became much more common to get 4 A's

b. many students failed practical exams. very few made it to the Medical
   College in the first attempt. At Royal the students who got to the Medical
   Coll. in first attempt was less than 5 % I think. In my year 20 + students
   went to Med only ONE was a first timer.

This article was arranged  in a hurry - apologies for being not smooth.

Poojitha Yapa

 yapa@c1.noda.sut.ac.jp