I
have
blogged extensively on the Grade 5 scholarship exam issues and the Z score
system and District allocations into University. The original intentions were
honorable, as it was giving people of lower income and opportunity backgrounds
a chance at the big time, by entering University and going on to maximize on
their true potential. So there was positive discrimination for under
represented districts where educational opportunities were limited and the
playing field was leveled somewhat.
In
this era of tuition factories and breaking of education department rules on
minimum 80% attendance to sit for public exams, and politicization of entry
into prestigious schools, we have arrived at 2014 into an era where these pro
poor policies have now become redundant and only fool the people into a world
of make believe that is far from reality.
When
the Govt. announced it was scrapping the Grade 5 exam, the opposition UNP and
the various Teacher Unions took the opposing view, without thinking it through
as it was seen as the right thing to do to oppose without a rational basis. So
the Govt. then reversed its stance by saying but they will not scrap it but
make it simpler and less of a memory test and the new guidelines of a shorter
exam have been published. This has completely stolen the thunder from them.
The
reason is that of public perception, which is a long way from reality. People
are led to believe that the Grade 5 exam is one where poor rural children are
given a chance to enter the prestigious Colombo or other good schools which are
otherwise not open to them. This is now only an electoral gimmick, to be played
out in the media for the Government’s advantage.
Similarly
once the child does get into a prestigious Colombo School, he then does his A
levels from Colombo, and his Z score has to be at a much higher level than that
of his compatriots in the rural area for him to get into university, and in
many instances, remaining in the rural area, may have offered him a greater
chance of University Entrance than coming out of Colombo. This makes it a
mockery to send a high scoring grade 5 student to Colombo Royal, from where he
is more unlikely to get into the University of choice than from the original
school from whence he came. None of the parents know this fact, and therefore
are being led astray, having made personal sacrifices, which do not pay any
dividends, and no sacrifice and a child in his own surroundings would have been
far better to say nothing of the personal trauma of separation in boarding
schools or being boarded with a relative to attend this school! There are the
odd exceptions, where a few students excel in these circumstances, but do not
justify a whole system just to benefit one or two people a year!
No
wonder then that many rural students play the system for their benefit at the
expense of the Urban child. For example they get permission from their school
to apply from their school in Moneragala in subjects not even offered from
there! Perhaps in science stream that the school DOES NOT OFFER. They come to
Colombo, and go to tuition class, not having to do the minimum 80% attendance
required before they can sit the exam from a Colombo school. In fact they DO
NOT ever go to their school, especially as the subjects offered are not even
taught, and they can get in under the quota system from there with with 3 CCCs
into University, where three As from Colombo are insufficient, and they have an
even bigger advantage as they can attend more tuition in Colombo than the
Colombo kid who has to go to school for the minimum attendance, resulting in a
double whammy hurdle.
Remember
by doing this the poorer child in Moneragala loses out to the wealthy parent’s
child. The system therefore has again missed the point completely. Don’t the
educational authorities understand that in the money and tuition culture all
norms have broken down into a exam passing system that basically assists only
those with the wherewithal to fund expensive tuition courses and crammers
designed to pass the necessary exams.
This
injustice for the kids from the mainly urban areas, is not of electoral value
as the rural folk would like it that way at the expense of one applying from
Colombo. This playing the system can only be removed by removing the Z score
system, and only entering students purely on merit. That is the fairest system,
but not politically acceptable, and so, one which will not happen.
It
is time NOT to be slaves to the past, as the present education system is
completely different to that envisaged when these procedures were introduced.
We need something more relevant to 2014 and beyond, to achieve the objectives
set. We need a new mindset that most politicians don’t understand. They engage
in misleading the electorate and the country suffers the ill effects of their decisions.
The
students themselves have to come up with the solution, as they are the losers, and
therefore it is time for them to organize the agitation to achieve them
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