A Donkey doing a Dog’s work: The Grade 1 entrance fiasco and the Chief Justice

8 Aug, 2007 Advocacy, Colombo, Constitutional Reform, Human Rights, Media and Communications, Politics and Governance
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This author is gobsmacked by the recent edict by the Chief Justice on school admissions to Grade 1. It is an affront on equality and human dignity. What is more, as a journalist, I am appalled at the silence of the media regarding this issue.

“මෙම නිර්දේශ මගින් සමහර ජනයා වඩා වටින්නේ ය යන දුර්දාන්ත අදහස තහවුරු කරන බව බැලූ බැල්මටම පෙනේ. මේ තාක් අප රටෙහි පැවැති සෑම පුරවැසියකුටම සමාන ලෙස සැළකීමේ පිළිවෙත අගවිනිසුරු විසින් ම මෙමගින් අහෝසි කිරීම එක එල්ලේම සමානාත්මතාවය කෙළෙසීමකි. සෑම පුරවැසියකුට ම සෑම අයිතිවාසිකමක්ම යන ලොව පිළිගත් මූලධර්මය මෙම නිර්දේශ මගින් යන්නේ කුණු කූඩයට ය.

අනෙත් අතට මේ වනාහී උපහැරණයකින් කියන්නේ නම් බල්ලාගේ වැඬේ බූරුවා බාර ගැනීමකි. අධ්‍යපන මනොවිද්‍යඥයින් විසින් තීරණය කළ යුතු දරුවාගේ බුද්ධි මට්ටම මැන බැලීම වැනි කරුණු සම්බන්ධයෙන් තීරණ දීමට අධිකරණයකට ඇති සුදුසුකම කුමක්ද? බුද්ධියෙන් වැඩි යැයි මැනෙන දරුවන්ට සුපිරි පාසැල් සහ බුද්ධියෙන් අඩු යැයි මැනෙන දරුවන්ට පහසුකම් අඩු පාසැල් ලබා දීමේ පිළවෙත සාධාරණ වන්නේ කුමන සමානාත්මතා ධර්මය අනුව ද?”

It is not only that the CJ’s edict is myopic. The conditions laid out in his judgement exacerbate a reprehensible classist notion of society. It is also clearly not the role of a CJ, or within his realm of competency, to prescribe ways in which a child’s intelligence is measured.

The CJ promotes an exceptional and tiered society, where those who are deemed intelligent and of a higher social standing quite clearly have greater access to better schools than those who are deemed the contrary. This flies in the face of all accepted norms of decency, equality and fundamental rights as a citizen of Sri Lanka.

What is more disturbing is the silence surrounding this judgement. The Minister of Education is silent. Save for Ravaya, no other paper has carried a critical commentary on the judgement. NGOs and other pro-democracy organisations are silent.

මෙම නිර්දේශ පදනම් වන්නේ එකම එක සාධකයක් මත පමණි. එනම් පංති බේදය තහවුරු කොට ශක්තිමත් කිරීම යි. නැතහොත් සමාජ අසමානතාවයන් වැඩි වර්ධනය කොට පොදු ජනයා පීඩාවට පත් කිරීම යි.

ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදයේ දෘෂ්ඨි කෝනයෙන් බැලූව ද මානවවාදයේ දෘෂ්ඨිකෝනයෙන් බැලූව ද ආර්ථික සමානාත්මතාවයේ කෝනයෙන් බැලූවද මේ නම් මහා අසාධාරණයකට මුල පුරන නිර්දේශ ගොන්නකි. ඊට එකහෙළා විරුද්ධ වනසේ මෙරට පුරවැසි සමාජයෙන් අප ඉල්ලා සිටිය යුතු ය.

I note above that the whichever way one looks at these guidelines, they simply don’t stand up to any decent logic or reason. It is our duty as citizens to stand up against them.

Read my article in full here.

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13 Comments

  1. Suren Raghavan
    08/10/2007 • 8:22 pm

    Dear Sunanda
    I salute your brave decision to ‘comment’ on the almighty S C on their ‘guidelines’ for the education of future citizens of Sri Lanka.
    Does this not impart the infinite nakedness of our society? It further agonizes to witness the silence of the so called good people including the maha sangha.
    C.W.W’s soul must be lamenting as he envisioned a free education for all of us as a creative response to his own caste based suffering at the hand of then education system. I have a Sri Lankan friend who is reading his PhD with me, his mother had never gone to school (though she is so full of wisdom) his father was only a labourer. Now the SC guideline, with one single document has buried those proud human achievements. It seems the learned wo/men who are responsible for this advise have never read the Article 26 (1) of UDHR which reads’ everyone has the right to education’

    So if this is the way the most venerable institution of Sri Lanka guides it own
    (Majority) Sinhalese, you please tell me what is the future for others and for those of us who work for the equal rights of everyone?

