Free education was the dream of one pioneering leader who was defeated in the first general election of independent Sri Lanka. He fought an invisible alliance of the left and the right represented by leaders who belonged to a privileged club. The common denominator that united them was that they spoke English and were the manor born. It was a time when politics was the preserve of the privileged. They thought that free education would erode their hold on power which the departing British were happy to leave in their reliable hands. One man thought otherwise. He alone realized that children constituted the only renewable resource a nation would possess. Dr.C.W.W. Kananagara the father of free education built 54 Central Coleges throughout the country in the period 1943-1947. The central college concept ended with his defeat.

  Dr. C. W. W. Kannagara,  popularly  known  as  the  father of free  education,  was  born  as  a  saviour,  for  the  emancipation  of  the  neglected  and  down-trodden  masses  of  this  country.  At  the  time  of  his  birth,  the public  education  system  in  this  country  was  a  monopoly  of  the   Christian  Missionaries,  under  the  patronage  of  the  Colonial  Government. Although  the  people  of  Sri  Lanka  were  heirs  to  a  well  established  educational  heritage,  well  known  in  the  whole  of  Asia  and  even  beyond,  it  had  deteriorated  to  a pathetic  state due  to  subsequent  foreign  invasions,  and  by  the  time  of  the  late  19^th  century,  the  indigenous  education  system  had  been  confined  to  some  temple  schools  and  a  few  Pirivenas  which  played  a  somewhat  limited  role  catering  to  the  religious,  ayurvedic  and  astrological  needs  of  the  people.

On   May 30, 1944  Dr. C.W.W. Kananagara as the Minister of Education  presented the motion EDUCATION:REFORM OF THE SYSTEM  that was eventually passed by the then State Council amidst severe reservations among some of the leaders belonging to the privileged classes who saw in this legislation the seeds of a social revolution that was yet to come. However, it is noteworthy that he was fully supported by Tamil leaders such as C.Sunteralingam , V.Naslliah and Moslem leaders like T.B.Jayah. In the reforms adopted introducing free education, the medium of instruction in schools was spelt out as follows.  

1.The medium of instruction in the primary school shall be the mother tongue, but English shall be a compulsory second language. 

2. The medium of instruction of the lower department of the post primary schools may be either the mother tongue or bi-lingual. 

3. The medium of instruction in the higher department of the post primary schools may be English, Sinhalese, Tamil or bi-lingual. 

(see box under from the Hansard of the State Council-Control of Education) . .    

 1947   Debacle

After  Kannangara  was  defeated  at  the  1947  election  by  vested  interests,  Prime  Minister  D.S. Senanayake  appointed  E. A. Nugawela  as  the  Minister  of  Education,  although  A. Ratnayake  (who  right  through  out  stood  by  Kannangara  in  his  struggle  for  educational  reforms)  expressed  his  wish  to  be  appointed  as  Minister  of  Education. Ironically one of the leading central colleges – the Nugawela Central College was in his constituency. There in lies another tale.  

D S Senanayake in  his  endeavour  to  undo  what  Kannangara  had  done  for  education,  got  down  Dr. H. W. House  from  Gibraltar  ( which  had  a  population  of  only  21,000  and  a  school  population  of  2,650 ). Dr.  Howes  replaced  Walwin  A. de  Silva a brilliant member of the then Civil Service as  Director  and  the  latter  retired  in  disgust.  It was  C.  Sundaralingam  who  vehemently  criticised  the  attempt  to  import  an  outsider  to  man  our  education.  He  said,  “ There  are  problems  which  face  this  country  but  which  most  countries  in  the  West  do  not  face,  such  as  the  question  of  the  national  languages.  Now  for  instance,  how  many  outsiders  have  heard  the  word  ‘Swabhasha’ ?  Here  is  this  most  important  problem  of  the  place  of  3  languages  in  the  curriculum  of  our  schools.  Can  a  man  who  has  had  no  knowledge,  no  experience,  personal  or  otherwise,  do  anything  to  solve  this  problem?   
“ Then,  another  case  is  the  question  of  culture. The  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  we  do  not  want  any  more  importation  of  alien  talent  into  our  education.  We  want  our  own  men,  our  own  specialists,  versed  in  the  educational  system  in  the  country  to  be  able  to  tackle  our  problems  in  our  own  way.  It  is  better  that  we  should  make  mistakes  and  learn  ourselves  rather  than  that  others  should  make  mistakes  for  us  and  go  away. ”  (1949  Hansard,  Vol.  VI )  Sundaralingam  was  also  one  person  who  right  through  out  backed  Kannangara  in  his  struggle  for  Educational  reforms.

