Must lower graduating age in universities

By.Prof. O. A. ILEPERUMA

Recent articles by the GMOA (The Island 26-1-2021) and Dr. B.C.Perera (The Island 27-1-2021) highlighted the extraordinary delays causing young doctors to commence their internships at a relatively advanced age of around 28-30 years. Dr. Perera became a consultant at the age of 30, which is now the average age for a starting intern. I am of a similar vintage to Dr. Perera in a different field, and I became an assistant lecturer at the University of Peradeniya at the age of 22 years. This enabled me to serve the University for a record 44 years, which is unimaginable for the junior lecturers joining the University staff today.

Where have we gone wrong? While both the above-mentioned articles blame the University system and the Health Department for these inordinate delays, the major reason lies elsewhere in how our school curriculum operates. Our education policies and administrative procedures have continuously ruined the chance of early university admission. No longer can a student enter a university at the age of 18 years as we did, due to this faulty education system. While the politicians talk about educational reforms, no substantial reforms have ever been undertaken. My proposal to remedy this situation is as follows:

1. Lower the school going age from the present five years to four years. The UK practices this system and in France it was recently lowered to three years.

2. Reduce school years from the current 13 years to 12 years as practiced earlier. Now the earlier GCE (O.L.) spans through three years instead of the earlier two years.

3. Commence GCE (A.L.) immediately after the GCE (O.L.) without wasting about a year till the results are out. It is preferable to have both GCE (O.L.) and GCE (A.L.) examinations in December.

If these reforms are implemented, then it is possible for students to sit the GCE (A.L.) examination when the students are 17 years old, and admit them to universities when they are 18.

The question arises as to who is responsible for educational reforms. Earlier, there was a separate unit in the Education Ministry, which dealt with this subject; and later two more institutions, viz. National Institute of Education (NIE) and the National Education Commission (NEC) were established. While the NIE is working in areas such as curriculum development, preparation of teacher guides and teacher training, NEC is supposed to formulate policies. None of these institutions have paid any attention to the lengthened school curriculum in formulating their policies.

As Dr. Perera has rightly pointed out, during our time, GCE (A.L.) examination was held in December and the results came around March, and the practical examinations, in the science subjects, were held in April. Final results were out by July and the selected students entered the universities in October. This enabled the entry of undergraduates at the young age of around 18 years. Now the GCE (A.L.) examination is held in August and the papers are marked within a month immediately after the examination. The Examination Department takes nearly six months to release the results. With all the advanced computers and enhanced staff, it is inexcusable to take so long to enter the marks into the computer and release the results. Education ministers and administrators have never thought of taking effective action to reduce this inadvertent delay.

The next set of delays come with the University Grants Commission (UGC). They take a long time to finalise the cut-off marks for courses and allocating students to universities. Again, with the advent of computers, it is inconceivable that this procedure should take such a long time. In the case of doctors, there are also delays at the Health Ministry in granting internships, which normally takes 1-2 years depending on various extraneous factors. There should be an imaginative approach by the Health Ministry to commence the internship programme, even by taking a double batch so that this kind of backlog can be solved. Our administrators usually take the easy way out and find excuses for not solving issues head-on, and there should be proper leadership to tackle such long unresolved problems.