Sri Lanka: What was Wrong at Peradeniya?

A
Critical View
Our time was a period of transition. Many of the special degree students who
followed lectures in Sinhala or Tamil could have followed or sat for assessments
in English.

by Laksiri Fernando- Oct 31, 2017

( October 31, 2017, Sydney, Sri Lanka Guardian) Peradeniya undoubtedly was
picturesque, but could it be said about its education as well? With the risk of
gaining criticism, I am again critically relating my personal experiences at the
university of Peradeniya (University of Ceylon) between 1964 and 1968, first
year at the Colombo campus. I might come back on more theoretical stuff some
other time.
Peradeniya conformed more to our aspirations as school children obviously than
Colombo campus. But it was primarily in terms of facilities. When I sat for the HSC
in 1-963, Royal College being the assigned centre, none other than Doric de Souza
was the centres chief supervisor. That was an inspiration to answer the
examination well as he was one of our symbols of a university don. December
1963 was the last HSC before it was replaced by GCE (A/L). Perhaps because of
these changes we had to wait until September 1964 to enter the university.
Thereafter, there was no major delay, unlike today, we graduating in 1968. But
there was no convocation held for us at Peradeniya. The initial delay and the
absence of a convocation were signs of some emerging problems.
Colombo Campus
We were in the second batch of the Colombo campus in the faculty of arts. The
first batch was called the Gopallawa batch allegedly mixed up with some
manipulations in the university intake to suit personal requirements. When I went
to Peradeniya, however, Monty Gopallawa was there from the beginning and he
was extremely an amicable person. Those who applied for certain subjects like
philosophy even residing in the Colombo district straightaway could go to
Peradeniya. Therefore, the story was that the Colombo campus was primarily
reopened to accommodate Monty, but he was comfortably at Peradeniya while
the others of the first batch had to undergo lectures in the race course. That is
how it was reputed as the Aswa Wiswa Vidyalaya (horse university) among the
media critics.
It was natural under such circumstances that the students feeling some injustice.
Then what was the first wrong of Peradeniya that I detected? The haphazard
opening of the Colombo campus. The move also signified that Peradeniya had
come under political pressure even during Nicolas Attygalles time as the VC.
My selection of subjects were Economics, History and Sinhala, and therefore I was
at Colombo. By the time I entered, there was a new arts theatre built, however it
had the seating capacity only for around 450 students. The total number of
students was around 800 and many of them offered Sinhala as a subject. Our
lecturers tried to put a brave face to the situation and for the first lecture each
came in their ceremonial gowns. The situation was quite warm or rather hot as
there were no air conditioning and no fans except on the stage! The cooling
system was air-blowers from underneath the stage, but not suitable for such a
large crowd. There were many who were standing for Sinhala lectures without
seats. However, the new arts theatre was better than the Grand Stand of the race
course, where we had the initial welcome reception.
Ediriweera Sarathchandra, Ariya Rajakaruna and Sucharitha Gamlath came for
Sinhala; A. D. V de S. Indraratna, Victor Gunasekera and Chandradasa
Munasinghe for Economics and Lakshman Perera and Lorna Deverajah for History.
They were undoubtedly a very good team of lecturers. Were they reading notes?
No, not at all. Most of them were creative and inspiring. Sarathchandra allowed
us to ask questions in that jam-packed arts theatre, but got mildly annoyed if we
asked too many!
Those days, the best or the most senior academics were asked or opted to teach
the first year students. This tradition has now fallen flat, many of the seniors
feeling demeaning of them to teach the novices and pushing the junior lecturers
for the task.
The system of tutorials was the most useful both at Colombo and Peradeniya. We
even could skip lectures, but not tutorials. H. A. de S. Gunasekera as the head of
the department of economics at Peradeniya had a strict system of attendance
marking. This tradition has also waned giving priority to lectures. It was not
possible for the seniors to conduct all tutorials for the first years, but nevertheless
they were involved. I had the benefit of having some of the most seniors as my
tutors at Colombo. Professor Lakshman Perera was the most impressive for
history, while Victor Gunasekera or Chandradasa Munasinghe being equally
competent in Economics.
