Food, shelter, clothing and education
are the core components of life if one takes one’s personal moral beliefs as a
given. In Sri Lanka education is one that we have messed up royally and which
needs urgent reform. I know from the small days, we smugly used our literacy
rate as a measure of education and now it seems a noose round our necks as we
have failed to realize that literacy is just a minor aspect of education. It is
merely a tool of learning, and fulfillment of learning, whatever it is we need
to know.
The majority of parents completely leave
education to the schools or the tuition factories to accomplish. However the
recent results and high marks at exams have shown the most important component
are the parents and the values inculcated in the home by them. The Schools with
all the will in the world CANNOT replace the guidance and example shown by
parents. Sri Lankan parents do not show this guidance and children suffer. Just
go to the homes that have any reading matter other than the daily newspapers. I
believe 75% of homes in Sri Lanka have NO reading matter despite the 500,000
who visited the recent International Book Exhibition at the BMICH.
So it is this culture of learning we
must show by example. Children copy adults when they are small. They want to be
like adults. So adults who read are a great source of inspiration for potential
future leaders from our children. It is important that there are parent
sessions in schools to reinforce this as a major source of positive reinforcement
for their children to learn without being forced or coaxed.
Can anyone show me an avid reader who
has NOT excelled in their studies? It just comes naturally to them. Let us
therefore live by example. Have books around the house; read bed time stories
to your children from a young age. It will be something they will look forward
to and a good way to communicate with your offspring, and build a bond in an
increasingly busy world.
These examples will go hand in hand in
ensuring your child gets a head start, and despite or inspite of the school he
goes to, he will be able to get on top, and not rely merely on exam results to
show leadership and confidence which are part and parcel of a good education.
The Cadets and Scouting are all areas that assist in leadership and life skills
training which few state schools in Sri Lanka offer. It is therefore incumbent
upon parents to make up the shortfall and do what is necessary to make good, what
the schools lack. The parents need to go to class to learn to live by example if
they wish a better future for their offspring as compared with theirs.
12 comments:
Think about it. Kalpakaranna. As long as third world countries like Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan continue to try to promote education, as a key driver of economic growth, the educated people are quickly sucked into the migration vortex and turned into engineers, technicians, doctors, etc. in first world countries, and they will use their skills to develop those countries.
Who are the rogue nations of the world in reality??
Our people are the best recourse we have in our country. Yes, migration is a problem. However, there are many other talented people in the country who can replace them. Everyone cannot migrate. There will be equilibrium of influx and efflux at one point. Even, migration is not that bad for countries like ours. Our population density is very high. We are a tiny nation. Our natural resources are limited. On the other hand, these people support their families in Sri Lanka and send their hard earn foreign currency to SL. That’s that.
What you point our here is of a paramount importance. We have failed in many ways, especially in education. I 100% agree with you that literacy in only one aspect of education. Actually, it is only a tool to get education. As parents, we leave everything to our schools and tuition masters when it comes to our children’s’ education. Do we read books to them? Or even do we read ourselves? Do we borrow books from our local library? No. We read “fantasy news papers”. We watch mega-teledramaas. Yet, we blame the government for everything. I suggest that even talking to your kids about everything is doing nothing. (For example: what you believe in your life, social justice, politics, and democracy etc). The problem is that we are not that good ourselves. We do not have values. We do not believe in anything. We do not see a better future or we do not want to have better one. It is sad!
to the previous comment, there will never be enough talented people in the country to replace migrants, because once people become suitably qualified they are sucked into the vortex and land in one of the "rogue nations." Migrants are the most skilled and talented people that exist in the country, and their loss is DEVASTATING to national development. Period.
The money they send back home principally causes the prices of goods to rise, and goes towards consumer goods and staples, which are not helpful to national economic development on a macro scale, and hurt others that don't have a migrant tap to turn on to be able to get money to buy things whose price is constantly rising because of the migrant stream of money -- which causes the people left in Sri Lanka with little choice than try to migrate themselves!!
Kalpanakarrana people.
We are No 1 in the world in criticising everything and everyone. Can you suggest a solution for migration? Your so-called rogue nations do not force us to migrate. We go there on our free will. It is so easy to criticise. Instead it would be much better to concentrate on small things (like reading to your kids, buying books for kids) as suggested by this blog author. One positive action would be much better than 1000s of criticisms.
With regard to 'brain drain,' or the skilled migration problem, there are no easy solutions, but my proposal is to require skilled migrants to refund to the state the funds that were used to educate them free of charge. At least that way the funds will be used towards developing those that stay in the country that then develop the country.
Those advocating for increases in the education budget make me laugh at their shortsightedness. To allocate larger and larger sums of money for education without dealing with the fact that many of those people will use the opportunity to educate themselves and join the rogues in other "developed" nations is going to simply WASTE more money than is currently being wasted with limited national gains. Countries like Australia and the USA will gain for sure, and they are greedily smiling at the prospect of an increased Sri Lankan education budget. Those rogue nations are developing because they are robbing the human resources of the underdeveloped world to develop themselves!