        When  going  through  the  debates  in the state  Council,  one  can  definitely  see  that  there  was  no  communal tinge  or  shades  in  the  deliberations  of  the  Legislative  Council  or  State  Council.  It  was  the  power – hungry  politicians  who  messed  up  the  politics  of  the  country  and  created  the dissension that was to torment this island in later years.

In order to lay the ground work for his reforms Dr. C.W.W. Kannangara took the following steps…

1. Free Education for all, irrespective of caste, creed and wealth (and also age) so that children of all classes could gain knowledge in school to become useful citizens of the country. 
2. His education system evolved from the Rural Schools  he experimented with Handessa in the 1930s and which were considered as a useful experiment in education in the whole of Asia. 
3. He established 54 Central Schools covering all the electorates at the time and equipped them with good and efficient Principals and teachers, hostels for scholars, laboratories, workshops, playgrounds, etc., which were then confined to the Christian Missionary Schools  and  a  few  Buddhist  denominational  schools.
4. He  handpicked  efficient  and  straightforward  teachers  to  man  these  schools  and  gave  them  every  encouragement  to  develop  them,  keeping  a  close  eye  on  them. It  was  unfortunate  that subsequently,  such  good  Principals  were  promoted  to  be  Directors  of  Education  without  grooming  successors  to  take  over.  Such  good  and  efficient  Principals  should  have  been  kept  in  the  schools,  giving  them  the  necessary  perks  in  the  school  itself.  We,  representing  the  Central  Colleges  Past  Pupils’  Association  of  Sri  Lanka,  brought  this  matter  up  with  the  National  Education  Commission  in  1992.  We  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  Commission  the  dearth  of  good  and  efficient  Principals  to  man  the  schools  and  requested  the  Commission  to  take  suitable  measures  to  train  a  cadre  Principals  to  take  over  from  those  who  retire  but  so  far nothing  tangible  has  happened.

Dr Kannangara  brought the estate schools to  main stream education and looked after the estate children as well, which in fact won him the votes of the estate workers in Mathugama in 1947, whereas, in other electorates they voted against the UNP. 

He introduced subjects like science, agriculture, woodwork, pottery, leatherwork, music and dancing, book binding, etc., into  the  school  curriculum  so that children, after leaving school, could be gainfully employed and even established Resident Training Colleges to train the required teachers for the various subjects up to senior level. These are non  existent  today.

However, the elite class headed by Mr. D.S. Senanayake conspired to defeat him in the 1947  election, and thereafter, did everything they could to obstruct and retard the Education Reforms that CWWK had very thoughtfully introduced in 1945. 

This was done successfully and now we reap the benefits in the form of communal and economic problems that we are facing today.   

What ails the education system today 

Education administrators, guided by politicians without a vision, carried out a number of operations in the body of education from time to time, thereby bringing forth the predicament that education has come to today.  Some of the ill conceived reforms carried out can be enumerated as follows : 

In the early 1950s, there were 3 compulsory subjects for the Senior Level Examination, namely, First Language (mother tongue), Second Language (English/ Pali/ Sanskrit/ Tamil etc.) and Arithmetic or Mathematics. 

 Subsequently, these were reduced to 2 subjects, namely, the First Language and Arithmetic/,Mathematics. Sinhalese Language and Literature (also Tamil Language and Literature) which were treated as 2 subjects were made in to one, making the students neither proficient in language nor in literature.  This has resulted in the decline of the Sinhala/ Tamil language even among the University Professors and Lecturers, leave alone teachers. 

With the introduction of the Provincial Councils education became a devolved subject coming within their purview.  However, successive governments established another set of schools called National Schools administered by the line Ministry, without establishing adequate machinery to administer them.  Due to this remote control system, most of the National Schools (including most Central Schools) are being neglected and today some of them have no discipline 

There is no transfer system for Principals and teachers in both National schools and Provincial schools.  Even if a Principal  is  found  to  be  inefficient  and  corrupt,  he  cannot  be  replaced  or  transferred  due  to  stringent  procedures. If  a  Provincial  school  teacher wants  a  transfer  to  a  national  school,  he  has  to  go  through  14  steps. 

In  the  days  gone  by,  there  were  Boards  of  Survey  carried  out  annually  in  every  school  and  Administration,  Finance,  Inventories,  methods  of  teaching,  results  at  Public  Exams, Sports,  Environment  etc.  were  all  checked  by  a  competent  team  from  the  Education  Department.

 As  far  as  I  am  aware,  this  vital  aspect  of  education  administration  has  been  neglected where  the  Principal  of  a school can be  changed  4  times  during  a  period  of  nearly  30  years,  without   the  Boards  of  Survey  being  held.

