In the aftermath of public protests over the release of Grade 5 examination results on the World Children’s Day which fell on 1 October, the media reported that the Ministry of Education wishes to lighten the load on students and is seeking recommendations from the National Education Commission (NEC) to make the exam less challenging to the students. Meanwhile, with the release of school admission list into Grade I, frustrated parents are protesting on the mode of admission.

Subsequently, the media reported that the Education Ministry hopes to introduce far-reaching changes to the Grade 5 scholarship examination and is awaiting the recommendations of the Cabinet Sub-committee (eight ministers and officials) and the Education Policy Reform Committee before taking a final decision on the scholarship examination. Meanwhile, the National Child Protection Authority Chairman urged the Government to abandon the conduct of the highly-controversial Grade 5 scholarship examination, claiming that the exam did more harm to young children than good because the competition was so stressful for a 10-year-old child.

The beginning
The Grade 5 examination commenced to present an opportunity for poor students from less popular schools to get financial help from the Government (bursaries), thereafter better students were offered places in popular schools. In the current year, 322,456 students sat for the examination and of these 15,000 would be eligible for a monthly bursary of Rs. 500.

Now the aim of the exam has been modified to display the abilities of children who improved their knowledge through tuition. The schools themselves compete heavily with each other to exhibit their capabilities.

School admission
The child’s problems related to Grade 5 really commences with the school admission, mainly based on the distance from the residence to the prospective school and other lengthy requirements. Many parents use forged documents, bribery, and various unethical ways to admit their child to a popular school. Having forged addresses and documents, the child meets the real society when facing the school admission interview. The child is groomed for weeks or months prior to the interview, with a series of lies prepared by the parents to convince the School Admission Board. The effect of the lies on the child’s mind cannot be ascertained, but surely this would have a deep impact. Or would this be a starting point for a selfish, self-centered life expected from the child in Grade 5 and other examinations, overtaking others, which would continue to the university admission and getting employment?

Grade 5 test
For those who missed the admission to a popular school, a second opportunity arrives with the Grade 5 examination and the parents drive their children through tuition classes without pleasure or play, just to get admission to a better school. The parents admit the sacrifice made by the child is not worth the benefit, but are unaware of another solution.

Popular Schools
Most of today’s popular schools had their beginnings nearly a century ago when religious organizations and philanthropic citizens donated lands, buildings and established schools. These schools were meant for the entire community and not for the children in the locality. Today admission priority is given to proximity; but at school closure popular schools in Colombo have school buses leading to towns nearly 50 km away, indicating the actual origin of the students.

Why do parents take such measures to admit their children to a popular school? Simple, popular schools have better facilities as buildings, classrooms, libraries, sports and, above all, prestige. There is no guarantee that popular schools offer better education. Their higher performances at public examinations are due to their ability to attract better students from other schools and the tuition classes the students attend. Most popular schools are bursting at the seams, and are unmanageable as shown by the recent arrogant behaviour of students in public, while small schools close down due to decrease in demand.

The cost of free education
The State is supposed to give every child a free education, but is the education really free? The basic textbooks are given free, but most schools levy fees under various pretexts dictated by School Development Societies for the provision of various facilities not provided by the Education Department and the system has been accepted by the Department. The education cost includes books, stationery, bus/van to travel to school and tuition costs, in addition, costs and time incurred by the parents in transporting to tuition.

The country’s education system includes neglected schools without proper facilities in rural areas as well in the midst of cities, moderately-serviced schools to better-equipped, privileged city schools. The provision of equal facilities to all schools can never be achieved, but some equality could be achieved if the Government supplies more facilities to less popular schools. But Government funding is continuously reducing to less than 2% of GDP today. The Government’s inability to provide reasonable education to children resulted in mushrooming of fee-levying schools referred to as international schools, where parents pay for education. The parents weeded out by the distance rule and those unwilling to resort to unethical and bribery practices preferred such schools.

Tuition culture
Unfortunately, most Government schools do not provide a proper education and the child gets educated through tuition classes. The tuition costs can vary from a few hundred to thousands of rupees per month per subject. Affluent parents get tutors to visit home costing over Rs. 10,000 a month. Most tutors are teachers from Government schools. After hard work in the evenings, the teachers rest during school hours. But when results are published, the schools claim the credit for the children’s performance.

Development plans
The Ministry claim plans to develop 5,000 child-friendly schools and 1,000 secondary schools that will bridge the gap between urban and rural schools. This year science stream was introduced into Advanced Level into 150 schools and Technical Stream at 250 schools for the first time. The plans are commendable, but there are thousands of other rural secondary schools lacking facilities for Science A/L.

