National Education Policy: Professionals

should design it and take its ownership

Education is too important to be left to politicians who are not experts on the
subject

Monday, 27 July 2015

An important TV talk show on national education policy
In a recent TV talk show on what should be the countrys national education
policy, a selected group of politicians from main political parties had been
seated on the stage. Presumably, it would have been thought that it was
necessary to seat them on the stage to pick their brains on how the
national education policy should be framed.
In the opposite, some invitee-experts on education were confined to the
front raw of the audience so that they could listen attentively to the wisdom
imparted by politicians. The rest of the seats in the studio had been filled by
passive onlookers who appeared to have enjoyed being present in person in
a TV talk show (available at: http://www.lankachannel.com/aluthparlimenthuwa-22nd-july-2015_f53fdbe5e.html).
What if the role of the politicians were exchanged with experts?

It was the politicians who spoke mostly at the talk show. They even
allocated time for themselves when the host was not willing to do so.
Diverse views and heated arguments were exchanged, sometimes
descending to personal levels, among those on the stage before an
audience that was watching the proceedings helplessly with aghast looks
on faces.
It would have been a fruitful, productive and purpose-serving discussion,
had there been two major changes in the logistics of the TV show. One
change would have been to seat the politicians in the audience and the
experts on the stage. It would have given an opportunity for experts to
impart their wisdom and politicians to listen to them, seek clarifications on
issues involved and improve their listening and learning skills.
The second, a more difficult option in the current political scenario, would
have been to give a piece of advice to politicians right at the outset that if
they use it as a forum to advance their political supremacy, the purpose of
the TV talk show would be instantly lost.
No country is happy about its education system
The current state of Sri Lankas education at all levels was something about
which both the politicians and the experts had unanimously agreed. That
was, it was in serious crisis and it needed quick and permanent expert
fixing. This is an open expression of the displeasure of the population about
the gap between what is expected and what is delivered by the system.
In that respect, no country in the world today is happy about its education
system and even the most advanced country in the world has some
complaint about its education system. For instance, the US citizens are
unhappy about the falling reading, math and science scores of the US
school children in globally administered tests such as Programme for
International Student Assessment or PISA administered by the Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development or OECD. In all the three
aspects, USA is ranked well below even the OECD average (available at:
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/pisa-rankings-2013-12).
Chinas predicament in education
The highest score has been earned by students of Shanghai in China
followed by those in Singapore. Yet, Chinese authorities are unhappy about
the ability of its education system to produce thinkers who would match
those who are produced by US universities which are always ranked very
high in global rankings.
For instance, at the centenary celebration in 2011 of Chinas Tsinghua
University which is ranked within the top 50 world universities, Chinas
President Hu Jintao expressed the desire that Efforts should also be made
to foster the all-round development of students and universities should

enhance their innovative and research capability and students should

maintain their individuality by thinking independently (available at:
http://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/publish/news
en/6054/2011/20110425140446713208604/20110425140446713208604_.
html ).
Singapore wants its education to take the country to the next
stage
Singapore which should be proud of scoring the second highest in all the
three key areas has other complaints. On the eve of celebrating Singapores
50th independence anniversary in 2015, its Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
says that the city state is trying hard to increase the inclusiveness of the
university education from the current 30% of population to 40% of
population and narrow the income gap between university graduates and
non-university school leavers.
His problem is to move to the next level of economic development. Says
Lee: My whole system should be different from what you get anywhere
else in Asia. The others are catching up. So even as others step into where
we are, we have to be at the next level (available at:
http://time.com/3969196/singapore-lee-hsien-loonginterview-50th-anniversary/).
Crises are mothers of progress
Hence, being dissatisfied with the current education
system is a blessing rather than a bane. It gives
energy to a nation to push itself forward vigorously.
In that respect, what transpired at the TV talk show
is something that should be productively used by Sri
Lanka. Crises are mothers of progress and not
ailments about which one should keep on lamenting
continuously.
An important dictum in strategy has been that one
does not have problems but a series of
opportunities. It is up to the strategist to harness the
opportunities productively to solve the problems. But
to use a crisis as a stepping stone for progress, there
should be a number of steps which Sri Lanka should
take. Those steps involve following good public
policy governance as this writer has emphasised in a
number of articles in this series.
Knowledge is the wealth-creator today
Education policy is an important public policy

