To commemorate my 1000th, yes
one thousandth post in this blog that has an overriding theme, of improving the
quality of life of ALL who live in this Serendipitous Island, I summarize as
follows:
I have covered some topics at length if
only because when I wake up in the morning, that theme resonates in my mind as
one that requires inquiry. Surprise then that Education takes the top spot in
the most number of blog posts. To keep this post short and sweet, I will
concentrate on that which is IMPORTANT.
So
what is the conclusion of hundreds of pages of writing on Education?
We have to begin at birth with the
mother, the way she treats the child, nourishes the child and the environment
she exposes the child to. The first 5 years are crucial to how the child will
behave for the REST OF THEIR LIVES, and so all contact, examples and
interventions made in those years will have a marked effect on the rest of
their lives. So let’s concentrate on the positive.
It is with this truth, now an accepted
fact that children exposed to bi-lingualism and tri-lingualism will have the
best chance of success, with the morality and values taught in the home,
supplemented in their pre-school. This leads to the return of pre-schools that
were best in the world a hundred or so years ago, where children played with their
siblings and others without toys, but with supervision of an older sibling/adult,
who explored their own interests and creativity encouraged to show their
natural inclinations.
This does not require much expense,
except a well-educated pre-school teacher nuanced in this technique aimed at
exploring the natural curiosity of a child along with socialization skills that
permit group activity which builds tolerance and disregard all man made
barriers of sex, race, religion and class, as completely superfluous to
personal development.
While I agree, that beginning from the
present predicament we find ourselves in to put all emphasis on pre-school teachers
to fill in the void created by bigoted parents, who know little better, as
society has sadly conditioned them thus, is a tall order. If funds are ONLY
directed to this end now, we will have a nation squarely with their head on
their shoulders, without superstition and prejudice that looks at all outcomes
rationally, to make collective decisions to benefit all human kind, along with
the respect for the environment as a prerequisite for survival of Homo Sapiens.
We must have the benefit of the basics, which are free access to clean air,
clean water and clean food, before we venture into the areas of sustainable
development, from that foundation to grow and prosper.
I refer to a link about pre-school and why we had the best - see below
http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2017/10/sri-lankan-village-children-of-past.html
I refer to a link about pre-school and why we had the best - see below
http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2017/10/sri-lankan-village-children-of-past.html
10 comments:
your previous post was on the substantial increase in malnutrition among children in the Gamapaha District. Like you say unless our kids get nourishing diet, how can their brain function? To even allow children to show creativity, it is difficult if they are undernourished.
This is a Country so lacking in the basics, it is funny when they talk about exports
Educate the people to think globally first before we even begin to export
At least the kids photos in the link show them enjoying a swim. Even that is better, as too many kids drown in SL because they don't know to swim and the parents think school learning is more important than teaching a kid to swim.
Its called the wrong priorities and what you are suggesting is going back to children being children in order to discover themselves, and what they are good at
Look at the Countries that score high in the happiness index - that is one area where we must focus on. Scandinavia - ALL OF THEM
So lets follow some of their education practices and child development practices to help mothers and fathers nurture their children in the FORMATIVE years that is the first five years of a child's life.
If we do that as the ONLY priority in this Country we will most likely develop youth to the caliber we need to grow this country sensibly
As usual not sufficient time and resources are put to developing the quality of Youth who are our future. They will be the inheritors of this Country in a few years, especially when this Country ages fast in the next 20 years.
Unlike Austria which has a leader who is 31, we don't have anyone in that age group we can look up to as a future leader. Why?
The whole concept of early childhood education has been lacking. The success stories are only in English Speaking parents who have learned this and done their best for their children who go overseas, get into the best Universities in the world, and work overseas, helping the Countries they choose to live in.
At the same time, our Frog in the well mentality, of most of the rest PREVENT this talent that is inherent from developing to help Sri Lanka. It is this mentality of the present political frogs on all sides of the spectrum that has prevented this Country from developing its potential, whereas countries with far less resources are thriving, because they have got a handle on the basics, while we wallow in "monkey praising its tail" saying we are the most literate country in the world.
That does not amount to a hill of beans today, not literacy, now the buzzword is creativity.
When we become the most creative country in the world then we have reached our potential
Its the Education Stupid
The whole system forces kids ONLY to remember, not to think. So we take the beautiful baby thinker, and mold him into a remember machine for what?
So he can never do a job, as no job requires a memory, as computers can provide all that at an instant.
No wonder then that there is no one capable of filling the vacancies in the Country as memory is not a requirement, common sense definitely is
VOC or voice of change wants to change --What?
Its simple, we have to change our thinking, and only when we change thinking can we achieve a sense of fulfillment.
