Popular Schools Phenomenon in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has one of the highest literacy rates in the world on a par with most of the developed nations. Primary and secondary education is Sri Lanka is entirely delivered by the school system which pushes the child along a race track for 13 years. School years define the future of the child. Although our country has a good literacy rate, education system is plagued with problems such as unequal distribution of educational resources, outdated study materials and many more. De-escalation of this problem is vital for our children’s future.

Among the various problems, unequal distribution of educational resources is one of the main problems. A child needs a resourceful environment for education. Ultimate goal of education is to give life skills to children to face the future world. School education should facilitate the child to get a good education and a good job for the future. School itself plays a vital role in successful education.

There are a handful of schools which we identify as popular schools. They draw the baseline for the school education in our country.  There are two kinds of popular schools; private schools and government public schools. The former were opened by western missionaries to give education to the Ceylonese according to western values and Christian religious principles. They have a rich history and the almost all of them were in Colombo except a handful in Kandy and Galle districts. The latter were government funded public schools. They can be early missionary schools or Buddhist schools established as a response to the missionary schools.

Sri Lankan parents ready for the battle of putting a child to a popular school even before the child is born. Sometimes these preparations take place even before a couple gets married. Competition is fierce for the limited number of vacancies available in the popular schools. Parents need to summon up all their persuasive powers such as money, political influence and other corrupt methods to get a foothold for their child in one of the popular schools

I’ve passed the grade five scholarship examination but lacked the marks to attend to a popular school (which I regret so much to this day) but I was lucky to have schooled in the best school in my province which was far away from the capital. I have experienced the struggle to find a popular school by my parents at first hand.

Generally popular schools have good teachers, study materials and infrastructure. Even though the government doesn’t provide much monetary support for development, the schools have extensive old pupils network and means to gain money. Plenty of opportunities for sports and extracurricular activities are available for the students. Attending a popular school is a status symbol in Sri Lanka. It can also be a family legacy as well. That’s why most of the people are using the reputation of their school to get job opportunities, to secure a beneficial marriage and to climb the social ladder.

Some not so popular schools have good teachers, study materials and infrastructure exceeding if not on a par with popular schools but are in no position to compete with them because of the lack of reputation. Sri Lankan people have an irrebuttable presumption that popular schools are good no matter how many good schools emerge. This was mainly because of the rich history and traditions associated with those popular schools which lead to prestige.

Central colleges opened by C.W.W.Kannangara for educating the masses can compete with the popular schools in quality of education and resources. As witnessed in the Advanced Level examination and various other sports festivals, education and extracurricular activates are also excellent in these schools. But the heartbreaking truth is that by being the school for the masses, they have become less preferable to the more prestigious popular schools in the capital of Sri Lanka.

Grade 5 scholarship is one of the main entry points for the popular schools. They require high marks at the exam. There are even talks to abolish the grade 5 scholarship examination altogether. In my opinion, it shouldn’t be done. Scholarship exam is the only window of opportunity for a rural child to experience the facilities in the city and to discover new opportunities. If the grade 5 scholarship exam gets abolished, the only remaining thread for a rural child to hang on for a better future will be lost.  The popular schools will only be reserved for the rich and the class gap may widen dramatically.

Popular schools are here for stay. We can’t eliminate the elevated status of the popular schools but by empowering and developing the rural schools, restoring the old glory of the central colleges and especially increasing the opportunities in popular schools for the students by upgrading their facilities to accommodate more students can be taken to diminish the negative factors of popular schools. I do believe that lobbying for the above changes in the education system should be the utmost priority of the so called ‘protectors of free education’ if they really want to preserve the right of free education.