The  Navodaya  Scholarship  system  which  replaced  the  5^th  Standard  Scholarship  Examination  introduced  by  C W W K,  has  created  a  system  of  so-called  Popular  Schools,  thereby  uprooting  the  village  children  from  their  cultural  environment  and  exposing  them  to  a  cosmopolitan  culture. This  ran  counter  to  the  Kannangara  system  which  brought  up  children  in  their  traditional  environment.  His  vision  was  to  develop  decentralized  centres  of  higher  learning,  spread  through  out  the  country. 

The  Tuition  system,  which  has  now  become  the  canker  in  the  whole  education  system,  has  come  into  being  from  the  time  the  school  curriculum  and  syllabuses  were  revised,  leaving  a  gap  between  the  O/ L  syllabus  and  A/ L  syllabus,  bringing  forth  a  set  of  tuition  masters,  who  came  in  to  fill  in  the  gap,  without  which  children  could  not  follow  A/ L  classes. In  our  days,  there  was  a  continuity  in  the  syllabuses  from  6^th  Standard  up to  University  level.

International  Schools 

 Education,  which  was  considered  a  sacred  subject  from  time  immemorial,  has  now  become  a  profitable  venture  as  a  result  of  the  neglect  of  the English  language  in  the  normal  Govt.  schools. (Closing  down  of  the  English  Training  colleges  has  led  to  this  situation  in a  large  way. 
The  Vidhya  Peethas,  I  feel,  have  not  been  able  to  fill  that  gap.)  The  overemphasis  placed  on  the  English  medium  by  Politicians  and  Administrators,  who  had  their  children  educated  abroad,  also  led  to  the  mushrooming  of  these  International  schools. 

The  elite  class  (including  drug  barons,  uneducated  Mudalalis  and  underworld  kingpins)  send  their  children  to  international  schools,  spending  several  millions  of  illicitly  earned  money,  with  the  aim  of making  their  children  achieve  what  they  themselves  could  not.  These  schools,  registered  under  the  Company  Ordinance  or  as  B O I  Projects,  bring  up  children  in  an  atmosphere  of  an  alien  culture,  imparting  knowledge  in  subjects  relevant  to  the British  Education  system,  much  against  the  vision  of  Dr. C.W.W. Kannagara  and  against  the  existing  Law  of  the  Island  pertaining  to  education. 

The  underlying  vision  of  these  International  schools  was  well  manifested  when  reading  a  news  item  that  appeared  in  the  Daily  News  of  Feb. 8,  under  the  heading “ 53  Lankan  teens  for  2007  Future  Leaders  Summit. ” According  to this  news  release,  of  the  53  students  selected  to  represent  Sri  Lanka  at  this  Future  Leaders  summit  to  be  held  in  Washington  D.C.,  50  are  from  International  schools  and  only  3  from  National  schools (1  from  Nalanda  and 2 from  Royal).  It  is  pertinent  to  question the  basis  and criteria  on  which  these  students  were  selected.  The  release  further  says  that  these  students  are  sponsored  by  their  parents.  This  means  that  only  those  who  can  afford  to  bear  the  expenses  can  send  their  children  to  the  Future  Leaders  Summit. This  also  means  that  students  attending  national  schools  have  no  chance  of attending  future  leaders  Summit. ( Poor  folks  have  no  chance  of  becoming  future  leaders in  the  country  of  their  birth ! )

Since  independence,  Sri  Lanka  has  undergone  3  Youth  uprisings,  namely,  J V P  uprisings  of  1971  and  1989  and  the  Tamil  Youth  uprising.  If  the  Kannangara  Education  system  had  been  implemented  in  its  entirety  and  in  its  true  form,  I  feel  that  such  situations  would  never  have  arisen.  If  Kannangara’s  vision had  been  followed,  the  language  problem,  which  was  a  precursor  to  the  ethnic  problem,  would  not  have  arisen. 

The  Youth  Commission  appointed  in  the 1990s  to  study  the  background  to  the  youth  uprisings  and  make  suitable  recommendations  to  avoid  such  uprisings in the future,  had  recommended  the  appointment  of  a  National  Education  Commission  to  draft  a  National  Education  Policy ,  which  may  not  be  changed  with  the  change  of  Governments,  change  of  Ministers  and  change  of  Secretaries.

This  Commission,  I  feel,  has  miserably  failed  to  address  the  real  issues  and  advise  the  Governments  on  a  prudent  Education  Policy,  may  be  due  to  their  failure  to  take  independent  decisions,  without  being  dictated  by  the  powers  that  be.  Some times,  the  Commission  has  become a dumping  ground  for  political  rejects  at  elections.