There are now universities in Australia where there are no lectures, but only
tutorials. Learning material and guidance are given through internet.
Poor Facilities
When we entered the university, we were given a record book and a library card.
Although there was no permanent health centre at that time in Colombo, initial
health check-ups were conducted by some visiting doctors and nurses and any
serious issue was referred to the medical faculty. I remember getting an anti-
rabies injection. The present health centre (Samson Bungalow) on Reid Avenue
was the faculty club or staff rooms to my recollection.
College House (Regina Walauwa)
The present College House (Regina Walauwa) was not the administrative centre
at that time either, but our poor Library. It was rather in chaos. Many books have
arrived from Peradeniya or purchased anew but not catalogued properly. But the
staff members were extremely helpful. The seating capacity for reading also was
not enough, many used to take a book and read even sitting at the edge of the
veranda floor all around the Walauwa. One could borrow a book for the day by
handing over the record book with an identification slip given. Our library card
was used for one week borrowings but that also was restricted for two books, if I
remember correct.
There were no proper student common rooms particularly for the girls, therefore
the students used to hang around all over the place particularly under trees with
the risk of a crow or a bird dropping the waste. There was a small building on the
right side before the college house, perhaps a change-room for the tennis players
before. Students could play table tennis or carrom but the facilities were again
limited. Some of my friends, Abeyseela in particular, who became a successful
lawyer after graduation, used to spend most of their time over there.
Next to that small building, there was a large makeshift student canteen with no
walls, but only a roof on pillars. Seating capacity was enough, but food was of
poor quality. There were makeshift toilets for both girls and boys next to that, but
quite appalling. Most of the time we used to take refuge at Vijaya Hotel for lunch,
on landside of the Galle road, just before the Bambalapitiya junction. Although it
was called a hotel, like many other such hotels, it was a restaurant. The location
must be the Great Wall (restaurant) today. We had our own short cut from there
to the campus, via school lane and then the Queens road. Traveling daily from
Moratuwa to Bambalapitiya by train, some of us also had another short cut via
Arthurs place encircling the then Majestic cinema from the station to the Galle
road. We hardly used the Bullers road, now Bauddhaloka Mawatha.
I have seen poorer university facilities in Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines and
even in Japan. The question therefore was not only about facilities, but what you
get at the end. A general arts degree, wasting three years was quite unsuitable to
the economy or society. Totally unstructured academic years were unproductive.
There were lectures and lectures, but not even an examination after the general
arts qualifying (GAQ) until the final examination in your third year! Therefore, the
people tend to do politics or mischief other than studies.
The system is largely changed today, academic years replaced by semesters, and
the end of two-year final examinations replaced by a continuous assessment
system. However, it is still questionable whether the present lecture system and
the course contents are up to the modern requirements and standards.
Education at Peradeniya
It would have been extremely boring and difficult to repeat the same routine for
three years, if I were not selected to Peradeniya to do a special degree in
Economics. More correctly, it was a degree in political science within economics.
Political science was not clearly separated from economics those days, and most
of our political approaches were based on economic analysis. That was positive.
All who were selected for Economics, after the second year, sitting for what was
called special arts qualifying (SAQ), could select specialization in Banking,
Accountancy, Statistics or Government. There were six common papers and three
papers in the field of your specialization. The common papers included banking,
accountancy, statistics, political theory, in addition to economic principles
(microeconomics) and applied economics (macroeconomics). In the latter two
areas, specialization was not available which was a weakness. The most
unproductive (or liberal!) was the lectures dragging on for two years after the
SAQ without any assessment. The lack of a research component also was a major
weakness.
The additional three papers for specialization in political science were: Advanced
Political Thought, Commonwealth Constitutions and Comparative Government.
