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by C.T.M. Fernando , Ex principal Royal College, Colombo and retd. Director of Education and Education consultant

A local class room -English does matter

As a preamble to any discussion on the topic of English teaching a reference to the 1981 White Paper Reforms on this theme seems appropriate In paragraph 32 of the White Paper the objectives of teaching/ learning English are unequivocally defined and there is no gainsaying the fact that English apart from its varying other uses is ever growing in importance as useful medium for the acquisition of knowledge on a universal scale. While acknowledging the urgent need to raise the standards of achievement in English, the white paper lists four measures to be adopted in achieving this objective.

In today's context too English continues to be the second language that it became in the nineteen fifties - it was as late as 1981 however that the decline in the standards was detected according to the White Paper Report.

White Paper Report

It is worth examining objectively the priority measures recommended in the White Paper Report to remedy the situation. As the first "measure" it recommends - "English will continue to be taught from grade 3 upwards but with initial concentration of resources from grade 6 onwards." Taking this statement on its face value there is evident an apparent passivity in accepting an existing position. If initial concentration of resources is going to be only from Grade 6 then it has to be assumed that whatever teaching that will take place from Grades 3 to 5 will be minus this concentration of resources - a half hearted acceptance of the status quo. This smacks of step-motherly treatment evident in an official statement.

Does it not contribute towards a certain degree of wastage in education? Probably "concentration" of resources and this includes among others, teachers and financial resources as well - from grade 6 is to make the teaching process successful; denial of this "concentration of resources" from grade 3 to grade 5 will therefore render that teaching quite ineffective. This is the argument that is implicit in the policy statement. Hence the wastage too, that follows from such procedure.

An issue that comes up is - "Why should it be from grade 3 onwards and not earlier like grade 1 or even the pre-school stage?" Of course, the methodology to be employed in these classes will not be the conventional type applicable in the junior/senior secondary grades. Could the constraint be the lack of trained teachers or other resources like teaching material appropriate for such a programme? if there was a lack of resources like teachers, in any event it should have been evident at the initial stages of this decadence and timely steps should have been taken to remedy the situation by recruiting and training the necessary teaching staff. Husbandry in the provision of staff should never have been resorted to at the sacrifice of the education needs of a nation - more succinctly that of a whole generation or two. Such recruitment and training could have been staggered over the 25 year period.

With English becoming the second language, majority of the English teachers as such would have virtually got displaced and with short-term training programmes they would have satisfied the need for second language teachers. This was precisely the way the urgent need for new subject like "Pre-vocational Educational" or "New Maths" was met when those subjects were being introduced for the first time in the mid nineteen fifties. Teacher recruitment and training, Curriculum development, in service training, production of teaching material etc. were simultaneously harnessed to meet the new demand.

So that lack of teacher resources or other resources cannot be a valid argument for the delayed" concentration" advocated in the White Paper Proposals.

Could the reason be "psychological?" There is a school of thought that holds the view that very young children should not be taxed by making them learn two or three languages simultaneously. In this regard it is relevant to reflect on the views held by the renowned Neurologist Dr. Tensield as reported by Prof. Theodore Anderssen in one of his papers according to which children under ten years of age are capable of "learning" new languages, without it becoming a burden on them.

At this stage language learning/teaching has to be introduced as play activities and a means of pleasurable communicative experience. How often do we come across children who have mastered one or two spoken languages foreign to them where learning has taken place in a pleasurable social environment quite involuntarily and without the help of any formal teaching. So that psychological reasons could not have prevented starting English teaching at grade 3 or even earlier. Conversely the second part of the suggested measure "With initial concentration from grade 6 upwards" has a negative and passive impact on any teaching that is being done even now from grade 3 to grade 5. In fact such a stance tends to demoralize the relevant teachers, the children and even the parents too.

