Problems in the Education System of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is one of the most beautiful countries in South Asia. As a country, the literacy of the people is pretty good. Let’s talk.
The Education system is based on school education. They have from grade 1 to grade 13 education system. The most important stages are,
Grade 5 Scholarship Examination- This is a good opportunity for the students in the rural areas to come to the cities for better education.
Grade 11 GCE Ordinary Level Examination- This is based on main 9 subjects and need a good pass to be selected for the Advanced level.
Grade 13 GCE Advanced Level Examination- This is based on main 3 subjects and need to pass to be selected for Government University.
Mainly in Sri Lanka, they have an Exam based Education System. So, the students are very concern on exams and parents are always push them for academics. They don’t have much time to do sports, to have fun with their friends, mostly to enjoy their childhood. Most of the students have stress and other mental problems because of this system.
While concentrating on exams, the products of this education system are fulfilled with knowledge, but less on practical activities. This is a major problem in education. Many people have the theoretical knowledge, but they can’t perform well in their professions because they don’t have much practice on those things.
Another problem is the time duration that take to finish basic education process. Normally when a student graduate from a school, his/her age is 19+. And if he/she are planning on government university education, it will take at least another one year for the university entrance process. If we think that he/she follows a 4 year degree program, then the age will be nearly 24+. Comparing to other countries, it’s kind of a slow process.
Most of the Sri Lankans are fluent in their mother tongues (Sinhala or Tamil). But, as the current flow of the world, the main communicating language is English. That’s where the problem comes. Mainly school education is based on the mother tongues, so the English knowledge is bit low among people, specially in rural areas. The concentration for the English education is also not at a satisfactory level. Need to be changed the mindset of the the people.
Under this pandemic situation, mainly the education system is converting to a digital environment. So, the IT facilities act an major role. Mainly the IT facilities in the country is at a very low level specially in rural areas. The Internet signal failures , Wi-fi systems don’t work on some areas, data costs are pretty high are some IT related problems that people facing.
In my point of view, the main down failure is this education system. Need to concentrate on much practical activities like assessments rather than exams. Need to add more stress releasing activities and give much space for leisure times. English Language learning process need to be more efficient and effective. Specially on speaking skills. The IT based infrastructures need to be developed too.
Good education system makes better persons in knowledge as well as attitudes. Wish a better tomorrow.