They could have been more practically oriented, focusing on election studies,
political economy, constitutionalism, public policy and political culture etc. There
was a parallel degree as B.Com. since 1963, while ours went as BA (Econ). There
was no separate department for political science until 1980, although a chair was
created in 1969.
The number of students for the special degree in economics in all three media
were around 25 and not more. Most of the economics students selected banking
or accountancy. There was one, Paranavithana, who did statistics and did well.
Some of his courses were taught by lecturers from mathematics. The best
performance in Economics in my batch was by Piyasiri Wickremasekera. There
were 7 who selected government as specialization; 2 in English medium, 1 in
Tamil medium and we 4 in Sinhala medium. The best performance was by Lalith
Chandrasekera in English medium.
We did have an array of good and inspiring lecturers as Buddhadasa
Hewavitharana, Victor Gunasekera, H. M. Gunatilake, W. D. Lakshman, Chandra
Wickremesinghe, Gamini Fernando, S. Sumanasekera and Neil Karunatilake for
Economics and related subjects. Almost all had their doctorates by that time or
later. We had K. H. Jayasinghe, C. Monnakulama and Ranjith Amarasinghe for
Government. Wiswa Warnapala was overseas at that time for his PhD. Prof H. A.
de. S. Gunasekera, as the head of the department took only limited number of
lectures for banking specials. By that time Prof F. R. Jayasuriya had left after a
dispute. S. (Tawney) Rajaratnam, N. Balakrishnan and M. Sinnathamby and few
others were for Tamil medium. All the above of them were doing lectures in
English as necessary. Prof A. J. Wilson was mainly for English medium political
science.
Question of Medium?
Had there been a deterioration of standards due to the shift of the medium to
Swabasha? Yes, most certainly at the point of graduation, particularly in the case
of general degree students. Special degree students were forced to use English,
otherwise it was difficult to obtain a class. Therefore, the class struggle
motivated them to learn English! Even in this respect, the general degree students
were neglected and their course modules were too general. There was no
particular motivation for the general degree students to learn English.
Our time was a period of transition. Many of the special degree students who
followed lectures in Sinhala or Tamil could have followed or sat for assessments in
English. However, they had to follow the medium through which that they
entered the university. That rule was strict and no flexibility. Before we were
admitted to the university, there was an English appraisal test to determine who
could be exempted and also to classify others to different levels. The English
intensive courses were conducted accordingly. However, I have no idea about
their effectiveness as I was exempted with some others.
Those who did major in political science in Sinhala medium were Gamini
Abesekera (Ananda), Chandrakanthi Dharmadasa (Vishaka), Ansumali Peiris
(Princes of Wales) and myself (Prince of Wales). V. Sundaralingam was in Tamil
medium and Lalith Chandrasekera and M. L. A. Cader were in English medium.
After graduation, Lalith and MLA joined the department almost immediately;
Gamini joined the Central Bank and Sundaralingam and I joined as assistant
directors of commerce, before I joined the university. Ansumali migrated to UK to
follow a professional career and Chandrakanthi worked for English newspapers
for a while. There was no particular unemployment problem.
Our batch in economics, with different specialities, was perhaps an exceptional
group. Some joined the Central Bank (5), some the Ministry of Commerce or
Planning (4); and those who were committed to further research and learning
joining the university staff (8). Eventually, 6 obtained their doctorates overseas.
Danny Atapattu was one who was committed for a continuous academic career
unlike some of us. Chandrasena Maliyadde was one who performed well in the
public service. Justin Martin, after Central Bank became a leading entrepreneur.
However, when I look back it appears to me that those who did well were those
who had some competence in English. Without opportunity to learn English
properly in schools or even after entering university, the others were terribly
disadvantaged. It was also the fact that people who came from rural areas, with
some clear exceptions, were largely handicapped. That was not right. There were
many other wrongs, but no space to discuss further. I must apologise if I had
inadvertently hurt any feelings of anyone when I mention names. Without those
names, this memoirs must have been lifeless.
Posted by Thavam