because it involves the governments intervention in education to build a

knowledge-based society. Knowledge today is the wealth creator and those
nations which have this asset in abundance are top on the list of
progressing nations. That is why all nations today are aspiring to acquire
this wealth-creator by investing more and more funds in human capital
development of which education is one of the three key ingredients.
The other two key ingredients are research, development and marketing on
one hand and improvement of the talent base of society through training
and skills development. Education at school and university levels produces
an essential input for the latter two ingredients.
Education is only one contributor to knowledge
But, how does knowledge come about? It comes from learning. Learning is
imparted by all types of education formal, non-formal and informal.
Learning facilitates research and research brings about inventions.
Inventions lead to technological advancements and technological
advancements lead to economic growth.
In the case of advanced countries today, it has been found that between
one-third and a half of economic growth they have attained have been due
to the technological advancements they had had in the past. So, a country
should foster technological advancements if it is desirous of having a high
economic growth. Any economic growth not accompanied with
technological advancements, as is the case of growth of Sri Lanka today, is
short-lived and unsustainable. Thus, a country is required to enhance its
investments in both education and research and development.
Education will produce knowledge workers and research and development
will foster technological advancements. These important aspects of human
capital development to which education contributes partly were not
touched upon by either the politicians or the experts. The discussion was
wholly confined to school and university education and not to the human
capital development at large.
Alison Wolf: Education doesnt matter if entrepreneurship isnt
there
But the availability of knowledge workers and technology is necessary for
economic development but not sufficient to attain that objective. For
education and technology to do that job, there should be a different set of
ground conditions available in an economy. This has been lucidly explained
by Alison Wolf, Professor of Education at the Institute of Education of the
University of London, in a book she published in 2002 under the title Does
Education Matter? The subtitle of the book, Myths about Education and
Economic Growth explains her thesis well.
According to Wolf, the countries which have spent a great deal of money on

education have got mixed results: Some have got higher growth, some no
growth at all and some, negative growth. Thus, there is no clear relationship
between educational attainments and economic growth. What is necessary
is that a country should invest in correct type of education, build correct
type of attitudes amongst its student population and have correct type of
policies to translate that knowledge into commercially viable businesses.
Finally, it is entrepreneurship that matters and to promote
entrepreneurship, a country should have ground conditions that are helpful
for promoting entrepreneurial spirits among its citizens. These ground
conditions, though Wolf has not mentioned, are the protection of property
rights, maintenance of law and order and adoption of market friendly
policies by the government the job of a proactive development state.
Sri Lankas schools dont produce quality outputs
Experts at the audience of the TV talk show under reference were critical of
the output which Sri Lankas school system has produced. With respect to
language skills, one university academic was frank in revealing that those
who join universities in Sri Lanka today are not the right university material
because most of them have the deficiency of expressing themselves clearly
even in their mother tongue. On top of this, universities have imposed as a
policy that university courses should be conducted in English possibly to
cater to a popular demand by students who desire their certificates to carry
that they have done the degrees in English.
When a student who is weak in mother tongue is inadequate in English, the
process of expressing oneself gets retarded because one has to first think in
his mother tongue, then translate his thinking into English and finally
present himself in a language in which he is not competent. Another expert
stressed the need for developing a balanced brain the subtle side through
math and science and intuitive side through arts and literature. Thus, the
experts made a serious indictment against the school education system for
which the politicians on the stage are alleged to be responsible.
A secretively-prepared National Education Policy
It was revealed that 25 Members of Parliament got together, consulted
experts on education and prepared a national policy document on
education for implementation by the previous government. It was also
revealed that even after six months, the policy remained just on paper
without a practical programme for its implementation.
An expert in the audience who happened to be a senior professor and
Deputy Vice Chancellor of a university confessed that the preparation of
such a policy document was news to him despite his standing in the
education field. What it meant was that it was a document prepared
secretively by a select group of Parliamentarians without consulting those

who matter in the education system of the country.

Public policies should be made after wide consultation with civil
society
This is a flawed method of public policy making. To be successful, a public
policy should have been made openly, in consultation with experts in the
field and those who are interested in the subject under consideration, with a
policy owner who will take it forward.
Since it is a policy concerning the future of the country, it should first be
released in the form of a public discussion paper inviting views of all the
interested parties. Open discussions should be generated by civil society
organisations through media, public debates and public forums. Once those
views are known, the policy document should be revised in the light of the
proposals made.
In this way, it becomes a national policy rather than a policy document
prepared by a select group at the top and imposed on the rest of the people
in society. With clear ownership of the policy by people of the country, the
change of politicians from time to time will not adversely affect its
implementation.
The development of math and science base is a must
The development of math and science base among students has been the
main thrust of educational reforms throughout the world today as
demonstrated by global tests like PISA. In Sri Lanka, the majority of
students have failed in these two subjects at the GCE (Ordinary Level)
Examination thereby becoming ineligible to join the Advanced Level
classes.
It was revealed that, instead of improving the teaching of these two
subjects at schools, an arbitrary decision had been made by political
authorities to take out mathematics from the eligibility criteria for
enrolment for the advanced level classes. This arbitrary decision was
justified at the TV talk show on the ground that mathematics is not
necessary for most of the occupations and there are many successful
people in society who have not passed math at the Ordinary Level
examination.
Math will equip a person with logical thinking
The flaw in this argument is that it ignores the value of learning
mathematics. Math will equip a person with logical thinking and that logical
thinking is essential for a subsequent creativity of a person.
When math is removed from the eligibility subject list, students will neglect
learning math and as a result, the school system will produce students with
a serious deficiency in decision making. If Sri Lanka is to move to the next

level of economic development, it should necessarily develop its math and

science base in its talent pool.
National Education Policy is too important to be left to politicians
Thus, education is too important to be left to politicians who are not experts
on the subject. Education policy should be decided by experts and
politicians should simply make available the needed resources and take
political leadership in implementing the policy.
Hence, the ownership of designing and implementing a national education
policy should be taken by professionals and not politicians.
(W.A Wijewardena, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri
Lanka, can be reached at waw1949@gmail.com.)
Posted by Thavam