Cost of ‘Sinhala Only’ 

B. Perera (The Island of 22 Jan.) has said that what SWRD Bandaranaike did paved the way for generations of a ‘non-English background ‘children of All Races, even to rise to the top levels of positions in some world organisations, i. e. the UN, NASA etc.

Not true. All the Sri Lankans who rose to the top in the UN and in NASA, viz., Jayantha Dhanapala, Shirley Amerasinghe, Gamini Corea, Lakdasa Hulugalle, David Loos, Dr. Herat Gunaratna, Cyril Ponnamperuma and several others had their Secondary and University education in Sri Lanka in the English medium.

Look at the top-class Civil Servants that Sri Lanka had, K. H. J. Wijayadasa, D. B. I. P. S. Siriwardena, Arthur Van Langenberg, N.Q. Dias, David Loos and several others. All had their Secondary and University education in Sri Lanka in the English medium.

SWRD’s ‘Sinhala only ‘paved the way for Secondary and University education in the Sinhala medium and none of those graduates rose to the top in the UN and in NASA.

Prior to 1956, when the medium of instruction was English, there was discipline in schools, in Police Stations, Government Offices, in Kachcheries, in Hospitals, in Parliament and indeed almost everywhere and there was only very little bribery and corruption. Discipline as well as orderliness in the workplace was one of the bi-products of the system of English medium education that Sri Lanka had. The rot started with SWRD’s ‘Sinhala Only’ policy.

After 1956, India and Singapore did the opposite; they started putting more and more emphasis on English, they made English the medium of instruction in Secondary Schools and Universities. Look at the prosperous economic situation in India and Singapore and then look at Sri Lanka going to the IMF with the begging bowl.

Instead of introducing ‘Sinhala only’, if SWRD had made both Sinhala and English compulsory subjects for GCE O/Level and provided sufficient numbers of Trained English Teachers to Provincial Schools, the damage would have been less.

What SWRD did has become a catastrophe for Sri Lanka.

International schools have stepped into the vacuum, they produce students who are proficient in English and they get the best jobs and millions of provincial school children end up getting only the crumbs.

Lokubandara Tillakaratne has hit the nail on the head in his recent article, The Island, ‘National schools, provincial schools, and international schools: A state-consented neo-caste system’.

National schools, provincial schools and international schools: It is indeed a state-consented neo-caste system.

Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, the ball is in your court now.

Anton Peiris
anton25ps@gmai.com