Equality of opportunity

What strikes one instantly is the use of the discriminating epithet "commendable" in accepting an existing position, giving the lie to a basic policy tenet' Equality of opportunity for every child'. What of those schools which already have Gr. 3 to Gr. 5 teaching programmes but which are not commendable in the estimation of the authorities. Are we to infer that efforts will be made to improve only the 'commendable' ones and ignore those which are not? According to the first statement all schools which have Gr. 3 to Gr. 5 English teaching programmes will continue to have them! There is an air of apparent contradiction between what is inferred by these two statements:

Measure C of the paragraph advocates- "Training of teachers for the teaching of English will receive special attention". This is rather a belated deliberation when one considers the time span of 25 to 30 years of 'decline' as referred to in the White Paper itself. One cannot but conclude that the vast majority of English teachers continued without receiving this 'special attention' in the area of their pedagogical training for the past so many years since the decline in standards started setting in.

The apparent failure on the part of the relevant authorities to have detected this decline which they aver, began in the nineteen fifties, until 1981 (and accordingly plan timely strategies to arrest it) is, to say the least, a sad reflection on the bureaucracy. If on the contrary it is maintained that necessary corrective action had been taken the position becomes even worse requiring an intensive probe into the various aspects of the entire education administrative set-up, even at this late stage, before attempting on implementation of even the very 'measures' recommended in the White-Paper Reforms, that are being dealt with in this paper.

It is only pertinent at this juncture to make a passing refence to the nature of teacher training in the mid seventies. (The present position may well have changed since then) Through a series of casual interviews with the teacher-trainees it was revealed that they as Trainee Specialist English Teachers had to study most of their other course subjects like Ed. Psychology, Principles of Education etc. in the Sinhala medium, while they had a comparatively small percentage of their lecture hours devoted to the study of English per se or the methodology of English teaching, resulting in very mediocre standards of achievement in English Language in which they were supposed to specialize. Thus it will be clear that the word "specialization" in respect of teacher-training does not professionally convey the same idea that it does in other professional fields, like medicine. Of course understandably there is a difference - the nomenclature being used to indicate that their special subject for the training course has been English.

The subject of teacher-training is best discussed in a separate paper. A restructuring of the entire teacher-training programme in general is desirable specially with the establishment of the Colleges of Education with special attention being paid to the content area of the training programmes. It however becomes imperative that "specialist training" will have to be necessarily handled by those who have specialized knowledge of the subject plus a deep sense of commitment to the pursuit of the subject in all its aspects.

English methodology

The basic qualification for entry to the Colleges of Education will probably have to be raised. We need not even unconsciously contribute to the ironical situation that when greater numbers of qualified persons leave the school system generating greater competition, we still continue to have the same entry qualifications: Entry requirements can afford to be more demanding.

The Colleges of Education themselves should be places of excellence and the Principal (or President as they are now called) and the staff should be persons of not only proven ability and skills but with a sense of deep devotion. It is this latter personnel a tribute that will go to make the 'leader' and in the business of education what matters most is correct leadership.

During the period of training the trainees should be thoroughly exposed to English in all its forms without narrowly confining to set syllabic and educational methodology. To put it simply they should engage themselves in the conventional study of the English Language plus the methodology of teaching it, plus also "live English" as it were, during that period of their training and thus try to rid themselves of any kind of restraint that will inhibit them from the free use of the language, subsequently as teachers of English.

English methodology is as diverse as the number who swear by the various strains of it. In recognition of which of these methods English Literature was removed from our secondary school curriculum is anyone's guess! It is universally accepted that no living language can be divorced from its cultural appendages constituting its folklore, drama, music, beliefs etc. - the heritage of the native speaker of the language. And the literature of a particular language forms a part of this fertile background, which we can ill-afford to ignore in attempting to study the language or even substitute with the local background creating an incongruous situation. Imagine studying Pali, Sanskrit or even Sinhalese against the Scottish background: The culture of a particular Nation is a valuable adjunct of its native language. Hence the importance of the cultural aspect of learning/teaching any language. It's only when one learns the language in all its fullness, will one develop a real commitment to the study and the furtherance of that language.

