HIGHER EDUCATION —THE PRIVATE SECTOR AND ITS GRAVE SHORTCOMINGS

by Goolbai Gunasekara

Never before in the history of Sri Lankan education has there been such a money-making business as the burgeoning Private Universities. These claim that students of Sri Lanka need not stir from their homeland to be the equal (educationally) of any person who has gone through the full educational program laid down by sensible educationists who understand what it takes to be truly `educated’ abroad.

The Sri local Lankan Universities have many drawbacks but at least they demand that entrants to the many campuses have good passes at the AL exam. The student enters University with a disciplined mind having faced two public exams and passed.

Now here are a number of substandard and third-rate private institutions with massive amounts of money and huge advertising programs luring unwary and knowledgeable Sri Lankan students to giving them even MORE money by joining their programs.

Libel laws prevent me from naming them, but I know from experience the number of instances which prove that the education received is not worth the paper of the certificate the student eventually receives.

Here is the siren song sung regularly in the Education pages of the Press: – The advertisements claim that any child can join their programs just after the OL and fast track themselves into receiving a degree by the time they are 19-years old. At 19 a child is hardly mature enough to be thus empowered by

such third-rate institutions. Now these Foundation programs (which many prestigious Universities accept) were meant for clever children who have excellent OL qualifications and can perhaps deal with a fast track.

But that is not what happens. ANY student can apparently join these fast track classes. The criteria is money for they must be able to afford the fees which are quite high but of course much less that fees abroad. Let me explain.

International School students have just sat for their public exams. The schools often work out who will be able to go up from the OL to the AL classes. At AIS (Asian International School) very weak cases are told they MAY have to repeat the OL year. To my total disbelief the weakest child in the class has registered in one of these expensive “Universities” to do the Foundation course and presumably have a degree in his incapable hands in four years. The ‘degrees” are given locally, and exams are neither corrected nor sent from abroad. What can be the standard of such a degree?

But who cares? Only Principals and teachers like me who KNOW how spurious these claims are. But not the thoroughly fooled parents to whom the vision of actually having an “educated” son AND with a degree is a heaven-sent gift.

In the meantime, the student concerned has failed in almost every subject in school. His parents have cut all the Parents’ Days because they are sick and tired of being told how weak the boy really is. HOW was he even accepted by this Institution without good credentials?

This is not the first example. I have many. One student who managed to get FOUR ‘U’s (failures) at the London AL exam now has a degree in the very subjects in which he fared so appallingly badly. What good University anywhere in the world would give such a student a place in its Institution? Nowhere except in Sri Lanka’s Private Universities where such scams exist with NOBODY, least of all the Ministry of Education, taking the slightest notice.

Another false claim is that entry into the third year degree courses Colleges in the USA, Australia et al can be had here and only those final two years need to worry parents as far as foreign fees go. This is nonsense. Many students who have tried it find to their cost that they are not ready for the third year of the degree course abroad. Not all I must admit. The clever ones manage.

And yet, if they but do their ALs in the accepted manner and pass WELL any good school can get such children into Universities of their choice sometimes with aid offers that are worth a great deal.

My other question is this: Are the mercantile companies fooled by youngsters who claim to have such degrees given by these substandard places that seemingly flourish in Sri Lanka? Such young people are NOT qualified in a manner acceptable to one who knows about education.

I could weep at the folly of parents who believe this aggressive advertising. As one wise principal told me, “Since there is nothing we can do let us not waste any sleep over the matter.” All we can do is to advise our students about the danger of short cuts and of using these spurious places to achieve their ambitions. Somewhere along the line they are going to come up against an employer who knows the difference between a good degree and a non-worthwhile one.

Perhaps schools like AIS can begin educating the CEOs of companies since there is very little they can do to stem the rising tide of the educational downslide perpetrated by these places.

A quick word, however, to those interested. There are quite a few Institutions offering foreign Degrees which are genuine in that papers are set and corrected abroad and there is no chance of a substandard child gaining a degree. I shall personally be happy to advise anyone – but who asks!