    Perhaps, Sri Lanka: A land like no other?

    Reply

  2. punitham
    08/11/2007 • 9:45 am

    I am clueless about what the CJ said. Can you please direct me to any source of information – in English?

    Reply

  3. groundviews
    08/11/2007 • 9:57 am

    Punitham,

    The Daily Mirror of 31st July 2007 has the judgment here and Lankanewspapers.com has a story about it here. Both give the details you have requested.

    Best,

    Sanjana

    Reply

  4. sittingnut
    08/12/2007 • 3:17 am

    i don’t think partial and selective commentary of this issue will lead to informative debate here or elsewhere.

    it is complicated and need to be covered in full if covered at all.

    at the very least it would be more informative if you can give the details of the earlier circular which was found have violated fundamental rights, after an application by some of parents of rejected children. what were the criteria there?
    why is there support from government supported schools with religious background and oldboys unions to old circular?

    and it would certainly be interesting to know what the alternatives mr sunanada deshapriya will support given his blog is named vikalpa.

    Reply

  5. punitham
    08/12/2007 • 11:12 am

    Thanks, Sanjana.

    I was a teacher and I’m horrified to see that ‘parental consideration’ comes into the equation. If schools select pupils on ‘catchment area basis’ teachers will do their best and all schools will then improve.
    Patronage of various kinds has been killing Sri Lanka and has been responsible for the widening gap between i. the rich and the poor and ii. the Sinhalese and the minorities and the resultant iii. loss of social harmony.

    Reply

  6. punitham
    08/12/2007 • 11:31 am

    The culture of patronage has ramified all areas of the society to the detriment of the country.

    Reply

  8. punitham
    08/14/2007 • 10:40 am

    This is regrettably a recapitulation of our politics of the last six decades. That means there must be an overhaul of our whole thinking about public policies. As everything is connected with everythingelse, public policies overlap human rights, aims and principles of good education, social mobility, social harmony …….. basically it is all about good governance.

    Reply

  9. punitham
    08/15/2007 • 2:40 pm

    Report from Asian development bank saying that Sri Lanka has a gap between the rich and the poor widening fast tells us all – omnipresent and disgusting political patronage kills off social mobility. In a Buddhist country? Buddhism must be saved from some people.

    Reply

  10. JM
    08/21/2007 • 9:11 am

    I mostly agree with CJ’s set of recommendations. There’s nothing particularly radical or groundbreaking here. It simply formalises the existing standards and processes. Why should we spend so much time and energy developing our schools, if people not from our race, caste or social class are going to benefit from it. We are not that altruistic. I’m an Anandian and it’s principally a Sinhalese (Buddhist/Govigama) school. There are many other state and privately funded schools for Muslims and communities. These left wing bureaucrats and their NGO puppet-masters must be out of their minds to attempt this at a time when the Prime Minister, Army Commander, Navy Commander and the Defence Secretary are all Anandians. We don’t want to study in Zahira or Hindu College and we don’t want you in Ananda.

    Reply

  11. punitham
    08/21/2007 • 11:58 am

    JM only shows how faaaaaar our education has yet to go.

    Reply

  12. suntzu
    08/21/2007 • 1:07 pm

    punitham…I agree with what you say, except for the part where you say that this is a ‘Buddhist country!’
    I belive that Sri Lanka is a country with a majority of Buddhist’s…(69 to 70 percent)…the remaining 30 percent as we all know is made up of Hindus, Muslims and Christians. If 100 percent of the population in Sri Lanka had been Buddhist, we could call this a Buddhist country…but not otherwise!

    Reply

  13. Nave
    09/04/2007 • 6:24 am

    CJ is doing politics…He is patronizing his electorate…the Sinhala Buddhist …the new rich… and… the Sons and Daughters of 1956 who support communalism and militraism now in full control in our politics …the culmination of the process started with the Citizenship Act of 1948 the “Sinhalization of Sri Lanka State”…Don’t expect coconuts from a Arecanut tree…their fight is to didvide the cake which is not enough to share among this Greedy small section in our society… just 38 schools…

    Better if Ravaya and other publicists think about of our eduactional system which reprpoduces the inequalities in societiey…caste, class (in terms of economic wealth, ethnicity and bureaucratic power), region and religion, sex etc….the schools given to Provincial Councils are poor and backward…but funds are not allocating properly to develop them and the so called Provincial Laedaers doesn’t have an approach and attitudes to chnage the statusquo…

    This will need a long article…but I will stoip here

    Reply

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About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

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