This thinking is ingrained to us at birth and it is hard to change it as we grow older, so it is leading us no where when we cannot change the thinking of those in the system.
The only way to look at the world in different eyes, something required for change, is from the time of birth, so while the opinion that the answer to all our problems lie in how we nurture and bring up our children, do we have the resolve to bring them up in a different way to how we have been hard wired?
Especially if we expect the pre-schools to try and neutralize the superstitions parents ingrain into kids. Superstitions that scar them for life
Here the worst excesses of religion are manifest, as all religions enslave people, not liberate them.
That is why Scandinavia that is not overtly religious is more free.
The mind is the path to happiness - Original Buddhist Philosophy that has been bastardized by the bastards pretending to be buddhists
If one looks at the secret to happiness this is it, a free mind to roam, explore and create LET"S DO IT
I appreciate these valuable comments on my post, which has gone viral since Suresh Murugaser linked it in his VOC account that reaches many more people searching for change in Sri Lanka.
I would like to point out that I have advocated within this blog that resources be allocated to Pre School (2 years) as being the most important Education Spending, especially for the best paid teachers in all of education, as this is where the emphasis is needed.
I have further challenged the Govt. that the 13 years of education MUST begin at 3 at the pre-school and not post O levels, as that is unfair to imprison students in schools, when they could be in the workforce.
We must realize that the workforce of the future requires fertile minds at age 16 and not 18 to contribute to the economy, where while working they can fine tune their academic knowledge as part and parcel of the training.
If we do it in the way I have proposed, kids at 16 will come out of the system empowered and raring to go into a field of their choosing, and they must be encouraged, INSTEAD of the current system of restricting them to inadequate schools till they are 18 as part of the proposed 13 year of education plan.
To re iterate, I also want 13 years, but it starts two years earlier than the Govt proposes. Pre School should be closest to home, no long distance travelling, so village level upliftment is needed and what better way to liven dying villages than by reviving all closed schools as pre-school havens as well as seniors' community centers.
None of this should cost much, with emphasis purely on good pre school teacher training using the latest internationally accepted standards. The latter being the best allocation of state resources I can personally think of.
Changing parental mythology is not easy, and so pre school teachers will be on the frontline of this Change
here below is an extract from my Daily Journal Writing for July 24th with my thoughts on this thousandth article I wrote so the reader can gauge my reflection on what I wrote and why, I believe it is the single most important and urgent matter for us to consider in Sri Lanka if we are to improve the quality of life all who live in Sri Lanka, the singular purpose of this blog.
"I note above the blog post I did at 7pm today just before leaving for home, as the Thousandth Post in the www.kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com link along with the comments thereon ending with my comment the next day to complete an argument that I wish to highlight as being the most important requirement of all the thousands of ideas I have explored, if we are to change the thinking that is required in Sri Lanka
AKALPAMAYA VANASAK AWASHYA WANAWA
In my opinion this is not possible unless we have the trained pre-school teachers who have undergone intensive training as they too would have grown up in this mythology of enslavement, and have to be deconstructed from the ideas they come with prior to training.
Selecting, and deconstructing these minds is so difficult, and so these special people must be rewarded adequately with minimum monthly salaries of Rs100K upon appointment, and a minimum of 4 years of intensive training. So who trains these teachers?
That question has answers that can be highly problematic, as it involves getting foreign teachers to train our teachers, and they come from backgrounds that pay short shrift to established religions as being part of the problem.
In a country insanely protective of Buddhism for the wrong reasons, where the Buddhist principles have given way to a Clergy Centered Confusion, we have to tread very carefully in balancing the benefits of knowledge of one’s surroundings such as emphasis on medicinal trees, and plants and the biodiversity around one’s life and the respect with which that should be managed as opposed to the CCC referred to above that tries to destroy that ecological equilibrium, be it in filling up paddy lands to expand Buddhist Temples many starting small near these fields in their pristine simplicity, replaced by palatial monstrosities reflecting the incumbent high priest’s quest for immortality, that completely destroy the ecological balance that the Lord Buddha tried so hard for people to be mindful of.
In order for any idea to take a foothold, the basis upon which it is made must be explained tactfully to inculcate a sense of purpose in life, and a value system that is important and encouraged in all religions, of respect for oneself and the elders to be pure, clean and devoid of clutter to achieve ultimate nirvana!
(very much the Japanese Shinto 5 S system which is also not dissimilar to the Chinese Confucian Ideals of Industry of the Mind, to achieve personal and community goals, which congruent with the Buddhist principles of life with a purpose)"
Ranjit,
You always have very good ideas to improve education in Sri Lanka but the bunch of idiots who head the relevant departments are not ready to change. This has been the problem in Sri Lanka since the Independence and I don't see if they would change anytime soon.
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