English only!

In 1956, it promoted the Sinhala Only language policy. Now Sri Lanka is beginning to feel the short-sightedness of it. NIRUPAMA SUBRAMANIAN reports.

IT IS after school hours, but in a make-shift classroom in a quiet corner of a Buddhist temple in Colombo, away from the busy traffic on the arterial road outside, a group of teenagers are toiling away. They are learning English, a language officially neglected by Sri Lankan policy-makers in state education for over 40 years, but one that now even children realise they cannot do without anymore.

``Knowing English is important for leading a good life,'' said 15-year-old Mohammed Irshad, who wants to become a computer operator. For Rs. 70 a month, Irshad's parents send him to this ``tutory'' so that he gains at least a working knowledge of English.

Like Irshad, thousands of children, and adults, across the island are crowding to teaching shops, sometimes paying fees they can ill afford in order to learn a language that will open the doors to the world of higher education and well-paying jobs.

English is taught in schools (most schools in Sri Lanka are state-run), but neither sufficiently nor competently enough to give students even a passable ability in it, a legacy of the Sinhala Only Act of 1956. Enacted to appease the majority community and discriminate against the Tamils in education and jobs, the Act made Sinhala the official language of the country. English as a medium of instruction was banned and all schools had to teach either in Sinhala or Tamil. As a second language, it was progressively neglected, as it became harder to find English teachers.

Two generations later, Sri Lanka is beginning to feel the short- sightedness of Sinhala Only. Like it or not, English is the key to information in a world of growing opportunities.

But a majority of young Sri Lankans are discovering the hard way that this world is closed to them. As a result, while the 1956 Act was a conscious attempt to accentuate the ethnic divide, it has turned inwards on the majority community itself, creating a huge mass of educated unemployed, reducing mobility, heightening the class divide and raising social tensions.

It has led to resentment against the Sri Lankan elite, for whom English was always ``first language''. Even if they did not learn it at school, they spoke it at home, and that became their passport to higher education and jobs, effectively cutting the rest out. English came to be known as kaduwa, or sword, with which the elites cut down the lower classes who did not know the language and had no access to it.

There is now a belated realisation in Government that the knowledge of English is a must, and it forms the vital centre- piece of educational reforms being implemented by the Kumaratunga Government. From the year 2002, it will be re-introduced as a medium of instruction for A level (class 12) students in the science stream. It is believed that science students would have less problems adjusting to the new system than in other streams. There is also a proposal to begin teaching it as a compulsory second language from class 2, instead of class 3 as it is done now. From 1999, schools have begun using activity-based oral English from class I.

``We believe that equity can be brought about only by teaching English to all, not denying it. It is a big factor in enabling social mobility,'' said an official in the education department who did not want to be named. The reforms were pushed in part by the private sector, which was facing difficulties finding ``employable'' people to fill its posts.There is also the view that English could become the link language that will heal the ethnic wounds of Sri Lanka.

Opinion is still divided on whether English should be brought back as a medium of instruction or the Government should concentrate on strengthening it as a second language, but no one disputes its importance anymore.

But now, Sri Lanka faces another problem, and that is to find people fluent in English and qualified to teach it. As Mr. Yohan Casie- Chetty, principal of St. Thomas Prep, a leading Colombo school, put it, there is only a ``small reservoir'' to draw from. About 500 teachers are being trained for next year's A level experiment.

But if English is to make a wider comeback in Sri Lanka, many more will be required.

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