Kalpanakaranna.
That is an old proposal. The problem with that is that nobody can guarantee a job for every graduate. If you are a graduate of free education and can not find a job in SL, still you have to stay in the country being a further burden to the taxpayer. We know many countries where they imposed restrictions on people movements. We also know the outcome of that. You can not impose this kind of restrictions on a selected group. If you have to pay back to the government, it should be applied to the all. On the other hand, even these people migrate out of the country after free education, they also exit from being a burden to taxpayers. If you are a grade 10- passed person and unemployed for the rest of your life, you can consume more taxpayers money (for healthcare/samurdhi etc) in your whole life than a graduated who migrated after free education.
i'm not sure the assumption that the skilled migrants, if required to stay or reimburse the state, could not find jobs in Sri Lanka. If they are skilled enough to migrate to foreign lands and find jobs there, they are certainly skilled enough for the Sri Lankan labor force. They, of course, may displace some of the lower skilled workers in Sri Lanka, but then there wouldn't be a labor shortage in that regard, as there is now.
Also, it is hoped that if the migrants are "entrepreneurial" enough to find a way to migrate to a developed country, they could also be entrepreneurial enough to identify market opportunities in Sri Lanka and use their skills to create businesses and jobs for others. The country needs more entrepreneurs, actually, as currently most in SL are just looking for a paycheck and an air conditioned office rather than taking a chance on their own, as the entrepreneurial risk takers have all left these shores for opportunities abroad.
It seems that you live in another world, not in SL. I nkow that you cant unserstand the real world here.
Mega-constuction Projects Slipping Away: MANPOWER SHORTAGE A DRAWBACK from the Daily Mirror..
http://www.dailymirror.lk/business/features/23039-mega-construction-projects-slipping-away-manpower-shortage-a-drawback-.html
AUSTRALIA TO TARGET SRI LANKA'S SKILLED WORKFORCE
The Island, October 30, 2012, 10:10 pm
Riding on an ambitious plan to tap the Asian region, Australia is all set to woo highly the skilled population from the region including in Sri Lanka in a bid to create an educated, productive work force to boost its economy.
According to Australia’s minister for Immigration and Citizenship Chris Bowen, the government in its ‘Asian Century White Paper’, released yesterday, has highlighted the opportunities for the nation’s growth by building deeper and stronger links with Asian region.
"Even with the government’s unprecedented investment in tertiary education and up-skilling Australians, we need migrants who bring their specialist skills to Australia," he said.
Seven of the top 10 source countries in Australia’s 2011-12 migration programme are in the Asian region: Sri Lanka, China, the Philippines, India, Malaysia, South Korea and Vietnam.
The Indian sub-continent is Australia’s largest source region of migrants, providing 23 per cent of the migration programme, while 18.3 per cent of migrants come from the north of Asia.
"More than a quarter of our nation’s migrants were born in an Asian nation and nearly 1.5 million Australians are fluent in one or more Asian languages, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Hindi, Punjabi, Indonesian, Korean, Tagalog and Japanese," Bowen said.
"This means that Australia is uniquely placed to strengthen ties with Asian nations." So, the country is "increasingly looking to Asia for skilled migrants who are crucial to the nation’s economy and the development of business opportunities in the region", he said. - PTI
AUSTRALIA TO TARGET SRI LANKA'S SKILLED WORKFORCE
The Island, October 30, 2012, 10:10 pm
Riding on an ambitious plan to tap the Asian region, Australia is all set to woo highly the skilled population from the region including in Sri Lanka in a bid to create an educated, productive work force to boost its economy.
According to Australia’s minister for Immigration and Citizenship Chris Bowen, the government in its ‘Asian Century White Paper’, released yesterday, has highlighted the opportunities for the nation’s growth by building deeper and stronger links with Asian region.
"Even with the government’s unprecedented investment in tertiary education and up-skilling Australians, we need migrants who bring their specialist skills to Australia," he said.
Seven of the top 10 source countries in Australia’s 2011-12 migration programme are in the Asian region: Sri Lanka, China, the Philippines, India, Malaysia, South Korea and Vietnam.
The Indian sub-continent is Australia’s largest source region of migrants, providing 23 per cent of the migration programme, while 18.3 per cent of migrants come from the north of Asia.
"More than a quarter of our nation’s migrants were born in an Asian nation and nearly 1.5 million Australians are fluent in one or more Asian languages, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Hindi, Punjabi, Indonesian, Korean, Tagalog and Japanese," Bowen said.
"This means that Australia is uniquely placed to strengthen ties with Asian nations." So, the country is "increasingly looking to Asia for skilled migrants who are crucial to the nation’s economy and the development of business opportunities in the region", he said. - PTI
it would be nice to get a blog entry that combines education and migration, and how they impact national development to kalpanakaranna about
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