A Technical stream of education is a timely need, but who teaches these students? How about technical workshops for practical training and materials for training and when will the stream be available island-wide? With the release of Grade 5 results and protests afterward, there were large numbers of criticisms in respect of the examination, but none offered a solution. The cancellation of the exam as suggested by the Child Protection Authority would only lead to a different problem. An alternative to the present system Society has accepted that the child’s admission to a popular school has enormous value. If so, why should a high-value product in demand be given free, especially when the country’s education needs so much funding?

The writer proposes that the admission and education in popular schools should not be free, but be chargeable with an admission fee and a monthly fee. The fees can vary from school to school depending on the popularity and demand from the public. The schools could be sub-divided into three categories: 1. Free schools. 2. Nominally-paying schools and 3. Fee-levying schools.

• Free schools: Free schools will not require any fees from their children; the Government will issue the books as well as the uniforms free of charge. The children in schools can be given a free mid-day meal.
• Nominally-paying schools: Nominally-paying schools will charge – say Rs. 100 to 250 per month per child – for school expenses and the children would be issued with free text-books.
• Fee-levying schools: The education in fee-levying schools would be subjected to an admission fee and a monthly payment. The Education Department allocates a teacher to every 23 students, making the teacher’s salary costs alone over Rs. 1,000 per student per month and this could be the basic charge for a not-so-popular fee-levying school.

In popular schools, charges could vary from school to school depending on the popularity and the demand. Even at the proposed level of fees, there would be an enormous demand and the Ministry will have to arrive at selection criteria. The admission fee may be Rs. 25,000 for not-so-popular schools and increasing with popularity.

Auction of admissions
It is proposed that 25% of positions in fee-levying schools be auctioned, with admission given to the highest bidder. This would bypass the underhand admissions, with bribery converted to an open payment channeled into the education system.

Grade 5 Examination
The Grade 5 examination would be open only for the students from the free schools and for the nominally-paying schools, with 50% of the places in fee levying schools being filled with children passing at the Grade 5 examination. At Grade 6, the school fees would be revised to accommodate the cost of scholarship students. The scholarship students in fee-levying schools would not be given free books or uniforms, but a cash payment in lieu of scholarship to avoid superficial difference between students.

Reduction in class numbers
The class numbers in fee-levying schools need to come down to 25, allowing teachers to pay more individual attention; reduce student numbers in popular schools, thereby increasing the numbers in rural schools, preventing the closure of small schools.

Class tests
Class tests are held with question papers prepared by the Ministry of Education. This could continue, but from Grade 6, the children in fee-levying schools falling below a stipulated grade would be expelled after a warning. Scholarship children, having achieved high levels, will need to maintain higher levels (say above 60%), otherwise, the scholarship being withheld and repeaters returning to the old school will keep every student on their toes.

Grade 8 examinations
During the British rule and some years afterward, an examination was held at Grade 8 and the test was abolished in 1956. In rural schools as well as non-popular urban schools, there are students who are not interested in studies but are promoted every year. These students obstruct other students and are a nuisance. These uninterested students can be weeded out at the Grade 8 examination and be guided to a trade or an agricultural school.

Usage of funds
The establishment of fee-levying schools will result in a substantial collection of funds. Large numbers of schools are without science and IT laboratories, forcing students to follow the arts stream. The collected fees could be used for upgrading facilities in non-fee-levying schools.

International schools
International schools require spacious lands and buildings, demand high financial commitments, resulting in high charges made from the students. In addition, they all have expansion programs that need funding.  The existing Government schools need little or no further capital investments and need only to meet current expenses. Therefore the Government could provide similar services as international schools at a much lower cost.

Conclusion
The acceptance of international schools by society shows that parents are prepared to pay for children’s education. With the payment of school fees, the parents would demand quality education without the need for tuition. The restriction of Grade 5 examination to non-paying schools would reduce the culture and the demand for tuition. With the reduced demand for tuition, teachers will focus more on their teaching, breaking the tuition cycle and improving education quality. Reduction of tuition would allow children more time to play and less stress.

Fee-levying Government schools will offer competition and an alternative to private schools. State schools already established in better locations with more space and land would be able to give their money’s worth to their students. The current so-called free education with tuition is expensive in terms of money as well as time demands from the parents. The fees payable for fee-levying schools will not make much difference to the parent’s pockets.

With fee-levying schools filled with affluent students, nominally-paying schools will be in demand and quality will improve. They were located closer to homes, children will have more time for sports and cultural activities.  As fee-levying school children will not be eligible for scholarships, less privileged will have better opportunities getting scholarships and admission to better schools, resulting in poorer children being subjected to lower stress. The proposals would bring about a win-win situation for all children and will eradicate the primary reason for the breakdown of honesty in society, by eliminating forged documentation and forcing small children to lie.

The above proposals would certain to be opposed by teachers (who would lose income from tuition) and their unions, claiming the proposals would end the free education proposed by C.W.W. Kananagara. But he would never have imagined the free education he proposed would be exploited by the politicians and the tuition teachers, making a mockery of free education.

Published in the Daily FT on 6 November 2013