The prohibitions imposed on fishing due to National Security, were removed recently and the fishing community today in a state of ecstasy. It was the fisherman who suffered most by the twenty five year long war.  No fishermen got any chance to continue their way of living during the past few years. All of them were astonished and overjoyed to hear the end of the war and taking away the ban at once. Yet few more issues still remain making the fishing community uneasy. Matters regarding the issuance of fishing licenses and identity cards are most prominent.

We revealed you recently about the pathetic situation of Edwin Appuhamy alias “Baby Aiya”of Kodbe, who was a traditional trawling fisherman and later faced the ban to fish in the sea line he was used to. He is a father of seven eight kids and also it was with his business several others who worked under him earned their living. Nevertheless the navy decided to make prohibitions in that area of fishing, indicating that National Security was more important than individual hunger. Time elapsed and now the navy has come again to remove the barbed wires. Baby Aiya has been given his life back. He says that it is now he feels that he himself is alive.

“All my family earned our living by this seine. But during the last five six years we were banned from fishing in the interior part of the harbor..We didn’t even think of getting this job again. It is our honorable president who gave our lives back. Now by the sake of the god we can live by our own.

It was the Tamil Fishing Community who suffered most with this ban. Majority of the Sinhala community look at the Tamils as Tigers thinking that every Tamil is a Tiger. This worsened the condition of the Tamil fishermen. But everything is changing now.

Mr. N. Balasubramanium a fisherman in Thirakadavur in Trincomalee says that the evil times are over now. Still they face difficulties in obtaining fishing licenses and identity cards though.

“ We lived on the pawning of my wife’s and daughters’ jewellery. We had to bear water and electricity cut. We would never face this kind of life if we had our job. Anyway the bad times are over now, things are far better. Little issues remain though. To get licenses and ID cards we have to go to Grama Niladhari, Police, Regional Secretariat, Navy, Department of Fisheries, Cooperative Society for Fisheries and so on.. We request the minister to help us in this matter by giving us one day mobile service.”

 As to Mr. Subramanium this is not a problem of the government but the inefficiency of the officers. He believes that the minister should intervene in this matter to see a solution.

During the period of the forbiddance many fishermen found different ways of living as they could not stand the cries of their family members. But now they are coming back to their old profession. According to Fisheries Project Office in Trincomalee, the fishing community has been increased by seventy per cent (70%) by this month. Trincomalee which was starting to hide under the ruins has been given a new breath to live. It is reaching prosperity. Mr. M. Yusuf, an owner of a well known jewellery shop in Trincomalee says that people are becoming much strong in money now. 

“ Actually it is from the fishing Triincomalee gets money. As fishing was under a ban during last few years, nobody could manage to buy at least a packet of milk powder for their kids. No need of talking about buying jewellery then. Anyway everything is changing now. We could do a good business at the beginning of this month as people are getting money”, he said.

“ We think that a new era has dawned upon us. We hope all the limitations will be taken away very soon. Still we are not allowed to reach the coast till dawn. Fish gets rotten when we stay a whole night in the sea. It is better if these things are also being considered.” Mr. I Maharoof from Jamalia said.

M. G.G. Saman is a  well known businessman in Trincomalee and he is the president of the Society for Multi Day Boats Owners Association. He says that the government did the right things at right time. If not the war could have been continued for few more decades.

“We blamed the government when the ban was laid, we blamed the navy too. But our honourable president requested us to bear all the difficulties till the war ends. He was looking for our support. We gave it and that’s why we could win the war. We have no more attacks from tigers now. Earlier it was us who faced the results when the navy attacked on their boats. But now everything is over. Fishing licenses, identity cards are not such big things, we can make them happen and we can get them done. We can’t blame government for such little things. It is nothing but the wrong doings of the officials”.

Mr. Ananda Peiris, the president of Sumedhagama Fishing Society, is the convener of Trincomalee District for All Island Fishing Movement.  He has a very good knowledge on the tribulations faced by the fishing community of that area. He says that Trincomalee was reborn with the removal of the ban.

“We were more like dead in last years. We had nothing to eat at homes, we were like beggars.. but god’s sake.. the bad times are over. Few issues unsolved remain though. Still the navy doesn’t allow 32 and 34 feet boats fish without radio message equipment. One such equipment costs around two and half lakhs. For those who had no job for years, this is a cost unimaginable. The officers from the navy asks how to manage to purchase a boat if we are not strong enough to buy such a “set”. They don’t know we pawn our lands and get bank loans to buy a boat..”

Nevertheless everything in Trincomalee is becoming normal again. The future will be far better.  The poker faced farmers have smiles on their faces now.. they smile saying “Ellam,Nallam”.