The fourth "measure" recommended in the White Paper reforms envisages a rather comprehensive program of activity as has been outlined broadly. It recommends the co-ordinating of all work relating to English teaching through an English Unit established in the Ministry of Education. What is needed emphatically is "effective" co-ordination. However grandiose the plans may be, the ultimate success or failure will depend on the implementation that takes place in the class room situation in the teaching/learning process. Even an examination of the widely spread-out organization comprising the different units that are responsible at present for the teaching of English will reveal the absolute need for an effective and well-planned coordination.

The White Paper makes mention of only such agencies/units that come within the purview of the Ministry administration, except perhaps the T E A A. A host of other agencies outside the Ministry exert considerably contributory influences on the teaching of English taking place even at school level. Since the W. P. recommendations in 1981, certain changes in the set-up may have taken place.

systems-approach

What is important, it may be reiterated, is the effectiveness of the strategies adopted in bringing about the desired co-ordination, towards achieving the set goals. If co-ordination were to be a mere official exercise confined to formal conferences, meetings, exchange of written communication among the different sub-units while maintaining a bureaucratic insularity of their own promoting a systems-approach, then such units will hardly be able to justify their very existence. Instances have not been rare in the past when such alienated and insular units though claiming to belong to a coordinated group have even sent out circulars contradictory in nature to the main purpose.

The main unit should function as a catalyst with the sub-units maintaining a continuous interaction among themselves and the main unit like the hub and the spokes of a wheel. It is absolutely essential that Principals and practising teachers be directly involved in any planning of the process of co-ordination as implantation of any programm finally takes place in those institutions where they serve. At present a sort of contact is being maintained with the subject teacher (English) through the Master-teachers via the medium of the In-service Programme, but this again is heavily dependent on the Systems approach, biased towards a one-way flow of ideas and know-how. Actual person to person rapport, with the Principal coming in as the immediate manager or supervisor of the institution, between the subject teacher and the respective official is sadly absent under this Systems-approach.

Unit personnel

The Annual team inspection limited to a single day or a couple of days, occasional tests very often sans validity and reliability, and Public Examination results are some of the stereotyped means of feed back relied upon by the authorities for purposes of evaluation of programmes. What a far cry from the systems obtaining in the developed countries: where face to face discussions with the school heads and the practising teachers form the norms of programme appraisal/evaluation.

The systems-approach will not enable one to get a composite view in its entirety, of the particular subject taught in relation to the total curriculum and in relation to available resources of each school. Preparation of text-books, development, methodology, evaluation procedure etc. will have to be geared towards the successful implementation of a programme designed to achieve set goals Constant interaction between the units and the school i.e. the Principals and the practising teachers should be maintained at all times. This will enable the Unit personnel to evaluate programmes in the correct perspective of class-room teaching, where responses and reactions of both the teacher and the taught can be observed at first hand, in the process of implementation of a programme. These constant visits by Unit staff will enhance familiarity with actual on-the-job situations eliminating any kind of speculation resulting from remote forms of feed-back.

Preparation of a compendium of available resources in the form of competent personnel is of paramount importance and it has to be regularly updated too.

The Ministry of Education should be in a position to identify the available potential in the form of qualified personnel-both teachers and officers - within the Ministry and if possible outside the Ministry as well. (It is however pertinent to mention here that in the 1970s', as Director of Education.) Hambantota where there was a dearth of English teachers and a preponderance of Arts Graduates, a private survey carried out by me revealed (a) 52 teachers designated by the Ministry as Sinhala Tr. teachers who had offered English as their supplementary subject for the final examination of the training college and (b) about 20 teachers who had done the degree in the English medium.

Now both these categories were quite capable of handling English in the Junior Secondary grades except for the unfortunate situation of the Ministry circular which prevented them from being appointed to teach fulltime English. The D.E. had no discretionary powers to over-ride the circular stipulation. I could only inform the Secretary of the 'flaw' in the circular. (Mr. Eric de Silva was Secretary then and he took prompt action to correct it.): I believe the situation is different now.

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